Larger whole brain grey matter associated with long-term Sahaja Yoga Meditation: A detailed area by area comparison

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Sergio Elías Hernández, Roberto Dorta,José Suero, Alfonso Barros-Loscertales,José Luis González-Mora, Katya Rubia

Objectives

Our previous study showed that long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) had around 7% larger grey matter volume (GMV) in the whole brain compared with healthy controls; however, when testing individual regions, only 5 small brain areas were statistically different between groups. Under the hypothesis that those results were statistically conservative, with the same dataset, we investigated in more detail the regional differences in GMV associated with the practice of SYM, with a different statistical approach.

Design

Twenty-three experienced practitioners of SYM and 23 healthy non-meditators matched on age, sex and education level, were scanned using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Their GMV were extracted and compared using Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM). Using a novel ad-hoc general linear model, statistical comparisons were made to observe if the GMV differences between meditators and controls were statistically significant.

Results

In the 16 lobe area subdivisions, GMV was statistically significantly different in 4 out of 16 areas: in right hemispheric temporal and frontal lobes, left frontal lobe and brainstem. In the 116 AAL area subdivisions, GMV difference was statistically significant in 11 areas. The GMV differences were statistically more significant in right hemispheric brain areas.

Conclusions

The study shows that long-term practice of SYM is associated with larger GMV overall, and with significant differences mainly in temporal and frontal areas of the right hemisphere and the brainstem. These neuroplastic changes may reflect emotional and attentional control mechanisms developed with SYM. On the other hand, our statistical ad-hoc method shows that there were more brain areas with statistical significance compared to the traditional methodology which we think is susceptible to conservative Type II errors.

Citation: Hernández SE, Dorta R, Suero J, Barros-Loscertales A, González-Mora JL, Rubia K (2020) Larger whole brain grey matter associated with long-term Sahaja Yoga Meditation: A detailed area by area comparison. PLoS ONE 15(12): e0237552. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0237552

Editor: Niels Bergsland, University at Buffalo, UNITED STATES

Increased Grey Matter Associated With Long-Term Sahaja Yoga Meditation: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study

Posted on by Andrés Alarcón Leave a comment

Sergio Elías Hernández 1 , José Suero 2 , Alfonso Barros 3 , José Luis González-Mora 4 , Katya Rubia 5
Affiliations expand
PMID: 26938433 PMCID: PMC4777419 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150757
Free PMC article

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate regional differences in grey matter volume associated with the practice of Sahaja Yoga Meditation.

Design: Twenty three experienced practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation and twenty three non-meditators matched on age, gender and education level, were scanned using structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging and their grey matter volume were compared using Voxel-Based Morphometry.

Results: Grey matter volume was larger in meditators relative to non-meditators across the whole brain. In addition, grey matter volume was larger in several predominantly right hemispheric regions: in insula, ventromedial orbitofrontal cortex, inferior temporal and parietal cortices as well as in left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and left insula. No areas with larger grey matter volume were found in non-meditators relative to meditators.

Conclusions: The study shows that long-term practice of Sahaja Yoga Meditation is associated with larger grey matter volume overall, and with regional enlargement in several right hemispheric cortical and subcortical brain regions that are associated with sustained attention, self-control, compassion and interoceptive perception. The increased grey matter volume in these attention and self-control mediating regions suggests use-dependent enlargement with regular practice of this meditation.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

  • Box plot of grey matter volumes across the whole brain of meditators and controls.
    The central box represents the value from the lower to upper quartile (25th to 75th percentile). The middle line represents the median. The vertical line extends from the minimum to the maximum value.
  • Areas where meditators exhibited larger GMV than non-meditators.
    (A) right insula/vmOFC, (B) right inferior temporal gyrus and (C) right angular gyrus. The color intensity represents T-statistic values at the voxel level.
  • A priori hypothesised regions that showed larger GMV in meditators relative to controls at a more lenient threshold.
    (A) left VLPFC (B) left anterior insula. The color intensity represents T-statistic values at the voxel level.

Source: National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26938433/