A peer-reviewed international study has offered fresh scientific insight into how long-term Buddhist meditation practice can alter brain activity at a fundamental level, producing changes that resonate with Buddhist descriptions of clarity and awareness. The research centered on 12 Theravada Buddhist monks, each with extensive contemplative training, while they practiced two classical forms of meditation: samatha (serenity meditation, focused attention) and vipassana (insight meditation, open awareness).

Published in the online journal Neuroscience of Consciousness, one of the study’s key findings was that both forms of meditation increased neural signal complexity compared with the brain’s resting state, with brain activity becoming more varied and information-rich during meditation.

“While the beneficial impacts of meditation are increasingly acknowledged, its underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood,” the researchers from the University of Montreal and Italy’s National Research Council stated in their abstract. “We examined the electrophysiological brain signals of expert Buddhist monks during two established meditation methods known as samatha and vipassana, which employ focused attention and open-monitoring technique. By combining source-space magnetoencephalography with advanced signal processing and machine-learning tools, we provide an unprecedented assessment of the role of brain oscillations, complexity, and criticality in meditation.” (Neuroscience of Consciousness)

The practitioners at the heart of the study belong to the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravada Buddhism revitalized in the early 20th century by the renowned masters Ajahn Sao Kantasīlo, Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta, and Ajahn Chah. Noted for its rigorous adherence to monastic discipline and intense focus on direct meditative experience over scholastic study, this tradition emphasizes dwelling in remote natural settings to cultivate mindfulness.

The 12 monks reside at Santacittarama (The Garden of the Peaceful Heart) near Rome, the first monastery of this lineage established in the Mediterranean, with an average of over 15,000 hours of formal practice each. By studying these monks, researchers are documenting neural dynamics associated with long-term monastic training.

Using a brain-imaging method known as magnetoencephalography (MEG), which measures magnetic fields produced by neural activity, researchers examined experienced Buddhist monks during meditation. Rather than showing a quieting of brain activity, the results suggest that meditation cultivated a more dynamically organized state. The researchers interpreted this as evidence that meditation enhanced neural flexibility and the brain’s capacity for subtle information processing.

Unlike a traditional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), MEG is a silent, passive “listening” device that detects faint magnetic fields produced by the brain’s electrical activity. By placing the practitioner’s head inside a helmet containing hundreds of ultra-sensitive sensors, researchers can map rapid changes in neural activity with millisecond precision as the monks’ awareness shifts from the stillness of samatha to the expansiveness of vipassana.

The study examined “critical dynamics,” a concept from physics and complexity science describing systems that operate at a delicate balance between order and chaos. Many neuroscientists believe the brain functions most efficiently when it is near this “critical” state.

Both samatha and vipassana produced measurable shifts in how close the brain operates to this balance point, although in distinct ways, suggesting that different meditation techniques are associated with different underlying neural dynamics, even when both are rooted in the same contemplative tradition.

Vipassana was associated with shifts toward the “critical” threshold, while samatha was associated with a more stable, sub-critical state. These findings suggest that the two techniques correspond to different patterns of large-scale brain dynamics.

Over recent decades of research, some meditation studies have reported increases in high-frequency “gamma” brain waves during advanced practice. However, this study carefully separated rhythmic brain waves from background neural activity, finding that once properly adjusted gamma power actually decreased during meditation.

This suggests that earlier findings may have conflated different aspects of brain activity. The new results point to a more nuanced understanding of how advanced meditation reshapes neural patterns. And while the study did not attempt to evaluate spiritual attainment, its findings resonate with long-standing Buddhist descriptions of meditation as a training in clarity, balance, and refined awareness.

One finding may be of particular interest to long-term practitioners: more experienced monks showed smaller differences between their meditative and resting brain states, raising the possibility that long-term practice may influence baseline neural organization, so that qualities cultivated during meditation increasingly manifest outside of formal meditation.

See more

Meditation induces shifts in neural oscillations, brain complexity, and critical dynamics: novel insights from MEG (Neuroscience of Consciousness)
Study of Buddhist Monks Finds Meditation Alters Brain Activity (Wired)
Study of 12 monks finds meditation heightens brain activity, reshaping neural dynamics (MedicalXpress)
Brain scans of Buddhist monks reveal how different meditation styles alter consciousness (PsyPost)

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