Brain scan meditation

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This was a study that we did that
looked at the long term effects of meditation

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on the brain and it showed
a couple of specific things.

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So this is a person who had
never meditated before,

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the a scan is the very first just
their resting state of the brain.

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We taught them how to
do a meditation practice called

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Kirtan Kriya which is a very simple
singing kind of meditation.

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And this is what their brain
looked like when they did it

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for the very first time.

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When they came back after two
weeks we scanned their brain

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again at rest and then during
the last meditation practice

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and a couple of specific
changes that we saw here:

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One is the thalamus which again
changes from being one side

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more or less active than the
other to a substantial change

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after they have done this practice
and this is their brain at rest.

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So these are permanent changes
that are occurring in the brain itself.

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We also notice that the frontal
lobes are more active,

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there's more red in here than
what you see over here.

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So that their frontal lobe
activity is turned on even when

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their brain is at rest and it
gets back to one of the points

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we made earlier about
the idea that, since the frontal lobe

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helps to regulate our emotional responses
and is very involved in our feelings

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of love and compassion,
by having a higher level of activity

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in the frontal lobe even when
the person is not meditating,

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suggests that they have this
greater sense of compassion

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and empathy going on all the time
not just when they're doing

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the meditation practice.

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And of course when they are
meditating their frontal lobes

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turn on and they thalamic
activity changes as well,

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again signaling the notion that
they are having a change in the way

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they perceive reality, the way they think
about that reality that occurs not only

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during the meditation practice
but even after that practice is over.

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It changes the way their brain
works and changes the way

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they think about themselves and
about the world around them.