English
 
Help Privacy Policy Disclaimer
  Advanced SearchBrowse

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Released

Journal Article

Cortical thickness, mental absorption and meditative practice: Possible implications for disorders of attention.

MPS-Authors
There are no MPG-Authors in the publication available
External Resource
No external resources are shared
Fulltext (restricted access)
There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.
Fulltext (public)
There are no public fulltexts stored in PuRe
Supplementary Material (public)
There is no public supplementary material available
Citation

Grant, J., Duerden, E. G., Courtemanche, J., Cherkasova, M., Duncan, G. H., & Rainville, P. (2013). Cortical thickness, mental absorption and meditative practice: Possible implications for disorders of attention. Biological Psychology, 92(2), 275-281. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2012.09.007.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-000E-B950-5
Abstract
Mental training techniques rooted in meditation are associated with attention improvement, increased activation and cortical thickening of attention/executive-related brain areas. Interestingly, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with behavioural deficits, hypo-activation and cortical thinning of similar networks. This study assessed the relationship between prior meditative training, attentional absorption, and cortical thickness. Grey matter thickness was measured in 18 meditators and 18 controls. Subjective reports of attentional absorption were modestly higher in meditators and across the entire sample correlated positively with cortical thickness in several regions corresponding to cingulo-fronto-parietal attention networks. Within these regions the meditation group had greater cortical thickness which was positively related to the extent of prior training. Evidence suggesting that meditative practice activates these cortical areas, improves attention and may ameliorate symptoms of ADHD by targeting vulnerable brain regions is discussed.