The measurement of regional cerebral blood flow during the complex cognitive task of meditation: a preliminary SPECT study.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Uncontrolled single-group pre-post imaging study
PubMed 11306250 · doi:10.1016/s0925-4927(01)00074-9
What was done
Eight experienced Tibetan Buddhist meditators underwent single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to measure regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). Participants were scanned at baseline (injected with 7 mCi HMPAO and scanned 20 min later for 45 min) and again following 1 h of meditation (injected with 25 mCi HMPAO and scanned 20 min later for 30 min). Region-of-interest rCBF values were normalized to whole brain activity to compare percentage changes and compute correlations between structures.
What was found
Statistically significant increases in rCBF (P<0.05) were observed in the cingulate gyrus, inferior and orbital frontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and thalamus during meditation compared to baseline. Additionally, the change in rCBF in the left DLPFC correlated negatively (P<0.05) with that in the left superior parietal lobe. Absolute blood flow values and numerical percentage changes were not reported in the abstract.
Why it matters
This study provides preliminary functional neuroimaging evidence identifying fronto-thalamic activation and fronto-parietal functional relationships during meditation in experienced practitioners.
Limits
The sample size was very small (n=8) and restricted to experienced practitioners of a single meditative tradition. The study lacked a control group or non-meditation control task, the scan order was fixed rather than randomized or counterbalanced, and exact quantitative rCBF values and variance measures were not provided in the abstract.
Cited by
- supports Data show that advanced meditators can increase blood flow to a specific part of the brain.