• arclein
Recent research finds a correlation between years of meditation and brain cortex folding. (Jeff Nenarella/The Epoch Times)
A new study from the University of California–Los Angeles found that long-term meditators have more gyrification, or folding, of the brain’s cerebral cortex. Gyrification has been found to be associated with intelligence, though a causal relationship has not been found.
If a person lifts weights, his physical muscles grow. If he studies, his mental aptitude grows. Since studying has to do with the brain, it is understandable that the brain should have some changes. No big deal. This should have been suspected, if not known, long ago.
What is meditation? If meditation has to do with contemplating your navel, it might produce nothing more than snoring in the long run. But if it has to do with attempting to discover or correlate aspects of the truths of life, it becomes study.
There should be some brain changes involved regarding study, since study has to do with the brain.
Comment by Powell Gammill
Entered on:
So is it that years of meditation lead to more complex brain folding which seems unlikely to me (where is the movement for these shifts supposed to come from?) or is it more likely that people willing (who get more reward out of) to spend years meditating have more brain folding than those who don't. This strikes me (Occam's razor) strongly as bad interpretation of data by a meditator with something to prove. Perhaps he needs to meditate on this some more? ;-)
2 Comments in Response to Study Finds Correlation Between Meditation and Brain Cortex Folding
If a person lifts weights, his physical muscles grow. If he studies, his mental aptitude grows. Since studying has to do with the brain, it is understandable that the brain should have some changes. No big deal. This should have been suspected, if not known, long ago.
What is meditation? If meditation has to do with contemplating your navel, it might produce nothing more than snoring in the long run. But if it has to do with attempting to discover or correlate aspects of the truths of life, it becomes study.
There should be some brain changes involved regarding study, since study has to do with the brain.
So is it that years of meditation lead to more complex brain folding which seems unlikely to me (where is the movement for these shifts supposed to come from?) or is it more likely that people willing (who get more reward out of) to spend years meditating have more brain folding than those who don't. This strikes me (Occam's razor) strongly as bad interpretation of data by a meditator with something to prove. Perhaps he needs to meditate on this some more? ;-)