Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences
Yes, meditation can help with pain by changing your experience of it. I reported on that here. Another piece of research just published shows that how experienced meditators and novice meditators and their brains deal with pain slightly differently.
Joseph Wielgosz of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Tor Wager, a neuroscientist at Dartmouth College, tried to identify signatures in the brain of pain and how this changes with mindfulness training.
They did this by recruiting participants undergoing an eight-week mindfulness training at the university. Pain was measured by a standardised process of applying heat to the arm. What they noticed is that in those undergoing mindfulness training signals related to the intensity of pain were reduced. That is a good thing.
However, what was intriguing is that they noticed that in those who had undergone more training and were more experienced meditators that peripheral messaging in the brain was different. That is pathways that seem to deal with attention and expectation were activated differently.
So, it seems that more experienced meditators’ brains deal with pain responses differently to novices. But of note is that in both groups pain was reduced through meditative techniques – and that is in itself a good sign and one that has been supported by other research.
Therefore, if you are in pain, do consider meditation as a viable route to pain management. With mostly positive side effects.
Andy Habermacher
Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.
Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).
Reference
Joseph Wielgosz, Tammi R.A. Kral, David M. Perlman, Jeanette A. Mumford, Tor D. Wager, Richard J. Davidson.
Neural Signatures of Pain Modulation in Short-Term and Long-Term Mindfulness Training: A Randomized Active-Control Trial.
American Journal of Psychiatry, 2022
DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.21020145
More Quick Hits
Learning at double-speed?
Quick HitsDaily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences ouldn’t it be great if we could learn things double speed? Well, maybe we can. At least according to a study out of the University of California. During the pandemic many...
The “drunken monkey” hypothesis – proven
This had to be a story I covered – monkeys and alcohol sounds too good to pass up. But this is also linked to the “drunken monkey” hypothesis: that humans developed their love for alcohol in earlier primitive times accidentally, and then intentionally, eating fruit...
The Newly Discovered Bias That Makes Us Think We Are More Diverse Than We Are
A few weeks ago I reported on some newly discovered ways we are biased namely that we consider generic terms such as “people” as equivalent to “men” rather than men and women. This was specifically focused on gender bias but this latest piece recently published shows...
Self-awareness of autism leads to better quality of life
Autism has become a well-known diagnosis in recent years. Though some people seem to be against this sort of labelling, and the general increase in different label of mental conditions, a study out of the University of Portsmouth shows why this is actually a good...
Optimal sleep improves your brain, mental, and physical health - and it’s not as much as you think
I’ve reported multiple times on sleep and how it affects just about everything form cognitive performance, to brain plasticity, to physical performance, to mental health, and to metabolism. The question...
No change for a century – children’s backgrounds still predict the same educational outcomes
Educational opportunities have changed dramatically for children over the last century – schools have changed, and college and university admissions have grown. Or so we might think at least. But according to a study out of the University of York, that is not the...