Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
Research Article

Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners

J. A. Brefczynski-Lewis, A. Lutz, H. S. Schaefer, D. B. Levinson, and R. J. Davidson
  1. *W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, Medical College of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53226;
  2. †Department of Radiology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506; and
  3. ‡Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904

See allHide authors and affiliations

PNAS July 3, 2007 104 (27) 11483-11488; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0606552104
J. A. Brefczynski-Lewis
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
A. Lutz
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
H. S. Schaefer
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
D. B. Levinson
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
R. J. Davidson
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: rjdavids@wisc.edu
  1. Edited by Edward E. Smith, Columbia University, New York, NY, and approved May 29, 2007 (received for review August 3, 2006)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Meditation refers to a family of mental training practices that are designed to familiarize the practitioner with specific types of mental processes. One of the most basic forms of meditation is concentration meditation, in which sustained attention is focused on an object such as a small visual stimulus or the breath. In age-matched participants, using functional MRI, we found that activation in a network of brain regions typically involved in sustained attention showed an inverted u-shaped curve in which expert meditators (EMs) with an average of 19,000 h of practice had more activation than novices, but EMs with an average of 44,000 h had less activation. In response to distracter sounds used to probe the meditation, EMs vs. novices had less brain activation in regions related to discursive thoughts and emotions and more activation in regions related to response inhibition and attention. Correlation with hours of practice suggests possible plasticity in these mechanisms.

  • attention
  • frontal
  • parietal
  • response inhibition

Footnotes

  • §To whom correspondence should be addressed at:
    W. M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin, 1500 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705.
    E-mail: rjdavids{at}wisc.edu
  • Author contributions: J.A.B.-L. and A.L. contributed equally to this work; A.L., H.S.S., and R.J.D. designed research; J.A.B.-L., A.L., and R.J.D. performed research; J.A.B.-L., A.L., and D.B.L. analyzed data; and J.A.B.-L. and R.J.D. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0606552104/DC1.

  • Abbreviations:
    Amyg,
    amygdala;
    DLPFC,
    dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex;
    EM,
    expert meditator;
    NM,
    novice meditator;
    INM,
    incentive NM;
    IFG,
    inferior frontal gyrus;
    Ins,
    insula;
    IPS,
    intraparietal sulcus;
    LO,
    lateral occipital;
    LHEMs,
    EMs with the least hours of practice;
    MHEM,
    EMs with the least hours of practice;
    MeFG,
    medial frontal gyrus;
    Acc,
    anterior cingulate;
    Med.,
    meditation;
    P.,
    posterior;
    P. Cing,
    P. cingulate;
    ROI,
    region of interest;
    SFG,
    superior frontal gyrus;
    MFG,
    middle frontal gyrus.
  • Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

  • © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners
J. A. Brefczynski-Lewis, A. Lutz, H. S. Schaefer, D. B. Levinson, R. J. Davidson
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jul 2007, 104 (27) 11483-11488; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0606552104

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners
J. A. Brefczynski-Lewis, A. Lutz, H. S. Schaefer, D. B. Levinson, R. J. Davidson
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jul 2007, 104 (27) 11483-11488; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0606552104
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 104 (27)
Table of Contents

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Methods
    • Acknowledgments
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Surgeons hands during surgery
Inner Workings: Advances in infectious disease treatment promise to expand the pool of donor organs
Despite myriad challenges, clinicians see room for progress.
Image credit: Shutterstock/David Tadevosian.
Setting sun over a sun-baked dirt landscape
Core Concept: Popular integrated assessment climate policy models have key caveats
Better explicating the strengths and shortcomings of these models will help refine projections and improve transparency in the years ahead.
Image credit: Witsawat.S.
Double helix
Journal Club: Noncoding DNA shown to underlie function, cause limb malformations
Using CRISPR, researchers showed that a region some used to label “junk DNA” has a major role in a rare genetic disorder.
Image credit: Nathan Devery.
Steamboat Geyser eruption.
Eruption of Steamboat Geyser
Mara Reed and Michael Manga explore why Yellowstone's Steamboat Geyser resumed erupting in 2018.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Birds nestling on tree branches
Parent–offspring conflict in songbird fledging
Some songbird parents might improve their own fitness by manipulating their offspring into leaving the nest early, at the cost of fledgling survival, a study finds.
Image credit: Gil Eckrich (photographer).

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Special Feature Articles – Most Recent
  • List of Issues

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates
  • FAQs
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Rights & Permissions
  • About
  • Contact

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490