Intracranial substrates of meditation-induced neuromodulation in amygdala and hippocampus
Christina Maher, Lea Tortolero, Daniel D. Cummins, Adam Saad, James Young, Lizbeth Nunez Martinez, Zachary Schulman, Lara Marcuse, Allison Waters, Helen S. Mayberg, Richard J. Davidson, Ignacio Saez, Fedor Panov
bioRxiv Preprint Server May 10, 2024 preprint DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.10.593445 via bioRxiv
Summary
Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) increases gamma power and alters the duration of beta and gamma oscillatory bursts in the amygdala and hippocampus of first-time meditators. These changes were specific to periodic features of neural activity, not aperiodic ones. The findings reveal how LKM modulates limbic brain activity, offering insight into the neural basis of meditation's effects on emotional regulation and well-being.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Observational cohort |
|---|---|
| Population | Epilepsy patients chronically implanted with responsive neurostimulation devices |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key finding | LKM was associated with an increase in gamma (30-55 Hz) power and an alteration in the duration of beta (13-30 Hz) and gamma oscillatory bursts in the amygdala and hippocampus of novice meditators. |
Abstract
Meditation is an accessible mental practice associated with emotional regulation and well-being. Loving-kindness meditation (LKM), a specific sub-type of meditative practice, involves focusing one’s attention on thoughts of well-being for oneself and others. Meditation has been proven to be beneficial in a variety of settings, including therapeutical applications, but the neural activity underlying meditative practices and their positive effects are not well understood. In particular, it’s been difficult to understand the contribution of deep limbic structures given the difficulty of studying neural activity directly in the human brain. Here, we leverage a unique patient population, epilepsy patients chronically implanted with responsive neurostimulation device that allow chronic, invasive electrophysiology recording to investigate the physiological correlates of loving-kindness meditation in the amygdala and hippocampus of novice meditators. We find that LKM-associated changes in physiological activity specific to periodic, but not aperiodic, features of neural activity. LKM was associated with an increase in γ (30-55 Hz) power and an alternation in the duration of β (13-30 Hz) and γ oscillatory bursts in both the amygdala and hippocampus, two regions associated with mood disorders. These findings reveals the nature of LKM-induced modulation of limbic activity in first-time meditators.