Scientific Reports
August 25, 2017
Gaël Chételat, Florence Mezenge, Clémence Tomadesso et al.
67 citations
Aging typically shrinks brain volume and lowers glucose metabolism, with stress and poor sleep accelerating these changes. In a pilot study comparing 6 elderly expert meditators with 67 elderly controls, the meditators showed greater gray matter volume and/or FDG metabolism in several brain regions: the ventromedial prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex, insula, temporo-parietal junction, and posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus. These same regions were most affected by age in a larger control group of 186 people aged 20 to 87. The differences persisted after adjusting for lifestyle factors and education. The findings suggest that lifelong meditation might reduce age-related brain decline, but larger and longitudinal studies are needed.
JAMA Neurology
October 10, 2022
Gaël Chételat, Antoine Lutz, Olga Klimecki et al.
45 citations
An 18-month randomized trial of meditation training versus non-native language training or no intervention in cognitively unimpaired adults aged 65 and older found no significant changes in brain volume or perfusion of the anterior cingulate cortex or insula from meditation. Meditation did produce superior improvements in a composite score of attention regulation, socioemotional capacities, and self-knowledge compared with language training. The findings confirm the feasibility of both meditation and language training in older adults, with high adherence and low dropout, but the positive behavioral effects of meditation were not accompanied by measurable changes in the targeted brain structures.
Sci Rep
November 27, 2024
Sacha Haudry, Anne-Laure Turpin, Brigitte Landeau et al.
3 citations
Expert meditators show preserved brain structure and better psycho-affective health compared to meditation-naive older adults, suggesting that long-term meditation practice may protect against age-related decline. The study examined older expert meditators and older meditation-naive participants, finding that the expert group had greater brain preservation and more favorable psycho-affective profiles. These results indicate that meditation could be a protective factor for brain and mental health in aging.
Scientific Reports
November 2, 2024
Marco Schlosser, Julie Gonneaud, Stefano Poletti et al.
2 citations
Older adults who spent more time practicing meditation perceived greater benefits from an 18-month meditation program. The study involved 90 healthy adults aged 65-84 years who were randomly assigned to either meditation training or a non-native language training. Higher levels of formal practice were associated with higher combined ratings of self- and teacher-perceived responsiveness across measures of connection, emotions, and meta-awareness during sessions and in daily life. Global responsiveness scores were not correlated with actual changes in well-being. The findings suggest that engagement, rather than baseline characteristics like personality or expectancy, predicts perceived response to meditation training.
Journal of sleep research
July 29, 2025
Pierre Champetier, Anaïs Hamel, Claire André et al.
Long-term meditation practice in older adults is linked to more preserved brain activity during rest and sleep, and to EEG features that suggest higher cognitive states during NREM sleep. Expert meditators (mean age 70.7 years) slept longer, had less stage N1 sleep, and more stage N2 sleep than controls. During NREM sleep, they showed reduced delta power, increased alpha power, and greater theta permutation entropy. During REM sleep, they tended to have greater theta power. Self-reported sleep quality did not differ between groups. Greater meditation expertise was associated with less stage N1 sleep and tended to correlate with more stage N2 and REM theta power.
Scientific reports
May 15, 2025
Florence Requier, Hamed Mohammadi, Harriet Demnitz-King et al.
Expert meditators in older age reported less external distraction and performed better on memory tasks compared to non-meditators, while no differences were found in attention, executive function, or global cognitive scores. These cross-sectional findings from 135 non-meditators and 27 expert meditators suggest that prolonged meditation practice may help preserve memory and manage distractions, two cognitive capacities important for healthy aging.