Scientist "Demystify" Mediation - Brain Imaging (Third Eye Area) And Other Brain Stuff

Well apparently scientist have located the area of the brain that is responsible for reducing pain through meditation. Probably not too surprising around this neck of the woods that is located where the "Third Eye" has been depicted for thousands of years.

And Other fun stuff too.

Demystifying meditation -- brain imaging illustrates how meditation reduces pain

source

"We found a big effect – about a 40 percent reduction in pain intensity and a 57 percent reduction in pain unpleasantness. Meditation produced a greater reduction in pain than even morphine or other pain-relieving drugs, which typically reduce pain ratings by about 25 percent."

Both before and after meditation training, study participants' brain activity was examined using a special type of imaging -- arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging (ASL MRI) -- that captures longer duration brain processes, such as meditation, better than a standard MRI scan of brain function.

The scans taken after meditation training showed that every participant's pain ratings were reduced, with decreases ranging from 11 to 93 percent, Zeidan said.

At the same time, meditation significantly reduced brain activity in the primary somatosensory cortex, an area that is crucially involved in creating the feeling of where and how intense a painful stimulus is. The scans taken before meditation training showed activity in this area was very high. However, when participants were meditating during the scans, activity in this important pain-processing region could not be detected. The research also showed that meditation increased brain activity in areas including the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula and the orbito-frontal cortex.

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anterior insula

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orbito-frontal cortex

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More Food For Thought

Scientists at the University of Southern California have pinned down the region of the brain responsible for a key survival trait: our ability to comprehend a scene

source

The brain's ability to understand a whole scene on the fly "gives us an enormous edge on an organism that would have to look at objects one by one and slowly add them up,"

While previous research had already established the existence of this "scene-facilitation effect," the location of the part of the brain responsible for the effect remained a mystery.

"The 'where' in the brain gives us clues as to the 'how,'" Biederman said. This study is the latest in an ongoing effort by Biederman and Kim to unlock the complex way in which the brain processes visual experience. The goal, as Biederman puts it, is to understand "how we get mind from brain."

A recent study by Kim and Biederman suggested that the source of the scene-facilitation effect was the lateral occipital cortex, or LO, which is a portion of the brain's visual processing center located between the ear and the back of the skull. However, the possibility existed that the LO was receiving help from the intraparietal sulcus, or IPS, which is a groove in the brain closer to the top of the head.

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By measuring how accurate participants were in detecting objects shown as interacting or not interacting when either the LO or IPS were zapped, researchers could see how much help that part of the brain was providing. The results were clear: zapping the LO eliminated the scene-facilitation effect. Zapping the IPS, however, did nothing.

Researchers determine region of the brain necessary for making decisions about economic value

source

Neuroeconomic research at the University of Pennsylvania has conclusively identified a part of the brain that is necessary for making everyday decisions about value. Previous functional magnetic imaging studies, during which researchers use a powerful magnet to determine which parts of a subjects brain are most active while doing a task, have suggested that the ventromedial frontal cortex, or VMF, plays an evaluative role during decision making.

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I Love this Part

Kable's experiment involved a simple questionnaire, where people with and without VMF damage were asked to pick between groupings of juice boxes and chocolate bars, based on which they liked more.

The subjects were sequentially given 11 sheets of paper, which listed two or more groups they could choose. As an incentive for them to pick the one they truly wanted more, the researchers promised to give each subject one of the 11 groups he or she selected at the end of the experiment. The subjects were also able to pick what kind of juice and chocolate they preferred before the experiment began.

While there were no price tags on any of the items, the grouped items on each sheet had a fixed value relative to one another and the total amount that could be spent. A subject could pick between a group with six juice boxes and two chocolate bars, a group with three juice boxes and three chocolate bars and a group with no juice boxes and four chocolate bars, implying that the chocolate was three times as expensive as the juice.

Researchers pinpoint brain region that influences gambling decisions

source

Recently, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Ireland's Trinity College Dublin hedged their bets—and came out winners—when they proposed that a certain region of the brain drives these different types of decision-making behaviors.

"Through our study, we found a difference in activity in a region of the brain called the dorsal striatum depending on whether people were choosing according to reinforcement learning or the gambler's fallacy," says John O'Doherty, professor of psychology at Caltech and adjunct professor of psychology at Trinity College Dublin. "This finding suggests that the dorsal striatum is particularly involved in driving reinforcement-learning behaviors."

Close To The Third Eye!

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The team asked 31 participants to complete four roulette-wheel tasks while lying in an MRI scanner.

So there you have it folks. Chocolate Bar's, Juice Boxes, And Roulette!

They got it all figured out!

One out of four aint bad!

S+F for you sir. I have always been fascinated with the pineal gland and it's natural release of '___' and have lately been studying a lot about meditation. Anybody interested in learning more about the pineal gland should check out '___': Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman. Very good book and some solid, independent research.

www.youtube.com...

Cool post. Maybe that explains why that meditating monk just sat there when he set himself on fire. Most people would be running around crazy if in flames.


Deebo

Imagine the activity of an enlightened individual, or at least someone who has meditated their whole life. Now, I want to see gland activity during meditation, especially by someone who has all their chakras open.

Hi, TW, thanks for another great thread. Really fascinating subject matter.

I wanted to post some images to help us auger in on the pineal gland and also the region of the brain that the doctors from Caltech are referring to in their gambling study.

I found an image online and retouched it to show the general location of the pineal gland in purple. I believe if you look now on the scan you posted you will see its 'shadow' now.





Here is the area of the brain that the Docs from Caltech are studying in regards to gambling, the dorsal striatum. I have gone ahead and highlighted the bits in question but over all the dorsal striatum is a component of the complex which makes up the basal ganglia which are their own whole ball of wax. The basal ganglia govern learning, cognition, emotion and motor control.

Worth Looking In To:en.wikipedia.org...
The interesting thing to me is that it seems as if as you follow the layers down to the actual pineal gland it is rather illustrative of real life mundane type of things that one would need to settle or calm in order for the pineal gland to not be receiving a great deal of electrical disturbance.

There is also a good read on the anterior cingulate cortex on wikipedia as well:en.wikipedia.org...

Anyhow, looking at the pictures helps me to make a 3D model in my head I hope it has helped here.

F210.

reply to post by timewalker


S+F for you! Thank you for this thread, it has so much interesting info I don't even know where to begin...meditation > morphine in pain reduction???!! Looks like I won't be needing prescriptions or hospital visits anytime soon lol. Oh the limitless possibilities of the human brain and mind, this is only a fraction of what we can do currently! It's unfortunate we only have a fraction to work with at the moment. Great work OP!

Great post! Looks like you did your research.

reply to post by timewalker

Good to hear. I had seen some information about the glands corresponding with "chakras" recently in correspondence to this. Good to see the statements made in the show were backed with a bit of fact.

I wish I could remember which documentary I watched that had some of this in it, but I had watched so many that it'd be a needle in a movie haystack to find.

reply to post by timewalker

Focusing attention on something else is a well-known pain reduction technique. It works; the trick is to keep up your concentration. I suppose meditation, like any other form of training, can help with that.

What exactly is being demystified here? There’s nothing supernatural about meditation.

Science has zero understanding of the third eye and what is capable of. HAve they mapped the other chakra points in the body and the resulting prana energy. Do they understand what the third eye is capable of. How it can be turned inwards to see illness in the body... All they have done here is note an area of the brain lights up when people meditate.
If they want to understand meditatiion, they need to meditate...

Originally posted by hazey
S+F for you sir. I have always been fascinated with the pineal gland and it's natural release of '___' and have lately been studying a lot about meditation. Anybody interested in learning more about the pineal gland should check out '___': Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman. Very good book and some solid, independent research.

www.youtube.com...

I have watched the videos before. I downloaded the .pdf and have not ever gotten around to reading it. (got some major catch up to do on my extensive book collection)

It is one of the most fascinating subjects.

[SNIP]

Originally posted by AdamsMurmur
Imagine the activity of an enlightened individual, or at least someone who has meditated their whole life. Now, I want to see gland activity during meditation, especially by someone who has all their chakras open.

I would like to see that too. They might have to recalibrate their magnetic resonance imagery equipment afterwards.

It would be great if "modern" science would focus more on putting the Psi back in Psience (spell check squiggly line there).

This is happening at a "controlled" slow rate and I don't think they can keep the flood gates held back for long.

Not much money in meditation. I think this training should be in a free health care for the masses. This is not Psuedo Science anymore.

I am really impressed by the levels of pain reduction greater than MORPHINE. People should take heed of this statement.

reply to post by Frater210

Very interesting read Frater. Thanks for the outstanding contribution.

This reptilian section of the brain is the least understood of them all and the most important. While all three are vital, this one is our survivability section.

(I would tend to think the "astronaut" section would be in here too.)
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The basal ganglia are associated with a variety of functions, including voluntary motor control, procedural learning relating to routine behaviors or "habits" such as bruxism, eye movements, and cognitive,[1] emotional functions.[2] Currently popular theories implicate the basal ganglia primarily in action selection, that is, the decision of which of several possible behaviors to execute at a given time.[1][3] Experimental studies show that the basal ganglia exert an inhibitory influence on a number of motor systems, and that a release of this inhibition permits a motor system to become active. The "behavior switching" that takes place within the basal ganglia is influenced by signals from many parts of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, which plays a key role in executive functions.[2

The basal ganglia play a central role in a number of neurological conditions, including several movement disorders. The most notable are Parkinson's disease, which involves degeneration of the melanin-pigmented dopamine-producing cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc), and Huntington's disease, which primarily involves damage to the striatum.[1][5] Basal ganglia dysfunction is also implicated in some other disorders of behavior control such as the Tourette's syndrome, ballismus (particularly hemibalismus), obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and Wilson's disease (Hepatolenticular degeneration); except for Wilson's disease and hemiballismus, the neuropathological mechanisms underlying diseases of ganglia such as Parkinsons' and Huntington's are not very well understood or are at best still developing theories.

The basal ganglia have a limbic sector whose components are assigned distinct names: the nucleus accumbens (NA), ventral pallidum, and ventral tegmental area (VTA). VTA efferents provide dopamine to the nucleus accumbens (ventral striatum) in the same way that the substantia nigra provides dopamine to the dorsal striatum. Because there is much evidence that it plays a central role in reward learning, the VTA→NA dopaminergic projection has attracted a great deal of attention. For example, a number of highly addictive drugs, including coc aine, amphetamines, and nicotine, are thought to work by increasing the efficacy of the VTA→NA dopamine signal. There is also evidence implicating overactivity of the VTA dopaminergic projection in schizophrenia.[6]

WIKI

For the record.

I don't think they have not "DeMystified" a thing.

They would love to make people think that with their fancy gadgets.

But REALLY?

Locating and understanding are two totally different things.

Just wanted to make myself clear.

But isn't the pineal gland aka the third eye screwed up by people using flouride? I still don't get it

S+F - Glad to see some attention being brought to this. Right up my alley, metaphysically more than scientifically.

Without any intention to solicit arguement or confrontation, may I recommend the Solfeggios to anyone who plans to begin or already meditates? I swear by them, regardless of the some of the science beyond them being a bit on the fringe.

reply to post by capod2t
You are in good company here.

Here is the one I have always been partial to. If your gonna do it all or nothing is what I say.

reply to post by timewalker


Thanks! It's nice to be in a thread absent the back-and-forth negativity!

Here's one of mine

reply to post by timewalker


This is exactly the sort of information I would want if I was intending to enslave people.

What will most do anything to do?... avoid pain.

If I could stimulate this part of the brain via a directed electric current and artificially create the meditative state as a manner of pain management I would become wealthy.

It also stands to reason I could destroy this part of the brain with the same current and remove people from their spirituality.

I can picture the "Head Band-Aide" giving nice little directed electric jolts. Just enough to remove some more thinking spiritual minds from the path of those who would like to control.

Not saying such people exist, just that this information would be a useful tool for them and for ya'll to be careful when electric meditation aides come out.

reply to post by Jinglelord
I see what you are saying, beware if something came out like that, but........

The article said that they used the MRI after.

Both before and after meditation training, study participants' brain activity was examined using a special type of imaging -- arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging (ASL MRI) -- that captures longer duration brain processes, such as meditation, better than a standard MRI scan of brain function.

Seems too much EMF to me. I have had the MRI before and I don't like to have my head put in such devices.

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This looks more like a mind gadget.

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