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Zen meditation has been associated with low sensitivity on both the affective and the sensory dimensions of pain. Given reports of gray matter differences in meditators as well as between chronic pain patients and controls, the present study investigated whether differences in brain morphometry are associated with the low pain sensitivity observed in Zen practitioners. Structural MRI scans were performed and the temperature required to produce moderate pain was assessed in 17 meditators and 18 controls. Meditators had significantly lower pain sensitivity than controls. Assessed across all subjects, lower pain sensitivity was associated with thicker cortex in affective, pain-related brain regions including the anterior cingulate cortex, bilateral parahippocampal gyrus and anterior insula. Comparing groups, meditators were found to have thicker cortex in the dorsal anterior cingulate and bilaterally in secondary somatosensory cortex. More years of meditation experience was associated with thicker gray matter in the anterior cingulate, and hours of experience predicted more gray matter bilaterally in the lower leg area of the primary somatosensory cortex as well as the hand area in the right hemisphere. Results generally suggest that pain sensitivity is related to cortical thickness in pain-related brain regions and that the lower sensitivity observed in meditators may be the product of alterations to brain morphometry from long-term practice.
Objective: To investigate pain perception and the potential analgesic effects of mindful states in experienced Zen meditators. Methods: Highly trained Zen meditators (n 13; 1000 hours of practice) and age/gender-matched control volunteers (n 13)received individually adjusted thermal stimuli to elicit moderate pain on the calf. Conditions included: a) baseline-1: no task; b) concentration: attend exclusively to the calf; c) mindfulness: attend to the calf and observe, moment to moment, in a nonjudgmental manner; and d) baseline-2: no task. Results: Meditators required significantly higher temperatures to elicit moderate pain
(meditators: 49.9°C; controls: 48.2°C; p .01). While attending “mindfully,” meditators reported decreases in pain intensity whereas control subjects showed no change from baseline. The concentration condition resulted in increased pain intensity for
controls but not for meditators. Changes in pain unpleasantness generally paralleled those found in pain intensity. In meditators,
pain modulation correlated with slowing of the respiratory rate and with greater meditation experience. Covariance analyses indicated that mindfulness-related changes could be partially explained by changes in respiratory rates. Finally, the meditators
reported higher tendencies to observe and be nonreactive of their own experience as measured on the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire; these factors correlated with individual differences in respiration. Conclusions: These results indicated that Zen meditators have lower pain sensitivity and experience analgesic effects during mindful states. Results may reflect cognitive/selfregulatory skills related to the concept of mindfulness and/or altered respiratory patterns. Prospective studies investigating the
effects of meditative training and respiration on pain regulation are warranted. Key words: pain, meditation, Zen, mindfulness, respiration, psychophysics.