Mindfulness and neuroimaging

The scientific community has recently begun to unveil the numerous changes that occur while one is meditating. The ability to measure functional activity in the brain by the signal produced by changes of blood oxygenation levels has become a useful tool in cognitive neuroscience. With functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers are able to identify associations between activation and/or deactivation of brain areas and different stimuli or responses during the performance of specific cognitive tasks or even at rest (default mode network). Structural magnetic resonance images reveal how much grey or white matter is present in different parts of the brain. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the brain may provide a window into the biochemical changes associated with neuronal integrity. Although these techniques are commonly known, in this chapter we will try to better explain the results provided by these neuroimaging techniques in relation to the effects produced in the brain by the practice of mindfulness.