If you’ve ever considered practicing meditation, you may think you need to relax, breathe, and clear your mind of distracting thoughts. Novices usually think of meditation as the brain at rest, but a novel international study shows that this historic practice is quite the opposite: meditation is a state of heightened brain activity that profoundly changes brain dynamics.
Researchers from the University of Montreal and Italy’s National Research Council recruited 12 monks from the Thai forest tradition at Santacittārāma, a Buddhist monastery near Rome. In a laboratory in Chieti-Pescara, scientists analyzed the brain activity of meditation practitioners using magnetoencephalography (MEG), a technology capable of recording the brain’s electrical signals with high precision.
The study focused on two classic forms of meditation: Samatha, a technique that focuses on sustained attention focused on a specific goal, often even breathing, to stabilize the mind and achieve a deep state of peace and concentration, and Vipassana, which relies on the placid observation of emerging sensations, thoughts and emotions to develop mental clarity and a deeper understanding of experience.
“With Samatha, you narrow the field of attention, a bit like narrowing the beam of a flashlight, while with Vipassana, on the contrary, you widen the beam,” explains Karim Jerbi, professor of psychology at the University of Montreal and one of the co-authors of the study. “Both practices actively engage attentional mechanisms. Although Vipassana is more challenging for beginners, both techniques are often practiced interchangeably in mindfulness programs.”
The researchers recorded many indicators of brain dynamics, including neural oscillations, measures of signal complexity and parameters related to so-called “criticality” – a concept borrowed from statistical physics and used in neuroscience for 20 years. Criticality describes systems that operate efficiently on the verge of order and chaos, and in neuroscience it is considered the optimal state for information processing in a hearty brain.
“A brain without flexibility adapts poorly, while too much chaos can lead to abnormal functioning, as in the case of epilepsy,” Jerbi explained in his article press release. “At the critical moment, neural networks are stable enough to transmit information reliably, yet flexible enough to quickly adapt to new situations. This balance optimizes the brain’s ability to process, learn and respond.”
During the experiment, a high-resolution MEG system recorded the monks’ brain activity as they moved from one type of meditation to another, with miniature periods of rest in between. The data was then processed using advanced signal analysis and machine learning tools to extract various indicators of neural complexity and dynamics.
Finding balance
Results published in the journal Neuroscience of Consciousness show that both forms of meditation boost the complexity of brain signals compared to the resting brain. This finding suggests that the brain does not just placid down during meditation, but rather enters a active, information-rich state. At the same time, researchers observed a widespread reduction in some parameters related to the global organization of neural activity.
One of the most striking findings of the criticality deviation coefficient analysis showed a clear distinction between Samatha and Vipassana. This means that while both practices boost brain complexity, they do so through different active configurations consistent with their subjective experiences. In other words, Vipassana brings the practitioner closer to a balance of stability and flexibility, while Samatha provides a slightly more stable and focused state. According to scientists, the closer the brain comes to this critical state of balance, the more efficiently and effectively it functions. This is reflected, for example, in a greater ability to switch tasks or store information.