In people who regularly practice meditation, better glucose metabolism is observed in the cortex.
Aging is associated with a number of changes in the brain, which contribute to the decline of cognitive function in older people. To slow down this process, you have to train your brain. Meditation could be part of this training, especially since it promotes the metabolism of glucose, the fuel of neurons.
With age, substantial decreases are observed in terms of brain volume and glucose metabolism. These changes are not homogeneous in the brain since they predominate in the frontal cortex and are also often reported in other locations, such as the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula. Other parietal and temporal brain regions, including the hippocampus, also appear to be affected.
Healthy aging of the brain
It is increasingly recognized that several lifestyle factors modulate brain aging and the development of dementia. These findings are of considerable interest because they suggest that a change in lifestyle behavior could allow a kind of “healthy aging of the brain.”
Meditation and glucose
The main objective of study consisted of comparing the state of the brain of a person meditating to that of a person totally unfamiliar with meditation. In the former, the volume is higher and there is better glucose metabolism in the cingulate prefrontal, anterior ventromedial cortex, the insula, the temporoparietal junction and the posterior cingulate cortex.
The results should be interpreted with caution given the small number of elderly meditators. However, this study is the first to suggest that brain glucose metabolism is a sensitive measure for detecting changes associated with meditation practices.
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