{"id":8325,"date":"2024-04-03T12:39:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T10:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/2024\/04\/03\/una-investigacion-liderada-por-la-ull-destaca-que-el-silencio-mental-mejora-interconexiones-nerviosas-del-cerebro\/"},"modified":"2024-04-03T12:39:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T10:39:29","slug":"una-investigacion-liderada-por-la-ull-destaca-que-el-silencio-mental-mejora-interconexiones-nerviosas-del-cerebro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/2024\/04\/03\/una-investigacion-liderada-por-la-ull-destaca-que-el-silencio-mental-mejora-interconexiones-nerviosas-del-cerebro\/","title":{"rendered":"A study led by the ULL highlights that mental silence improves neural interconnections in the brain"},"content":{"rendered":"

New research on the influence of mental silence on human brain anatomy has just been published in the journal PLOS ONE<\/a>. The article is titled \u201cImproved structural connectivity of white matter between the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex in Sahaja Yoga meditators.\u201d The research was co-led by Professor Sergio Elias Hernandez<\/a> from the University of La Laguna, and Alfonso Barros, from the Jaume I University of Castell\u00f3n, in collaboration with King's College London and Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and in fact have been studying the benefits of the state of mental silence for the human brain for fourteen years.<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, the term Emotional Intelligence was coined to refer to the ability to perceive and interact appropriately with our own emotions and the emotions of those around us. Extensive scientific literature demonstrates the fundamental role of emotional interaction in health, social interactions, and successes or failures in family, social, and professional life.<\/p>\n

Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) is a practice in which meditators regularly achieve what is known as thoughtless awareness or mental silence, a state called Nirvichara in classical yoga. Mental silence is a meditative state characterized by few or no thoughts, with attention focused on the present moment, the here and now. This improves efficiency and facilitates the perception of and interaction with emotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words,\u201d explains the researcher from the University of La Laguna, \u201cwhen we are entangled in our thoughts, they hinder and distract us from the perception of what is happening at each moment, impede the objective perception of emotions, and some thoughts can reinforce negative emotions that in the long run can generate stress, anxiety or depression.\u201d.<\/p>\n

The study was conducted using the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner at the University of La Laguna, where researchers recorded the brain anatomy of the white matter of 20 volunteer meditators, experts in Sahaja Yoga meditation, and 20 non-meditator volunteers. Both groups consisted of healthy volunteers and were matched for age, male-to-female ratio, education level, ethnicity, etc.<\/p>\n

To better understand this study, it should be mentioned that according to its appearance, brain tissue is classified into white matter, formed by myelinated nerve fibers that connect separate areas; gray matter, composed of neuronal bodies and cerebrospinal fluid or aqueous substance, which fills the interior spaces and serves as protection and transport of substances.<\/p>\n

The research focused on studying the anatomy of the brain's white matter that connects areas highly relevant to self-control of emotions and attention, located in both the right and left hemispheres, including the amygdala, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the anterior insula.<\/p>\n

The results showed that there were five tracts with a greater number of fibers in meditators, namely: the connection between the two left and right amygdalae, the connection between the two left and right anterior insulae, the connections of each amygdala with the left anterior cingulate cortex, and the connection of the right anterior insula with the left anterior cingulate cortex.<\/p>\n

The study concludes that long-term practice of Sahaja Yoga meditation is associated with strengthening interhemispheric connections between limbic regions and those between the cingulate-amygdala and cingulate-insular brain regions related to attentional and emotional processes known as top-down self-control. These interconnections appear to be related to the long-term effects of the mental silence developed through this meditation.<\/p>\n

This study complements the gray matter research conducted by these scientists and published in the same journal, PLOS ONE, in 2016 and 2020. In those studies, the researchers showed that MSY meditators had approximately 7% more gray matter across their entire brains, and that this difference was most pronounced, and consistently greater in meditators, in the right temporal lobe, an area associated with emotions. It is important to note here that both gray and white matter decrease with age and with many mental health conditions such as anxiety, stress, and depression.<\/p>\n

Authors of the study: Sergio El\u00edas Hern\u00e1ndez 1*, \u00d3scar P\u00e9rez-D\u00edaz 1, Dayl\u00edn G\u00f3ngora 2, Jos\u00e9 L. Gonz\u00e1lez-Mora 1, Katya Rubia 3, Alfonso Barr\u00f3s-Loscertales 4<\/p>\n

1 University Institute of Neuroscience, University of La Laguna.
\n2 Center of Neuroeconomics, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
\n3 Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
\n4 Department of Basic, Clinical and Psychobiology Psychology, Universitat Jaume I, Castell\u00f3n.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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