正念冥想可以通過令人驚訝的方式改善大腦

正念冥想可以通過令人驚訝的方式改善大腦

You've heard how good mindfulness is for you, but did you know it helps you grow new brain cells, changes how your brain functions and even resets your perception of pain?

你聽說過正念對你有多好，但你知道它能幫助你培養(yǎng)新的腦細(xì)胞，改變你的大腦功能，甚至重置你對疼痛的感知嗎?

Working mindfulness into your daily routine can mean sitting and breathing, but it can also manifest as noticing small changes in familiar environments. (Photo: Gajus/Shutterstock)

Various studies have led researchers to draw these conclusions, adding to the growing pile of evidence about why mindfulness meditation works so well for so many people in so many different ways. It starts with neuroscientists' increasing understanding that the brain is plastic — which means that, unlike your thigh bone, which grows to a certain size and stays that way for the rest of your life, your brain changes as you age.

各種各樣的研究讓研究人員得出了這些結(jié)論，為正念冥想為何能以如此多種不同的方式對如此多的人產(chǎn)生如此好的效果提供了越來越多的證據(jù)。它始于神經(jīng)科學(xué)家對大腦可塑性的日益認(rèn)識——這意味著，與你的大腿骨不同，你的大腦會隨著年齡的增長而變化。

Below are a few of the most interesting studies about mindfulness and what they've found.

下面是一些關(guān)于正念最有趣的研究，以及他們的發(fā)現(xiàn)。

Mindfulness can reduce pain

正念可以減少疼痛

In a before-and-after look at the brains of subjects who had regularly meditated for just four days, researchers behind this study published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that the perception of pain was dramatically reduced: How much? Mindfulness meditation "... significantly reduced pain unpleasantness by 57% and pain intensity ratings by 40% when compared to rest." This was, according to researchers, due to increased activity in areas of the brain involved with regulating the understanding of pain signals, the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula.

這項研究發(fā)表在《神經(jīng)科學(xué)雜志》上。研究人員對定期冥想四天的受試者的大腦進(jìn)行了前后對比，發(fā)現(xiàn)他們對疼痛的感知能力大大降低:降低了多少?正念冥想”…與休息相比，明顯減少了57%的疼痛不愉快感和40%的疼痛強(qiáng)度。”據(jù)研究人員稱，這是由于大腦中與理解疼痛信號有關(guān)的區(qū)域，即前扣帶皮層和前島葉的活動增強(qiáng)。

It can help you grow more grey matter

它可以幫助你長出更多的灰質(zhì)

The left hippocampus got larger in the subjects who practiced mindfulness for eight weeks. (Photo: Life science/Shutterstock)

A Harvard Medical School study published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging that looked at the brains of 17 study participants before and after an eight-week mindfulness program found that their brains grew in certain places by doing mindfulness meditation, which sounds amazing: "Analyses ... confirmed increases in gray matter concentration within the left hippocampus. Whole brain analyses identified increases in the posterior cingulate cortex, the temporo-parietal junction, and the cerebellum in the MBSR [mindfulness meditation] group compared to the controls."

哈佛醫(yī)學(xué)院的一項研究發(fā)表在《精神病學(xué)研究:神經(jīng)成像》上。該研究觀察了17名研究參與者在接受八周冥想訓(xùn)練前后的大腦。證實(shí)左海馬灰質(zhì)濃度增加。全腦分析發(fā)現(xiàn)，與對照組相比，MBSR(正念冥想)組的后扣帶皮層、顳頂葉交界處和小腦有所增加。”

It can help you build more brain connections

它可以幫助你建立更多的大腦連接

A study from UCLA published in NeuroImage looked specifically at female subjects, and measured the brains (via fcMRI) of two groups — those who did mindfulness meditation for eight weeks and those who didn't. They found that among the meditators, there were better connections between the parts of the brains linked with sight and sound, as well as greater focus in those areas.

加州大學(xué)洛杉磯分校發(fā)表在《神經(jīng)影像》雜志上的一項研究專門研究了女性受試者，并測量了兩組受試者的大腦(通過fcMRI)——一組進(jìn)行了八周的正念冥想，另一組沒有。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，在冥想者中，大腦中與視覺和聽覺相關(guān)的部分有更好的連接，這些區(qū)域的注意力也更集中。

It can improve verbal learning

它可以提高語言學(xué)習(xí)效率

Mindfulness can potentially make it easier to learn new verbal information and then be able to remember it later. (Photo: hydra viridis/Shutterstock)

As in many of these experiments, this one shows the surprising payoff of a truly short-term commitment. After listening to a 10-minute mindfulness audio tape, participants boosted their verbal learning ability.

在許多這樣的實(shí)驗(yàn)中，這個實(shí)驗(yàn)顯示了一個真正的短期承諾的驚人回報。在聽了10分鐘的正念錄音后，參與者提高了他們的語言學(xué)習(xí)能力。

It can curb your procrastination habit

它可以抑制你的拖延習(xí)慣

Procrastination is simply the failure to self-regulate, and mindfulness can help with that. (Photo: faithie/Shutterstock)

While this result may not seem surprising based on what you've already read, this study published in Personality and Individual Differences goes a step further, showing an inverse relationship between mindfulness and procrastination, researchers from Education University of Hong Kong found.

香港教育大學(xué)的研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，雖然根據(jù)你已經(jīng)讀過的內(nèi)容，這個結(jié)果可能并不令人驚訝，但發(fā)表在《個性與個體差異》上的這項研究更進(jìn)了一步，它顯示了正念和拖延癥之間的反向關(guān)系。

By looking at the habits of 339 Chinese college students, researchers found that when mindfulness was high, procrastination levels dropped, and vice versa. The study wasn't perfect — students took questionnaires at four specific times during a six-month period — but the pattern was evident throughout. And looking at other work on the connection, it makes sense. Some tasks provoke a negative emotional reaction, but as Timothy A Pychyl writes in Psychology Today, the answer is simply to bolster our emotional regulation — and that relies on mindfulness.

通過觀察339名中國大學(xué)生的習(xí)慣，研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)正念程度高時，拖延癥水平下降，反之亦然。這項研究并不完美——學(xué)生們在六個月的時間里分四次接受問卷調(diào)查——但這種模式在整個研究過程中都很明顯?？纯雌渌P(guān)于這種聯(lián)系的研究，這是有意義的。有些任務(wù)會引發(fā)消極的情緒反應(yīng)，但正如蒂莫西·a·皮切爾在《今日心理學(xué)》上所寫的那樣，答案很簡單，就是加強(qiáng)我們的情緒調(diào)節(jié)——而這依賴于正念。