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Page No 13
eISSN: 2373-7964
Abstract
Meditation and Yoga techniques are receiving increased attention throughout the world, due to the accumulation of evidence based
research that proves the direct and indirect benefits of such practices. Based on studies conducted so far, it has been found that the
practice of meditation triggers neurotransmitters that modulate psychological disorders such as anxiety. This paper will review the
psychological effects of the practice of meditation, the role of neurotransmitters, and studies using EEG and fMRI.
Introduction
Article Info: Received: January 29th, 2015; Accepted: February 5th, 2015
Keywords: Meditation, Yoga, Neurotransmitters, brain mechanisms, Behaviour and Anxiety
The art of meditation, which was once considered to be
exclusively an Eastern practice, often associated with religion
and spiritualism, has become a more scientific modality in
recent years, and is accepted for routine practice in many parts
of the world. No wonder Yoga Day is celebrated on 21st June all
over the world. Due to the observed direct and indirect
benefits of Yoga practices, controlled research has been carried
out on the physiological and neuropsychological aspects of
various meditation techniques. Studies comparing other forms
of psychotherapy, along with meditation therapy have also
become part of the global research agenda.
There are various forms of meditation that have been designed
and established by several sage-scientists of India since the time
Anc Sci, Volume 2, Issue 1, April 2015
eISSN: 2373-7964 (Online): Ancient Science, VRI Press, Vedic Research, Inc. USA
Mini Review DOI:%http://dx.doi.org/10.14259/as.v2i1.171
Meditation and Yoga can Modulate Brain Mechanisms that affect
Behavior and Anxiety- A Modern Scientific Perspective
Divya Krishnakumar1,2, Michael R Hamblin3,4,5, Shanmugamurthy Lakshmanan1,3,4*
1World Institute for Scientific Exploration, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA.
2Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
3Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
4Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA.
5Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridg, MA, USA
*Corresponding Author
Shanmugamurthy Lakshmanan, PhD
Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital,
Harvad Medical School, MA, USA.
Email: slakshmanan1@mgh.harvard.edu
of Pat a nj ali , who is known as the Father of Yoga according to
regional Indian sources. Though there are many types of
meditation practices, some of the well-known practices in the
Wes t are “Min dful Me dit at ion ”, “ Trans cend enta l M edi ta tio n”
and “Kundalini Meditation”. More than 60% of the Indian
population directly or indirectly, practice some kind of
meditation as part of their traditional culture. In India, schools
offer courses in Yoga and Meditation. For instance, the
Vethathiri Maharishi Institute for Spiritual and Institutional
Education (VISION) in India has created a complete
curriculum for Yoga staring from kindergarten and going all the
way to Ph.D level.
The Indian government has recently allocated a Ministry with a
budget exclusively to fund research in Yoga and Ayurveda.
Recently, the benefits of Yoga have been well-recognized in the
west. Harvard, MIT and Yale universities have encouraged
research on such a new modality. The NIH has allocated a
budget for this research as part of the National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). Many of
these meditation techniques are used for different specific
applications, and studies have shown that they have varying
neurophysiological effects. The most common application of
Stress is a factor that has been shown to predispose chronic
sufferers to develop many diseases including heart attack,
cancer, infections and other neurological disorders. Meditation
has proven to be a very good solution for stress management.
Research conducted at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Institute for
Management and Technology in the US has produced strong
evidence of the direct benefits of meditation on stress
management. Stress is also largely responsible for anxiety
disorders. Anxiety disorders affect approximately 40 million
adults in the United States, ages 18 and older, in a given year
[1]. It is alarming that a large national survey found 8% of
teens (13 to 18 years) have some form of anxiety disorder.
There are several types of anxiety disorder. Apart from
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), when one worries
excessively, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is another
type of anxiety disorder in which affected individuals display
Stress and Anxiety Disorders
meditation is to alleviate stress and anxiety; therefore
meditation is often considered as a form of relaxation therapy,
more than as an alternative to traditional drug-based medicine.
Neurotransmitters play a key role in modulating and regulating
behavior and anxiety. Studies have demonstrated a negative
correlation between gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) activity
and anxiety. Although GABA receptors can be found
throughout the brain, research has indicated particularly
Figure 1: Illustration of a Chemical Synapse. Neurotransmitters are essential brain chemicals that help relay information between
neurons. At the synaptic cleft, the neurotransmitters are released from the axon terminal of one neuron. The released
neurotransmitters then bind to the receptor sites of the postsynaptic neuron.
uncontrollable, intrusive thoughts, obsessions and compulsions
in an attempt to reduce the anxiety. Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD) is when the victims who have been directly or
indirectly affected by a traumatic event, suffer distress and
either display avoidance symptoms, re-experiencing symptoms,
or hyperarousal symptoms [2]. Social anxiety is not only the
fear of having to be in front of people, but is also the fear of
engaging in social activities because the sufferer is anxious of
being judged [3]. And lastly, anxiety also stems from phobias—
an intense fear of a certain specific stimulus.
This article will review the neurobiological changes produced
by meditation, and its applicability to anxiety will be covered.
Neurotransmitters
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Krishnakumar et al, 2015 Ancient Science; Volume 2, Issue 1: Pages 13-19
decreased GABA activity in the hippocampus, lingual gyrus,
middle temporal gyrus, visual cortex [4], orbital cortex and
insula [5] in patients with panic disorder when compared to
controls. GABA knockout mice (or in other words, mice that
have been engineered to have dysfunction of GABA receptors)
exhibited fear related behaviors, such as heightened sensitivity
to natural aversive stimuli, increased ability to recall negative
associations and augmented harm avoidance behavior [6].
Moreover, a patient with severe GAD was found to have a
genetic mutation in a GABA receptor subunit; this mutation
lessened the binding capacity of substrate to the GABA
receptors [7]. These studies prove that lower levels of GABA or
GABA receptors are associated with higher levels of anxiety.
Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to compare the
regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) of eight Tibetan Buddhist
meditators. As they performed complex cognitive tasks, it was
found that the meditators had significantly higher rCBF in the
prefrontal cortex (PFC) than the controls. The PFC is a brain
region that is largely responsible for executive functions such as
decision making and problem solving ability [8]. When the
prefrontal cortex is stimulated, it activates the reticular nucleus
of the thalamus (RE), which in turn produces GABA [9, 10].
Meditators also have a higher threshold concentration and
alertness, which are cognitive functions controlled by the PFC.
Therefore, an increase in the PFC region upon meditation is
correlated to an increase in GABA production since the RE
will be excited [11]. It has also been hypothesized that
transcendental meditation increases GABA-inergic tone [12].
By increasing GABA levels, meditation may help to decrease
anxiety levels.
Serotonin, a powerful neurotransmitter, plays a major role in
mood regulation. A deficiency of serotonin is associated with
depression, and a study revealed that serotonin knockout mice,
with the deletion of a serotonin receptor, IA, exhibited more
fear. Another experiment, which compared the serotonin levels
of healthy controls with those of patients diagnosed with panic
disorder using a PET scan, found out that the patients had
about one-third lower level of serotonin 1A receptors in regions
such as the anterior cingulate, posterior cingulate and midbrain
raphe [13]. It is remarkable that several studies performed on
participants after they concluded their meditation sessions,
observed a rise in the breakdown products of serotonin in the
urine [8, 14]. In one such study of Transcendental Meditation
practitioners, the urine samples were analyzed for serotonin,
and the meditators exhibited a higher level before meditation
when compared to the controls, and a much higher level after
meditation [15].
Norepinephrine (NE) is another neurotransmitter involved in
anxiety. The brain region called locus coeruleus is hypothesized
to contain the greatest concentration of NE in the brain, and
an increase of activity in this region together with increased NE
has been identified in individuals with anxiety. In an
experiment, when NE release was decreased in rats, the rats
were not able to respond normally to fear inducing stimuli [16].
These findings suggest that a lower level of NE indicates lesser
anxiety, and this has been confirmed in meditators. In a study
which compared NE levels between two groups of heart failure
patients—one which practiced meditation and another which
attended weekly meetings, it was determined that the group
practicing meditation displayed lower levels of NE in their
blood samples compared to the controls [17]. In another
experiment, regular meditators utilizing either TM or Sidhi-TM
techniques expressed lower NE levels than the control group of
healthy subjects, when their plasma catecholamine levels were
measured in mornings and evenings [18].
A neurotransmitter that is commonly associated with reward-
motivated behavior and social anxiety is dopamine. A research
experiment found out that people with generalized social
phobia tended to have lower dopamine levels than healthy
subjects [19]. Another study that incorporated PET scans
observed an increase in dopamine levels in the ventral striatum
of participants during practice of Yoga Nidra meditation [8,
20]. There is also some evidence that when melatonin, a
hormone generally known to aid sleep, was injected in rats, the
rats showed less anxiety and spent longer time in a plus-maze
[21]. Moreover, a review cited nine different studies that
concluded that lower levels of anxiety could be produced when
melatonin was given as a medication versus placebo [22]. In a
within-subject study, plasma melatonin levels were obtained
from a group of TM-Sidhi meditators when they meditated on
two different nights—one night they meditated for about an
hour, and another night, they sat quietly instead for the same
one hour. The research study discovered that the melatonin
levels, which were approximately the same pre-meditation, were
higher in the nights they meditated than in the control nights
[23].
Alpha waves are generally associated with more relaxed and
alert states of mind, and an experiment conducted noticed that
individuals clinically diagnosed to have anxiety disorder
displayed lower activity of alpha waves, while individuals who
were only prone to have anxiety had slightly higher alpha
activity, and non-anxiety prone normal subjects exhibited the
highest alpha activity; therefore, the number of oscillations in
the alpha band increased as the levels of anxiety decreased [24].
Furthermore, a biofeedback study that enabled subjects to
control their alpha activity found that when individuals with
higher anxiety traits increased their alpha wave activity, they
displayed a reduction of anxiety symptoms [25]. Research
studies comparing alpha wave activity in meditators and
control subjects concluded that people who meditate display
higher alpha activity than the controls [26].
Theta oscillations assist with alertness and the ability to process
information quickly [26]. Frontal midline theta waves which
can be stimulated during mental tasks as well as in nocturnal
Brain Electroencephalographic
Measurements
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Krishnakumar et al, 2015 Ancient Science; Volume 2, Issue 1: Pages 13-19
sleep have also been found to play a key role in personality
traits. A research study showed that higher theta wave activity
was identified in individuals with the lowest anxiety scores, the
highest extrovert scores and the lowest scores on a neurotic
scale [26, 27]. Therefore, an increase in the theta levels can
decrease anxiety levels. Research studies have also reported an
increase in the theta activity in meditators, and four studies
mentioned an increase in the frontal midline theta power
during meditation [26]. Individuals who have practiced
meditation for a much longer time displayed higher theta and
alpha power than non-meditators [26, 28]. While studies have
predominantly found an overall increase in alpha waves in
meditation, a few reports have found a decrease in alpha
power. Studies conducted on theta waves have more
consistently displayed an increase in meditation.
Figure 2: The illustration provides a
general view of the different roles of
the common neurotransmitters—
Noradrenaline (Norepinephrine),
Dopamine and Serotonin. It is vital
that the neurotransmitters are in
balance for optimum common
cognitive and physiological
functionalities, and this can be
achieved when the brain is in a
meditative state.
Mindfulness meditation is the conscious direction of attention
to an object, person, idea or stimulus; this activity requires
plenty of attention. Studies have proven that attention training
Mindfulness and Mantra
programs have helped to lower anxiety levels, as the subjects are
able to shift their attention away from the threatening stimulus
[29]. In a research experiment, victims, who were sexually
abused in their childhood, partook in an 8-week mindful
meditation course, and they displayed statistically significant
decreases in their PTSD symptoms, anxiety and depression
[30]. When a group of PTSD survivors went through eight
sessions of psychoeducation (education about mental health),
and another group underwent mindful meditation, it was
reported the latter group expressed a higher reduction in PTSD
symptoms at the end [29, 31]. The efficacy of this meditation
technique was analyzed in another study that performed a three
year follow-up after a previous study in which 22 individuals
diagnosed with anxiety partook in an 8 week long mindfulness
based meditation program [32, 33]. Eighteen of these subjects
participated in the follow-up study, and the data obtained
demonstrated that the clinically and statistically significant
reductions of the anxiety levels were still observed at the follow-
up.
Another study conducted on subjects using fMRI concluded
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Krishnakumar et al, 2015 Ancient Science; Volume 2, Issue 1: Pages 13-19
that there was higher connectivity in the least anxious patients
[34]. A research study carried out on 26 patients with GAD
compared the effectiveness of Mindfulness Based Stress
Reduction (MBSR) and Stress Management Education (SME)
using fMRI. The study found from the Blood Oxygen Level
Dependent (BOLD) responses that meditation practice
(MSBR) resulted in more connectivity between the amygdala
and several regions of the PFC, amygdala and dorsolateral PFC
when compared to SME. This was also consistent with the
measured Beck Anxiety Inventory scores, where the meditators
showed lower mean scores for anxiety symptoms than the SME
participants [35]. This comparison is illustrated in Figure 3:
Transcendental meditation (TM) using mantras is a technique
where the participants silently repeat a word or phrase. Young
adults in college were assigned to a TM program or wait-list
control, and the TM group showed lower levels of anger, stress,
depression and most importantly, anxiety after they were
trained in TM [36]. additionally, two groups of war veterans
with PTSD were studied; both received usual care, but one
group went through mantra meditation. The meditators
expressed higher reductions in PTSD symptoms and exhibited
more improvement in their mental health, when compared to
the control group [37].
When compared to a waiting-list control group and a group
getting cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), individuals
performing Sahaja Yoga meditation proved to significantly
reduce anxiety and depression [38]. Kundalini Yoga Meditation
is the raising of body awareness by awakening the “chakras” or
“kundalini energy” in the body, and there are several
techniques; these techniques include meditation, breathing
methods, yoga and mantras. An experiment conducted by
Shannahoff-Khalsa et al revealed that a group of patients after
12 months of practicing Kundalini Yoga showed 55.6%
improvement, and a reduction of 19.8 to 8.8 as a mean in the
Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive scale. In this research study,
the technique comprised a combination of yoga postures and
breathing techniques [39].
Figure 3: A pre- and post- comparison of the functional connectivity of GAD patients between the individuals who underwent a
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program (MSBR) and those who participated in Stress Management Education (SME) [35].
Our brains do not contain fixed hardwiring; the neural
pathways and circuits can in fact change with learning and with
mental exercises, and meditation may be a harmless way to
encourage the growth of new neurons (neurogenesis) along
with the formation of new connections between existing
neurons (synaptogenesis). By tying together the neurobiological
effects of neurotransmitters, brain waves, mental exercise and
the empirical evidence from the psychological experiments, it is
evident that meditation is an effective treatment for anxiety,
and it does not suffer from any side effects. It may also
function as a preventive medicine; therefore, it is highly
recommended to everyone and not limited to patients suffering
from disease. This review has only highlighted observations
from the several studies already conducted. However, it is
imperative to conduct many more studies on a larger scale to
substantiate the reported effects of the overall meditation
approach, and by probing into the different effects of the
various meditation techniques to see if differences in technique
make a difference to the outcomes.
Conclusions
Acknowledgement
Michael R Hamblin was supported by US NIH grant
R01AI050875. Shanmugamurthy Lakshmanan would like to
thank the World Community Service Center for the support.
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Page No 19
Divya Krishnakumar received her BS from UC San Diego in 2013, majoring in Cognitive Science and specializing in
Neuroscience. With a fascination about the brain, she is particularly interested in researching about neurological
disorders. Thus as an undergraduate student, she acquired research experience by working under the direction of
distinguished neuroscientist Dr. V.S Ramachandran; she conducted research on individuals with OCD-like traits.
Furthermore, she assisted with neurofeedback training on autistic children in Dr.Jaime Pineda’s Cognitive Neuroscience
laboratory. Her other passion is empowering young girls through a program called Full of Ourselves, which is a primary
prevention program that emphasizes on increasing their overall mental and physical well-being.
Dr. Shanmugamurthy Lakshmanan is a Research Scientist at Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Harvard Medical
School, Massachusetts. His research focus is on Nanotechnology and Siddha- Ayurveda Photomedicines. He is the Vice
President for International Research for the World Institute for Scientific Exploration and a distinguished Scientific
Advisor and Head of the Indian Division of Sciences. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of two peer reviewed international
journals: 1) Ancient Science and 2) Ayurveda, that has been established by VRI Press, Vedic Research, Inc. USA.
