'Meditation reduces pain, makes brain energy efficient'

Meditation could reduce one’s experience of pain and make the brain more energy-efficient, said Prof Antonino Raffone, Associate Professor at Sapienza University, Rome.

Speaking at the international conference on ‘Exploring Consciousness’ at Nimhans on Friday, he shared details of his group’s finding ‘Aware Mind-Brain Project’, which conducted research among Theravada Buddhist monks who were proficient in mindfulness meditation.

“When we experience pain, there are connections in both directions — up from the body part, but also back from areas in the brain. Buddha called this 'co-dependent origination'," he added.

As part of the group’s research, monks were given electrical stimuli, causing pain, at times of rest as well as during different types of meditation. “The more the ego or sense of ‘I’ during the experience, higher were the pain levels that the participants reported.”

Another study showed that many areas of the monks’ brains were deactivated during focused-attention meditation, compared to times of rest.

“This suggests a higher possibility that we can efficiently use the limited energy resources of the brain during focused-attention meditation. There is also less ground for emotional reactivity. So, with these practices, the brain could become more energy-efficient,” said Raffone.

Prof Sanjeev Jain of Nimhans said: “The mind is not produced entirely by the brain. Psychiatric disorders show that the mind is constantly interacting with social and physical realities and is dynamically changing its content.”

Prof Georg Northoff from the University of Ottawa explained the Temporo-spatial Theory of Consciousness (TTC) that he had developed. “To develop consciousness, the brain needs to be aligned with the environmental context; this alignment is key,” he said. “This is contrary to western theory, according to which all consciousness occurs within the brain.”