Harvard researchers, led by Sara Lazar, have found that meditation is highly correlated with increased cortical thickness, something that we humans tend to lose as we age. (Lazar et al., 2005)
Meditators, especially long-term meditators, had significantly greater cortical thickness than matched control (or non-meditating) subjects, suggesting that meditation can both increase neural plasticity (or the growth of new neural connections in the brain) and offset age-related brain decline. Perhaps meditation can help to ward off age-related memory loss, spaciness, and even Alzheimer’s!
Tags: brain, longevity, meditation, neural plasticity
