The more active gray cells, the better? Mistake! According to a Dutch study, some habits make us happy – although they make the brain smaller …
We now know that we don't only need our brain to solve arithmetic problems and complete sentences. The gray matter in our skull is, among other things, that Control center of our emotions, the crux of the matter when we want to change our habits, and the Source of all our feelings of happiness and unhappiness (Of course, in combination with external triggers such as loved ones and vanilla ice cream with pieces of cookie dough!). Good news: According to a Dutch study, with just one habit we can change it very much in our favor – yoga or. Meditate!
3,700 yogans examined
Yoga and meditation already have a pretty good reputation anyway: Both have a stress-reducing effect, promote concentration, are good for muscles and joints and much (positive) more. But can anything of this be measured and proven neurologically? How do yoga and meditation affect the brain? A Dutch research team wanted to answer these questions and recruited a good 3,700 test subjects who regularly practice yoga or meditation exercises.
All participants filled on the one hand Questionnaires in which they should give information about their attitude to life, feelings of stress, etc. Magnetic resonance scan (MRI) of your brain. The gray cells of almost 2,400 test persons were also measured several times over a period of several years in order to document possible changes.
Yogans have reduced fear centers
As the MRT examinations showed, the test group included both brain regions left hippocampus and right amygdala smaller than with people who never do yoga or meditate. In the test subjects, whose brain was repeatedly scanned, the right amygdala even shrank during the test period – and this is exactly what speaks for it or could be the reason why yoga makes people happy: Because it is primarily the right amygdala that makes us anxious, angry, or pessimistic (in simple words!).
"The changes only affected the right amygdala, not the left," the study said. "The right amygdala is associated with negative emotions and spontaneous reactions, while the left is associated with positive sensations and memories." In other words: In people who meditate regularly, the region of the brain that is responsible for fears, anger and jumping over actions is less developed than in others. This does not apply to the region, which becomes active with joy, optimism and memories.
Apart from this finding, the scientists noticed another difference between those who were active in yoga and those who were not: The former felt stressed more often, but were also able to deal with stress better than the non-meditating control group – Practice makes perfect ?.
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Caution! Even if the measured values are significant and the study with a good 3,700 participants is one of the larger of its kind, the researchers point out that the test group is still too small for final conclusions and that the parameters considered are too few. For example, in addition to yoga activities, other things such as social environment, childhood or view of life may have contributed to the reduction of the right amygdala in the test subjects. But even if we may not be able to overcome anger and fears with yoga and meditation alone: it certainly cannot do any harm!