Does Meditation Really Change Your Brain?

For years, headlines claimed that meditation could actually grow parts of the brain. But what if that’s not the most interesting question?

As the science has evolved, researchers have shifted their focus. What changes in the brain? Which changes matter most? And why might some structural changes grow, then recede, as expertise develops?

In this conversation, Richie and Cort explore what decades of neuroscience have taught us, what scientists have gotten right, what they’ve gotten wrong, and where the research is heading.

Enjoy!

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Reminder: We have a FREE 1-hour live practice session on Aug 19th, 7pm CT with Richie and Cort discussing how different meditation practices map to the four pillars of well-being (Awareness, Connection, Insight, and Purpose). More details and register here!

Episode Companion Flashcards!

In This Episode:

00:00 Does Meditation Really Change the Brain?

03:16 Brain Function vs. Brain Structure

05:41 The Gray Matter Studies That Started It All

11:45 Why the Gray Matter Evidence Changed

15:20 White Matter and Brain Connectivity

18:01 What the Research Actually Means

21:40 Brain Health, Neuroplasticity, and Human Potential

Transcript for those who prefer to read:

Richie Davidson:

There’s no question that meditation changes the brain.

We’re talking here about both the function and the structure of the brain. There’s no question that meditation changes the brain, and there is overwhelming evidence for that.

Structural changes, like increases in gray matter in specific regions of the brain after short amounts of meditation, however, are a different story. The evidence for those findings has really not held up.

Even more interesting, some of the effects that have been reported are actually the opposite of what we might expect.

Cortland Dahl:

Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Dharma Lab. I’m Cortland Dahl, and I’m here with Richie Davidson, one of the pioneering neuroscientists who has helped us understand the relationship between the mind, the brain, emotions, and how we can train ourselves to flourish.

Today we’re diving into one of the biggest scientific questions in meditation research: does meditation actually change the brain?

When I think about my own life, I can point to experiences that feel like a clear before and after.

When I started meditating more than thirty years ago, I had a genuine phobia of public speaking. It wasn’t just that I got nervous. I had a severe fear of speaking in front of people.

Years later, not only do I no longer get anxious, I actually enjoy it.

I’ve even measured my physiology with devices like my Oura Ring. My heart rate and other biometrics actually shift into a deeply relaxed state when I’m speaking in front of a crowd, something that would have been unimaginable twenty or thirty years ago.

Whether or not my brain changed, it seems difficult to imagine that such a profound transformation could happen without the brain changing in some way.

At the same time, we often see confusing headlines.

One day the headline says, “Meditation changes your brain.”

The next day another study appears suggesting the opposite.

Even the phrase “changes your brain” can mean different things. Are we talking about how the brain functions? Are we talking about the physical wiring of the brain? Are we talking about changes in structure?

Richie, you’ve done some of the most important work in this area, and I think this is one of those topics where the headlines often miss the nuance.

How should we think about it?

Richie Davidson:

You set this up beautifully by distinguishing between functional changes in the brain and structural changes.

Functional changes refer to differences in how the brain is operating. We can measure those by looking at patterns of activity in different brain regions.

Structural changes are different. They refer to the physical characteristics of the brain itself.

That includes gray matter, which consists of the cell bodies of neurons, and white matter, which consists of the axons that connect one region of the brain to another.

It’s entirely possible for the brain to change functionally without changing structurally.

If structural changes occur, they almost always imply changes in function as well.

One of the reasons this field became so exciting was that, about twenty years ago, several early studies suggested that people who completed an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course showed increases in gray matter in regions such as the prefrontal cortex.

Those findings generated enormous excitement and headlines claiming that meditation could literally grow your prefrontal cortex.

Cortland Dahl:

Before we go further, why would someone even want a larger prefrontal cortex?

Richie Davidson:

The prefrontal cortex is central to what we call the executive network.

It’s involved in planning, goal-directed behavior, regulating attention, forming healthy habits, and inhibiting behaviors we want to change.

If you’re making a grocery list, planning your route to the store, or intentionally directing your attention toward something important, the prefrontal cortex plays a major role.

It also allows us to think about the future and reflect on the past.

That’s incredibly useful, but it’s also one of the reasons humans worry so much.

As Robert Sapolsky famously described in his book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, zebras don’t spend time worrying about tomorrow. Humans do, largely because we have this remarkable prefrontal cortex.

So it’s an extraordinary gift, but it can also contribute to suffering.

Returning to the research, those early studies suggested that relatively short periods of meditation increased gray matter in regions like the prefrontal cortex.

Many additional studies followed.

Then, in 2023, a meta-analysis concluded that Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction produced structural brain changes.

However, the story didn’t end there.

The journal later retracted that meta-analysis because important data had been omitted. When those missing data were included, the reported effects disappeared.

Around the same time, our own research published in Science Advances found no structural gray matter differences between people who completed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and carefully designed control groups.

So when it comes to gray matter increases after relatively short periods of meditation, the evidence has simply not held up.

There’s another finding that’s particularly intriguing.

Some studies have examined whether people with more meditation experience show greater structural changes.

Interestingly, the relationship appears to go in the opposite direction.

The more meditation people have practiced, the smaller the structural differences often become.

When you think about expertise, that actually makes sense.

If gray matter simply kept increasing forever, eventually we’d have bumps sticking out of our heads.

That’s obviously not how biology works.

Instead, expertise in many domains appears to involve temporary structural changes that later become more efficient as skills mature.

There may be a period where gray matter increases, but as expertise develops, those changes may naturally recede.

Cortland Dahl:

So the story is much more nuanced than simply saying meditation makes your brain bigger.

Richie Davidson:

Exactly.

And that’s where white matter becomes especially interesting.

White matter reflects the connections between different regions of the brain.

Across many different kinds of learning, white matter appears to be much more responsive to experience than gray matter.

For example, beginning jugglers can show measurable white matter changes after only about an hour and a half of training.

Those changes are dynamic.

If you stop practicing, they may recede.

We’ve found similar results with meditation.

In the same study where we found no gray matter changes, we did observe white matter changes in pathways related to self-regulation after roughly twenty to thirty hours of meditation practice.

We also have new research, not yet published, suggesting that about five minutes of daily practice for a month is associated with white matter changes.

These findings suggest that changes in brain connectivity may occur very early in meditation training and may be especially important.

Cortland Dahl:

One thing I’m hearing is that we often oversimplify what it means for the brain to change.

We hear phrases like “meditation grows your brain,” but perhaps that’s not even the right way to think about it.

If we compare meditation to physical exercise, we might expect some increase in muscle mass when someone first begins training.

But muscles don’t simply continue getting larger forever.

Nor would we necessarily want them to.

Much of what matters is how efficiently the body functions.

It sounds like the brain may be similar.

The important changes may involve relationships between different brain regions, increased efficiency, and improved coordination rather than simply greater volume.

Richie Davidson:

That’s a very good way of putting it.

There’s another aspect of brain health that’s becoming increasingly important, and that’s inflammation.

We know that many forms of meditation reduce inflammation throughout the body.

Evidence is beginning to suggest that meditation may also reduce inflammation within the brain itself.

That’s especially important because neuroinflammation appears to contribute to neurodegeneration and forms of dementia.

Researchers are only beginning to develop reliable ways to measure neuroinflammation using MRI, so this is likely to become an exciting area of research over the next several years.

Stepping back, though, the most important point remains simple.

There’s no question that meditation changes the brain.

Whether those changes are functional, structural, or both is still being actively explored, but the overall conclusion is remarkably clear.

Many years ago, the Dalai Lama told me that he sometimes reflects during meditation on the fact that his own brain is changing because of his practice.

I think that’s a beautiful reflection.

The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that our brains can change through intentional mental training.

That means we have tremendous potential for transformation.

In fact, humans may have a greater capacity to intentionally reshape the brain than any other species.

That’s an extraordinary gift.

The invitation is to use that gift wisely.

Cortland Dahl:

What a hopeful message.

For many years, people thought the brain was essentially fixed.

Now we understand that change and transformation are built into our biology.

As the science continues to evolve, we’ll undoubtedly return to this topic with new discoveries.

Richie, thank you for another fascinating conversation, and thank you for all the pioneering research you’ve contributed to this field.

And thank you to everyone for joining us. We’ll see you next time on Dharma Lab.