Abstract

PELAEZ LOPEZ, María Antonia; LOZANO ZULUAGA, Juan José; NARVAEZ ANDRADE, María José  and  BECERRA HERNANDEZ, Lina Vanessa. The Mindfulness Meditator's Brain: From Prospecting to Task. Univ. Med. [online]. 2021, vol.62, n.4, pp.172-187.  Epub Sep 30, 2021. ISSN 0041-9095.  https://doi.org/10.11144/javeriana.umed62-4.brai.

Mindfulness meditation is a technique widely used today, originating in Buddhist culture, which allows developing the ability to direct attention without prejudice to the experiences of the present moment, trying to reduce narrative or experience self-referential processing and prospecting in the future. Studies in the area have shown the usefulness of mindfulness meditation to increase psychological and physical well-being in general terms, but the neurophysiological mechanisms associated with these changes remain to be elucidated. In this review, information is collected from studies that have used neuroimaging and electroencephalography to assess them, with emphasis on those studies that allow discussing the proposal of mindfulness meditation as a stimulus that decreases the processing of self-referential tasks and favors states of cognitive tasks and sensory associative tasks, including interoception. These studies show structural and functional changes in sectors such as prefrontal cortex, insula, hippocampus, cingulate gyrus, primary visual cortex and striatum, which are discussed in this article in the light of current knowledge.

Keywords : mindfulness meditation; self-referral; prospecting; executive functions; sensory processing; neuroimaging; electroencephalography.

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