Wow! Meditation helps with physical change mentally

Aristotle said that ‘happiness depends upon ourselves’ and a new study suggests it is possible to physically grow a happier brain through practices like meditation.

Although scientists have known which hormones produce emotions like pleasure or desire, it has been unclear where the feeling of overall contentment and well-being stems from.

To find out, scientists at Kyoto University asked 51 volunteers to rate their own happiness levels and then scanned their brains to see if they could spot any differences between the upbeat individuals and their more glum counterparts

"This does not surprise me at all. The brain is malleable, just like other organs"

Prof Paul Dolan, London School of Economics

Intriguingly they discovered that an area of the brain called the precuneus was larger in people who were happier. It suggests that happiness can be worked like a muscle.

Previous studies have shown that regular meditation can boost grey matter in the precuneus, which could explain why those who meditate report experiencing feelings of general contentment and even bliss.

The scientists behind the finding said it will now be possible to clinically measure what things make people happier.

"Over history, many eminent scholars like Aristotle have contemplated what happiness is," said author Dr Wataru Sato said. "I'm very happy that we now know more about what it means to be happy.

"Several studies have shown that meditation increases grey matter mass in the precuneus.

“This new insight on where happiness happens in the brain will be useful for developing happiness programs based on scientific research.

“This study suggests it is possible to grow a happier brain.”

The precuneus, highlighted, sits in the medial parietal lobe

Researchers believe that the precuneus is particularly important for subjective happiness, such as where someone chooses to make the best of a situation and see it in a more positive light.

Volunteers who scored higher on the happiness surveys had more grey matter mass in the precuneus.

In other words, people who feel happiness more intensely, feel sadness less intensely, and are more able to find meaning in life have a larger precuneus. The difference in size between the person with the biggest and the smallest was about 15 per cent.

“Happiness is a subjective experience that has special significant for humans,” added Dr Sato,

“Our results suggest that psychological training that effectively increases grey matter and volume in the precuneaus may enhance subjective happiness.”

Professor Paul Dolan  Photo: Jay Williams

Happiness expert Prof Paul Dolan at the London School of Economics said it was clear that the brain could be changed.

Speaking about the new research he said: “This does not surprise me at all. The brain is malleable, just like other organs.

“Paying attention can literally change your brain. In London, Black Cab taxi drivers have to pass a very difficult test that requires them to know and be able to navigate 25,000 different city streets.

“Only half of the prospective cabbies who take this test pass it. Those that do pass have larger hippocampi – the part of the brain that corresponds with spatial processing – than those who fail.

“Yet it isn’t that the drivers started out with better spatial processing; instead, as they studied for the test, their hippocampi became larger as they learned more.”

Prof Dolan, who is a government advisor on how to make the population more contented, and author of the book Happiness By Design, claims that many of the things people believe will make them happy are fleeting and can actually alter their lives in a negative way.

“Most things we think will make us happy won’t,” he said “We’re really always happier if we are focussing on the person we are with and the thing we are doing right now. So make that something you enjoy.

“You should listen to music that you like listening to. That has a substantial effect on your mood. Your brain literally lights up. There is no other stimulation like music to arouse the brain.”

The research was published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.