명상...두뇌 노화 늦춰줘 Meditation might slow the age-related loss of gray matter in the brain, say UCLA researchers

SOURCE http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140701-can-meditation-delay-ageing

케이콘텐츠 kcontents

 

명상이 두뇌의 노화를 지연시킨다는 연구결과가 나왔다.  두뇌의 신경세포가 있는 회색 물질을 오랫동안 보전하는데 도움을 준다는 것이다. 두뇌의 회색물질은 기억력 등 정보처리 기능을 담당하는 것으로 알려져 있다. 미국 UCLA 의과대학 신경과의 엘린 루더스 조교수가 이끄는 연구팀은 성인 100명을 대상으로 실험을 한 결과 이 같은 결론을 도출했다. 연구에 참여한 100명 중 50명은 수년간 명상을 해온 그룹이고 나머지 50명은 명상을 하지 않은 그룹이었다. 그리고 두 그룹은 남자 28명, 여자 22명으로 구성됐고 그들의 나이는 24세에서 74세까지 분포됐다. 명상을 한 그룹 멤버들의 경우 명상 기간은 짧게는 4년, 길게는 46년으로 평균 20년이었다. 연구팀에 따르면 두 그룹 모두에서 나이가 들어감에 따라 두뇌의 회색물질이 손실되는 것으로 나타났다. 하지만 명상을 한 그룹에선 그 속도가 느린 것으로 분석됐다. 두뇌에 대한 초고해상도 자기공명촬영 결과 명상을 해온 그룹의 두뇌에선 회색물질이 더 잘 보존되고 있었다는 것이다. 인간이 수명이 길어지면서 두뇌기능의 상실 위험도 점점 커지고 있는 상황이다. 연구팀은 명상이 이 같은 위험을 줄이는 한 방법이 될 수 있다고 조언했다. 연구의 제1 저자인 엘린 루더스 교수는 "과거 대부분의 연구논문들은 신경세포의 퇴화에 초점이 맞춰져 있었다. 이번 연구는 두뇌건강을 어떻게 하면 증진시킬 수 있을지를 점검한데 의의가 있다"고 연구의 배경을 설명했다. 이번 연구결과는 '심리학 프론티어저널'(Journal Frontiers in Psychology) 최신호에 게재됐다 코메디닷컴

 

Areas of the brain affected by aging (in red) are fewer and less widespread in people who meditate, 

bottom row, than in people who don’t meditate.

Mark Wheeler Since 1970, life expectancy around the world has risen dramatically, with people living more than 10 years longer. That’s the good news. The bad news is that starting when people are in their mid-to-late-20s, the brain begins to wither — its volume and weight begin to decrease. As this occurs, the brain can begin to lose some of its functional abilities. So although people might be living longer, the years they gain often come with increased risks for mental illness and neurodegenerative disease. Fortunately, a new study shows meditation could be one way to minimize those risks. Building on their earlier work that suggested people who meditate have less age-related atrophy in the brain’s white matter, a new study by UCLA researchers found that meditation appeared to help preserve the brain’s gray matter, the tissue that contains neurons. The scientists looked specifically at the association between age and gray matter. They compared 50 people who had mediated for years and 50 who didn’t. People in both groups showed a loss of gray matter as they aged. But the researchers found among those who meditated, the volume of gray matter did not decline as much as it did among those who didn’t. The article appears in the current online edition of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Dr. Florian Kurth, a co-author of the study and postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Brain Mapping Center, said the researchers were surprised by the magnitude of the difference. “We expected rather small and distinct effects located in some of the regions that had previously been associated with meditating,” he said. “Instead, what we actually observed was a widespread effect of meditation that encompassed regions throughout the entire brain.” As baby boomers have aged and the elderly population has grown, the incidence of cognitive decline and dementia has increased substantially as the brain ages. “In that light, it seems essential that longer life expectancies do not come at the cost of a reduced quality of life,” said Dr. Eileen Luders, first author and assistant professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “While much research has focused on identifying factors that increase the risk of mental illness and neurodegenerative decline, relatively less attention has been turned to approaches aimed at enhancing cerebral health.” Each group in the study was made up of 28 men and 22 women ranging in age from 24 to 77. Those who meditated had been doing so for four to 46 years, with an average of 20 years. The participants’ brains were scanned using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging. Although the researchers found a negative correlation between gray matter and age in both groups of people — suggesting a loss of brain tissue with increasing age — they also found that large parts of the gray matter in the brains of those who meditated seemed to be better preserved, Kurth said. The researchers cautioned that they cannot draw a direct, causal connection between meditation and preserving gray matter in the brain. Too many other factors may come into play, including lifestyle choices, personality traits, and genetic brain differences. “Still, our results are promising,” Luders said. “Hopefully they will stimulate other studies exploring the potential of meditation to better preserve our aging brains and minds. Accumulating scientific evidence that meditation has brain-altering capabilities might ultimately allow for an effective translation from research to practice, not only in the framework of healthy aging but also pathological aging.” The research was supported by the Brain Mapping Medical Research Organization, the Robson Family and Northstar Fund, the Brain Mapping Support Foundation, the Pierson‐Lovelace Foundation, the Ahmanson Foundation, the Tamkin Foundation, the William M. and Linda R. Dietel Philanthropic Fund at the Northern Piedmont Community Foundation, the Jennifer Jones‐Simon Foundation, the Capital Group Companies Foundation and an Australian Research Council fellowship (120100227). Nicolas Cherbuin of the Australian National University was also an author of the study http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/forever-young-meditation-might-slow-the-age-related-loss-of-gray-matter-in-the-brain-say-ucla-researchers

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