Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density
Britta Hölzel and colleagues asked whether an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course changes grey matter in the brain. They scanned healthy adults with no meditation experience before and after the course and compared them with people on a waiting list. Using voxel-based morphometry, they found increased grey-matter concentration in the left hippocampus within a region chosen in advance, and whole-brain analyses reported increases in the posterior cingulate cortex, the temporo-parietal junction and the cerebellum. The authors linked these regions to learning and memory, emotion regulation, self-referential processing and perspective taking.
Britta Hölzel and colleagues asked whether an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course changes grey matter in the brain. They scanned healthy adults with no meditation experience before and after the course and compared them with people on a waiting list. Using voxel-based morphometry, they found increased grey-matter concentration in the left hippocampus within a region chosen in advance, and whole-brain analyses reported increases in the posterior cingulate cortex, the temporo-parietal junction and the cerebellum. The authors linked these regions to learning and memory, emotion regulation, self-referential processing and perspective taking.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-26 via Europe PMC.
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Hölzel, B. K., Carmody, J., Vangel, M., Congleton, C., Yerramsetti, S. M., Gard, T., & Lazar, S. W. (2011). Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 191(1), 36-43. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.08.006