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• Clinical Article •
Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of the brain structure and function for long-term compassion meditators
LI Ruiyang  BAO Haihua  KANG Dongjie  ZHENG Yun 

Cite this article as: Li RY, Bao HH, Kang DJ, et al. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of the brain structure and function for long-term compassion meditators. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2020, 11(6): 411-415. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2020.06.003.


[Abstract] Objective: To explore the changes in brain structure and function of long-term compassion meditators.Materials and Methods: The experiment number comes from 15 long-term compassion meditators who at least have 3 years of meditation experence, and 16 non-long-term meditation male volunteers, they have the same age, gender and meditation years. Brain structural and functional sequences images were collected from all participants on a Prisma 3.0 T MR scanner, voxel-based morphology (VBM), regional homogeneity (ReHo) methods were utilized to compare the difference of gray matter volume and ReHo value between two groups.Results: Comparing the results with the normal group, the volume of gray matter from the long-term compassion meditators group increased in bilateral superior temporal gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus, left anterior central gyrus and right upper central posterior gyrus. The brain regions with increased ReHo were Left and Right thalamus and left cerebellum 4/5 area. Brain regions with decreased ReHo were Right inferior frontal gyrus, right triangle inferior frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus.Conclusions: The gray matter volume of long-term compassion meditators has increased, and the ReHo value in multiple brain areas has changed. The differences of brain structure and function between the long-term compassion meditators and the normal group will provide evidence for the clinical diseases assisted by meditation in some extent.
[Keywords] meditation；voxel-based morphology；gray matter volume；regional homogeneity；functional magnetic resonance imaging；brain structure；brain function

LI Ruiyang Imaging Center of Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University, Xining 810001, China

BAO Haihua* Imaging Center of Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University, Xining 810001, China

KANG Dongjie Imaging Center of Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University, Xining 810001, China

ZHENG Yun Imaging Center of Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University, Xining 810001, China

*Correspondence to: Bao HH, E-mail: Baohelen2@sina.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  This work was part of Science and Technology Program of Qinghai Science and Technology Department No.2017-SF-158
Received  2019-10-21
Accepted  2020-04-12
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2020.06.003
Cite this article as: Li RY, Bao HH, Kang DJ, et al. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of the brain structure and function for long-term compassion meditators. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2020, 11(6): 411-415. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2020.06.003.

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