Editorial: Neuroimaging and Neuropsychology of Meditation States

One way of training cognitive functions and triggering plasticity can be through exercising meditation (Barinaga, 2003; Knight, 2004). Accordingly, it has been shown that this complex cognitive state induces both neurophysiological and psychological modifications, which have been consistently addressed by neuroscience regarding their potential benefit for mental and physical health (Davidson and McEwen, 2012). In particular, the brain network governing meditation has been studied using a variety of strategies eliciting different cognitive processes (e.g., silence, attention to own body, sense of joy, mantras, etc.). Furthermore, the effect of expertise (i.e., short-vs. long-term) has been shown to influence the areas activated by meditation. Lastly, meditation training has been found to influence cognitive performance, e.g., attention, executive functions. In order to promote the development of the neuroscientific investigation on how meditation activates and can modify brain areas, this Frontiers Research Topic aimed at bringing together studies from groups of authors whose research focus on neural mechanisms involved in meditation. We collected fifteen contributions addressing this issue from a neuroimaging and a neuropsychological perspective. We solicited studies addressing meditation-related changes by using functional imaging (fMRI), resting state (default mode network), structural analyses (e.g., voxel based morphometry, VBM) as well as functional connectivity and structural connectivity (diffusion tensor imaging, DTI). In addition, we collected studies in which behavioral and neuropsychological studies in which meditation techniques have been used and in which cognitive changes have been found. Lastly, we included studies in social-affective neuroscience, reporting meditation-related modifications of personality, or changes of emotion-related network regulating stress and cognitive resource. There are three activation likehood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses on studies using PET, SPECT, or fMRI techniques in which subjects performed meditation. In the first study (Sperduti et al., 2011) analyzed 10 studies and reported significant activations in the basal ganglia, the enthorinal cortex, and the medial prefrontal cortex. In a second study (Tomasino et al., 2012) analyzed 24 experiments and 150 activation foci which were divided according to different aspects of meditation (focused attention, mantra and the effects of experience). The meta-analysis evidence that meditation based on focus attention activates a network involving the medial gyrus bilaterally, the left superior parietal lobe, the left insula, and the right supramarginal gyrus (SMG). Mantra based meditation activates the right SMG, the SMA bilaterally and the left postcentral gyrus. The effect of meditation experience influenced the meditation network of activation. Expert meditators as compared to those with a short …