Fayed Nicolás, García-Martí Gracián, Sanz-Requena Roberto, Marti-Bonmatí Luis, Garcia-Campayo Javier
Radiology Department, Quirónsalud Hospital, Zaragoza, Spain.
Biomedical Engineering, Quirónsalud Hospital, Valencia, Spain CIBERSAM, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
Actas Esp Psiquiatr. 2017 Nov;45(6):268-76. Epub 2017 Nov 1.
The practice of meditation has been shown to improve pain-related quality of life and also to alter brain activity. To assess brain volumetry in fibromyalgia (FM) patients, healthy meditators and healthy non-meditator control groups, and to elucidate the possible association between brain changes in meditators and years of meditation practice.
Twelve patients diagnosed with FM, eleven long-term Zen meditators and ten healthy control subjects closely matched for sex and age were recruited. A high resolution T1-3D sequence was acquired and a high-dimensional DARTEL normalization strategy was applied. Questionnaires on anxiety, depression and cognitive impairment were administered.
There was a statistically significant increase in grey matter volume in the Brodmann area 20 (right and left inferior temporal gyri) in patients with fibromyalgia and a significant decrease in the meditator group as compared to controls. On the other hand, there was a significant increase in grey matter volume in fibromyalgia patients as compared to controls and meditators, to the right temporal gyrus (p=0.03, t=6.85) and left temporal gyrus (p=0.04, t=6.31). The number of months of meditation did not correlate with significant grey matter volume changes in the meditator group.
FM and meditation appears to be reliably associated with altered anatomical structure in the Brodmann area 20 (in both inferior temporal gyri), and these changes are associated with anxiety and depression levels. In addition, exploratory morphometric analyses for fibromyalgia patients and meditators may reveal relevant brain regions showing structural diminution in meditation practitioners. Morphologic changes might predispose toward vulnerability to develop a chronic pain state. Such structural diminutions could potentially indicate functional benefits.
冥想练习已被证明可改善与疼痛相关的生活质量，并改变大脑活动。旨在评估纤维肌痛（FM）患者、健康冥想者和健康非冥想者对照组的脑容量，并阐明冥想者大脑变化与冥想练习年限之间的可能关联。
招募了12名被诊断为FM的患者、11名长期的禅宗冥想者和10名在性别和年龄上紧密匹配的健康对照受试者。采集了高分辨率T1-3D序列，并应用了高维DARTEL归一化策略。发放了关于焦虑、抑郁和认知障碍的问卷。
与对照组相比，纤维肌痛患者的布罗德曼区20（左右颞下回）灰质体积有统计学意义的增加，而冥想者组则有显著减少。另一方面，与对照组和冥想者相比，纤维肌痛患者右侧颞回（p = 0.03，t = 6.85）和左侧颞回（p = 0.04，t = 6.31）的灰质体积有显著增加。冥想的月数与冥想者组灰质体积的显著变化无相关性。
FM和冥想似乎与布罗德曼区20（双侧颞下回）的解剖结构改变可靠相关，且这些变化与焦虑和抑郁水平有关。此外，对纤维肌痛患者和冥想者的探索性形态计量分析可能会揭示在冥想者中显示结构缩小的相关脑区。形态学变化可能使个体易患慢性疼痛状态。这种结构缩小可能潜在地表明功能上的益处。
