Cognitive and Affective
Brain Function Improvements
with Mindfulness Meditation and
Yoga
Mandy Wintink, PhD
@ajwintink
just breathe…
Your experience today
• Introduction to Mindfulness
• Meditation
• Yoga
• Reflection of own brain, mind, thoughts, emotions,
behaviours (NeuroPsychoidiology).
• Attention, Stress Reduction, Compassion
• Evidence of changes in the brain associated with
mindfulness meditation & yoga
What is mindfulness meditation?
Mindfulness is paying attention
Mindfulness is paying attention
to the present moment
Mindfulness is paying attention
to the present moment
without judgment
Sitting
Meditation
Concerns When
Starting to Meditate
• Do I have to close my eyes?
• Do I have to sit cross legged?
• Can I lay down?
• What if I can’t do it?
• My mind is too scattered to
meditate.
• I believe in God, will it conflict?
• I don’t need to meditate. I
understand what it does.
• Will I bliss out?
Concerns When
Starting to Meditate
just breathe…
And so… how was it?
What did you notice about your
Mind Brain
Typical experiences during mindfulness
meditation
start again…
just breath
This is what I’ve noticed
about my brain & mind…
Awareness
• This is me, my body, my mind
Attention
• Focussed
• Productive
• Non-reactive
Stress Reduction
• Heart stopped racing
• Calm
Mindfulness Meditation Changes The Brain
• Gamma waves (Lutz, Greischar, Rawlings, Davidson, 2004)
• Neural habituation to pain: reduced activity in insula,
cingulate, and amygdala before, but heightened
activity during pain. (Lutz, McFarlin, Perlman, Salomons, Davidson 2013).
• Increased Grey Matter in Hippocampus - specifically
subiculum (Luders, Kurth, Toga et al., 2013).
• Stress reduction correlated with decreased grey
matter in the Basolateral Amygdala (Holzel, Carmody, Evans et al.,
2009)
What is yoga?
Yoking…
of the mind & body
with the breath
What is yoga?
Yoking…
of the mind & body
with the breath
Yoga
Meditation in
Motion
And so… how was it?
What did you notice about your
Mind Brain
Typical experiences during yoga
This is what I’ve noticed
about my brain & mind…
• Awareness
• Understanding of my body’s
limits
• i.e., self-care, reduced self-
harm
• Love, appreciation, acceptance, &
compassion for my body
• i.e., positive body image
• Reduced stress
• Physical Benefits
• Flexible, strong, & healthy
What others have noticed:
• Eating disorders: decreased risk in those who follow a yoga program
(review by Klein & Cooko-Cottone, 2013)
• yoga-at-work program: more clear-minded, composed, elated, and
energetic, greater sense of life purpose and satisfaction, and greater self-
confidence in stressful situations. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment, and Health
• Sexual function: 12-week yoga program
• women: improved desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and
pain.
• men: increased desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance,
confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, and
orgasm. Journal of Sexual Medicine by researchers Dhikav
Yoga Changes The Brain
• Gamma Waves (Vialatte, Bakardjian, Prasa, Cichocki, 2008).
• Pain tolerance correlates with Grey Matter in Insula (Villemure, Ceko, Cotton, Bushnell, 2013)
• Alternate-Nostril Breathing increased spatial
performance scores (Joshi & Telles 2008)
• Decreased cortisol and ACTH and increased
Serotonin, Dopamine, and BDNF in aged male
practitioners (Pal, Singh, Chatterjee, Saha, 2014)
Summary
• You are a neuroscientist
• Check out your inner technology
• Use it wisely
• Reap the benefits
• Mindfulness is available here and now
• Mindfulness is applicable to this, right here
• Mindfulness is a practice
Everyone can practice
mindfulness
meditation & yoga
Thanks to our team!