Meditation and HD
Part 1

A look at how meditation may delay the onset of many symptoms of HD

The Dalai Lama, Meditation, and Neurobiology

The Dalai Lama, the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people (who practice Tibetan Buddhism), has played a pivotal role in opening the lines of communication between Western scientists and Buddhist scholars. Frequently, he calls leading psychologists and neurobiologists together to discuss the latest scientific thinking in fields related to the human mind. When he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, he commented, "Both science and the teachings of the Buddha tell us of the fundamental unity of all things." In fact, Tibetans in general seem to share this enthusiasm for science. Tibetans were surprisingly the most proportionately represented ethnic group working on the Human Genome Project. (For more information on the Human Genome Project, click here.) Even though they account for only 0.1% of the world's population, they made up about 10% of the project's workforce.

In particular, Tibetan Buddhist monks are interested in science because they have an intense curiosity about the workings of the brain. Monks typically spend hours in meditation each day, and claim that this practice enhances their concentration, memory, and learning ability. They believe that the brain is capable of being trained and physically modified in remarkable ways. Scientists used to believe the opposite - that connections among brain nerve cells were fixed early in life and that adult brains were more-or-less complete and unchangeable. When nerve cells died, it was believed that they were simply gone forever and could never be replaced. But that assumption has fortunately been disproved over the past decade with the help of advances in techniques such as brain imaging. In its place, scientists have embraced the concept of neuroplasticity, which refers to the brain's ability to change its structure and function by expanding or strengthening connections between nerve cells that are frequently used and by shrinking or weakening those that are rarely engaged. It turns out that new nerve cells do grow and our brains are much more flexible than was once believed. A key component of Buddhist belief is that meditation literally transforms the mind. Thus, Buddhists are highly interested in scientific advances that could possibly help explain and/or provide evidence for this phenomenon. The question as to whether meditative phenomena have a biological basis is intriguing not only to the Dalai Lama and other Buddhists, but also to many neuroscientists. The collaborations between Western scholars and Buddhist monks are invaluable because the study of trained meditators can provide insights into the mechanisms behind important brain functions, as well as into possible therapeutic approaches related to lifestyle.

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Last Modified: 04/12/2007

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