Just a month of meditation training alters brain wiring in ways that could open the door to new treatments for mental disorders, research has shown. Scientists looked at the effects of integrative body-mind training (IBMT) on two groups of university students. After just four weeks, or 11 hours, of training scans showed physical changes in the brains of the volunteers. Nerve fibres, known as 'white matter', became denser, providing greater numbers of brain-signalling connections. At the same time there was an expansion of myelin, the protective fatty insulation surrounding nerve fibres. The effects were seen in the anterior cingulate cortex region of the brain, which helps regulate behaviour. Poor nerve activity in this part of the brain is associated with a range of mental problems, including attention deficit disorder, dementia, depression, and schizophrenia
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