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Brain activity[ edit]
Main article: Brain activity and meditation

The medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices have been found to be relatively deactivated during meditation (experienced meditators using concentration, loving kindness and choiceless awareness meditation). In addition experienced meditators were found to have stronger coupling between the posterior cingulate, dorsal anterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices both when meditating and when not meditating. *Over time meditation can actually increase the integrity of both gray and white matter. The added amount of gray matter found in the brain stem after meditation improves communication between the cortex and all other areas within the brain. Meditation often stimulates a large network of cortical regions including the frontal and parietal regions, lateral occipital lobe, the insular cortex, thalamic nuclei, basal ganglia, and the cerebellum region in the brain. These parts of the brain are connected with attention and the default network of the brain which is associated to day dreaming.

Attention/Mind wandering
* Meditation has been found to decrease mind wandering and allows the brain to fully focus on challenging tasks for longer periods of time without getting distracted. This is due to an increased ability to reduce activity in the default mode network when focusing on a particular task. Non directive forms of meditation where the meditator lets their mind wander freely can actually produce higher levels of activity in the default mode network when compared to a resting state or having the brain in a neutral place. These Non directive forms of meditation allows the meditators to have better control over thoughts during everyday activities or when focusing on specific task due to reduced frustration at the brains mind wandering process. When given a specific task, meditation can allow quicker response to changing environmental stimuli. Meditation can allow the brain to decrease attention to unwanted responses of irrelevant environmental stimuli and a reduces the Stroop effect. Those who meditate have regularly demonstrated more control on what they focus their attention on while maintaining a mindful awareness on what is around them. Experienced meditators show to have an increased ability when it comes to conflict monitoring and find it easier to switch between competing stimuli. Those who practice meditation experience an increase of attentional resources in the brain and steady meditation practice can lead to the reduction of the attentional blink due to a decreased mental exertion when identifying important stimuli.

Changes in the brain and Neuroplasticity
Meditation has been shown to change grey matter concentrations and the precuneus.

An eight-week MBSR course induced changes in gray matter concentrations. Exploratory whole brain analyses identified significant increases in gray matter concentration in the PCC, TPJ, and the cerebellum. These results suggest that participation in MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking. *Studies have found that regular meditation practice increases the protein BDNF in the brain and improves cellular health, reduces the rate of aging within cells, and a reduction of grey matter decay in the brain making it possible for higher neuroplasticity over longer periods of time. Meditation has been linked to higher levels of cognitive flexibility and a greater ability to recognize cognitive evaluations and functions. Recent studies suggest that meditation can increase the amount of gray matter in the medulla oblongata located in the brain stem leading to decreased arousal when dealing with unpleasant situations and higher levels of activity in the higher cortical regions of the brain and insula. Meditation has shown to increase activity in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and enhance communication from the anterior cingulate cortex to the rest of the brain resulting in a better ability to evaluate and resolve cognitive tasks. Studies have shown that meditation actually increases the amount of white matter within the parts of the brain that assist in self regulation and behavior.

*Meditation and Memory
* Meditation enhances memory capacity specifically in the working memory and increases executive functioning by helping participants better understand what is happening moment for moment. Those who meditate regularly have demonstrated the ability to better process and distinguish important information from the working memory and store it into long term memory with more accuracy than those who do not practice meditation techniques. Meditation may be able to expand the amount of information that can be held with in working memory and by so doing is able to improve IQ scores and increase individual inelegance. The encoding process for both audio and visual information has been shown to be more accurate and detailed when meditation is used. Though there are limited studies on meditation's effects on long-term memory because of meditations ability to increase attentional awareness episodic long-term memory is believed to be more vivid and accurate for those who meditate regularly. Meditation has also shown to decrease memory complaints from those who suffer with Alzheimers disease which also suggests the benefits meditation could have on episodic long-term memory which is linked to Alzheimers.