Part 1: Bibliographic Entry

Luders, Eileen, et al. “The underlying anatomical correlates of long-term meditation: larger hippocampal and frontal volumes of gray matter.” Neuroimage 45.3 (2009): 672-678.

Part 2: Tip Sheet on Author & Source

Eileen Luders:

• Associate Professor at University of Auckland, New Zealand
• Various publication related to cognitive neuroscience, human brain mapping, neuroplasticity and neuroimaging.

About ScienceDirect:

Recognized platform, launched in 1997, for peer-reviewed research publications. Mostly pay-per-view or subscription based, this platform is mainly used for academic purposes and those who wish to do meta-analytical research or back their own research with peer reviewed publications.

I choose this source because it has the kind of information, I’m looking for to answer my research question. It has also been widely cited and it has been peer-reviewed. The findings and conclusions of this type of studies could give my argument the physiological-based support it needs to move into the learning part of my document.

Part 3: Terminology/Key Words

• Meditation
• Structure
• Physiological
• Brain
• Learning
• Attention
• Information
• Retention
• Cerebral cortex
• Prefrontal cortex
• Grey matter
• Students

Part 4: Précis or Summary

The publication firstly mentions that although studies behind the effects of meditation are just beginning to be studied, the research that has been done show promising psychological and physiological results when referring to well-being. With MRI technology, researcher found that meditators had a significantly greater amount of grey matter in their right orbito-frontal cortex as well as in the thalamus. Additionally, meditators showed greater volumes of their hippocampus.

Part 5: Reflection/Response/Connections with other texts and ideas

This article provides supportive evidence of physiological changes in brain structure in the brain’s of meditators. However, the do not mention a direct correlation to learning skills like retention of information and attention. I would need other studies to prove that the changes in the structure of meditators are correlated to improved learning skills.

Part 6: Quotables

“We detected significantly larger gray matter volumes in meditators in the right orbito-frontal cortex (as well as in the right thalamus and left inferior temporal gyrus when co-varying for age and/or lowering applied statistical thresholds).”(673)

“In addition, meditators showed significantly larger volumes of the right hippocampus. Both orbito-frontal and hippocampal regions have been implicated in emotional regulation and response control.” (673)