The effect of meditation on brain functional activation when engaged in an attention task was evaluated longitudinally using dASL and BOLD fMRI in nine healthy subjects. Functional activation before and after meditation practice was compared and the change of functional activation was correlated with practice time. Using dASL, functional activation in the occipital region was significantly reduced; more practice time was associated with more reduced activation in the mediofrontal, temporal, and precuneus regions. Using BOLD fMRI, no significant activation was found. The findings suggest that dASL has superior performance in detecting task performance and that meditation can improve brain efficiency.
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