Your brain on art, nature, and meditation: a pilot neuroimaging study.

Journal: Frontiers in human neuroscience
Published Date: Jan 20, 2025

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Exposure to art, nature, or meditation, all transcending human experiences, has beneficial effects on health and wellbeing. Focusing inward or watching art and nature videos elicits positive emotions that can help heal stress-related conditions. In a pilot functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) study, we explored the effect of watching digital art or nature videos compared to contemplating the universal connectedness (also known as transcendental meditation). The instructions were to meditate on the connection to a Universal Soul linked to a sense of expansion and universal connectedness ("one with everything"), which was prompted by a video of the galactic nebula that also controlled for the visual stimuli of the two other conditions.

Authors

  • Beatrix Krause-Sorio
    Department of Psychiatry, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
  • Sergio Becerra
    Department of Psychiatry, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
  • Prabha Siddarth
    Department of Psychiatry, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
  • Stacey Simmons
    Hope Therapy Center, Burbank, CA, United States.
  • Taylor Kuhn
    Department of Psychiatry, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
  • Helen Lavretsky
    Department of Psychiatry, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.

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