The age-old wisdom that says when you calm down, you also calm your mind has come true.
Researchers have found new evidence that links the parts of brain to body movement and to other regions of the brain involved in thinking, planning, mental arousal, pain, and control of internal organs and functions such as blood pressure and heart rate.
A recent study published in Nature on 19 April found answers to this mind-body connection that it lies in the motor region of the brain.
“People who meditate say that by calming your body with breathing exercises, you also calm your mind, especially in case of anxiety,” Evan M Gordon, an assistant professor of radiology at the School of Medicine’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and the first author of the study says in a statement. Until now, there was no scientific evidence as to how this happens; the current study was able to unravel it, he explains.
SCAN the network
Dr Gordon and his team analysed the changes during activity and rest in the brains of seven healthy participants using an advanced MRI technique, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). From these scans, they made individual brain maps of the regions for each participant. In addition, they compared fMRI scan data of 50000 individuals from the Human Connectome Project, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study and The UK Biobank to validate their findings.
From this comprehensive data analysis, they found that three areas in the motor region were not directly involved in movement. However, they formed a network that interconnected the mind and body functions. They named the network Somato (body)-Cognitive (mind) Action Network, or SCAN. (The motor region of the brain is responsible for movements.)
“If you calm one down, it absolutely should have feedback effects on the other,” says Dr Gordon. They also observed that the non-movement SCAN network was thinner (compared to the movement region). However, it was highly active and goal-oriented, having strong interconnections with those parts involved in thinking, planning, mental arousal, pain, and involuntary functions like blood pressure and heart rate.
Further investigations revealed that these non-movement areas became active just by thinking about moving but not during physical movement.
SCANning the origins
To study the origin of SCAN and how it evolves, they took fMRI scans of a newborn, a one-year-old, and a nine-year-old. They did not find the network in the newborn, but it was clearly visible in the 1-year-old and nearly adult-like in the 9-year-old.
Then, they analysed the data from a study involving nine monkeys. They found that the animals had a smaller, more primitive SCAN network with fewer connections than humans.
This study sheds light on mindfulness and how the mind and body are intertwined. Mindfulness, or the ‘living in the moment’ with full awareness of bodily responses, thoughts, and feelings, is no longer an abstract idea.
