voidisyinyang Posted March 1, 2010 (edited) http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/636403.html the often painful posture of Zen meditation thickens the cortex for pain threshold sensitivity.... Appears to be only in French since it's at Montreal.... Here's the head researcher's earlier pain study: Science 15 August 1997: Vol. 277. no. 5328, pp. 968 - 971 DOI: 10.1126/science.277.5328.968 Prev | Table of Contents | Next Reports Pain Affect Encoded in Human Anterior Cingulate But Not Somatosensory Cortex Pierre Rainville, Gary H. Duncan, Donald D. Price, Benoît Carrier, M. Catherine Bushnell * Recent evidence demonstrating multiple regions of human cerebral cortex activated by pain has prompted speculation about their individual contributions to this complex experience. To differentiate cortical areas involved in pain affect, hypnotic suggestions were used to alter selectively the unpleasantness of noxious stimuli, without changing the perceived intensity. Positron emission tomography revealed significant changes in pain-evoked activity within anterior cingulate cortex, consistent with the encoding of perceived unpleasantness, whereas primary somatosensory cortex activation was unaltered. These findings provide direct experimental evidence in humans linking frontal-lobe limbic activity with pain affect, as originally suggested by early clinical lesion studies. P. Rainville, Département de Psychologie and Centre de Recherche en Sciences Neurologiques, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3J7, and McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3A 2B4. G. H. Duncan, Département de Stomatologie, Faculté de Médecine Dentaire, and Centre de Recherche en Sciences Neurologiques, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3J7, and McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montréal, Québec, Canada. D. D. Price, Department of Anesthesiology, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, VA 23298, USA. B. Carrier, Département de Stomatologie, Faculté de Médecine Dentaire, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3J7. M. C. Bushnell, Centre de Recherche en Sciences Neurologiques, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3J7, McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montréal, Québec, Canada, and Department of Anesthesiology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3A 1A1. * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected] Edited March 1, 2010 by drewhempel Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sloppy Zhang Posted March 1, 2010 I don't think the posture is supposed to be painful- it's painful to many modern people because we don't have our legs properly stretched out because of how we live our lives and the postures we most frequently find ourselves sitting. I've actually read a few articles by a lot of people on how we are CONDITIONED to sit in bad postures. I remember when I was a kid in school we had to sit "criss cross applesauce". Kids who sat on their knees (seiza, for any Japanese martial artists, a position in which many people cannot sit for long periods of time), or sometimes even in a half-lotus type position were chastised and thought of as "problem children". Then all that time spent sitting in chairs..... we just aren't flexible enough to hold the position. Anyway, once you're all stretched out, I don't think it's considered "painful". But still, an interesting article, and a subject worth looking into. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
joeblast Posted March 1, 2010 When you have chronic pain, you learn to disconnect yourself from it to a certain degree. Meditative training helps, it does make sense that there would be a physical component to it. http://gizmodo.com/5472911/the-science-of-a-dude-taking-a-1100+pound-world-record-kick-to-the-balls Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
