Giga - Annual report 2015

Steven Laureys studies the brain of Tibetan

Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard

What happens in the brain during meditation? The neurolo-

gists are more and more interested in that subject, and, thanks

to medical imaging tools (IRMf, Pet-Scan, TMS-EEG, etc…),

they are trying to discover neuronal correlates of a brain in

full meditation. Steven Laureys is exploring this new research

path. In May, he hosted the Tibetan Buddhist monk Mathieu

Ricard who underwent a series of tests on his brain at rest,

during meditation.

Steven Laureys explains : «Our goal is to put to the test theories

previously studied about consciousness during sleep, coma,

anesthesia and hypnosis. Is there a brain modification during

meditation? Does meditating involves a «flat

brain? I don’t

think so, because meditation is a neuronal «activity

and it

must be possible to set objective measures of a subjective tale

with the help of medical imaging. This might show an intense

activity of brain waves or a high use of glucose during medita-

tion

. A conference brought to a close this week of tests.

Wanderings of the mind and signs of

consciousness

Declaring the state of consciousness of severely brain-

damaged patients who are incapable of communication

remains a challenge for physicians. Clinical evaluation of

these people is traditionally based on examination of their

motor responses with the help of behavioural scales. Interes-

tingly, these patients can be paralysed, deaf, blind, suffering

from aphasia or attention deficit disorders, which may lead to

an underestimation of their level of consciousness. According

to a study published in 2009 in BMC Neurology, the risk of

misdiagnosis has been estimated at 40%. Nevertheless,

the systematic use of the “Coma Recovery Scale-Revised”

(CRS-R), a standardised and sensitive behavioural scale deve-

loped in the US by Joseph Giacino at the New Jersey Neuros-

cience Institute and validated in French and Dutch by Caroline

Schnakers and Steven Laureys of the Coma Science Group,

reduced the percentage of misdiagnosis rate to 31%.

Read the complete article (and others about Coma Science

group’s researches) on