I love functional MRI (fMRI) machines, MRI machines which give a real-time view of which parts of the brain are active while subjects perform cognitive tasks. In the last week, there seems to be a theme of "What scientists learned about meditation by putting Buddhist monks into fMRI machines."
According to one BBC article, it appears that the human mind is separated into two cognitive networks, one internal and the other external. The internal network deals with thoughts about the self. The external network handles thoughts about everything outside of oneself. Meditation, it appears, breaks down the barriers between these two networks. Instead of using one network or another for a particular task, people in a meditative state use both at the same time.
USA today also had an article about putting Buddhist monks into fMRI machines. The article covers a recent paper in Frontiers of Neuroscience that looks at the effects of meditation on rationality. It appears that people who meditate frequently, are more "rational" when thinking about rewards. When playing the Ultimatum game, mediators used entirely different parts of their brain in deciding how to act.
There is a lot to criticize about fMRI. They actually take an indirect measure of activity by observing blood flow, and the resolution is relatively low. Because blood flow is measured, not electrical activity, there is a time delay of seconds between thought and detection.. Regardless, the ability to observe physical activity correlated to mental activity is a huge step in understanding. For instance, we now know there is an actual physical difference in the mind of someone who frequently meditates.
The secret of brain-imaging research is that the major advances don't come from the imaging technology, which has remained largely unchanged over the last decade, but from advances in computing power.
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