A Montreal study published yesterday suggested that Zen meditation helps reduce sensitivity to pain by thickening a part of the brain that regulates emotion and painful sensations.

The finding published in a special issue of the American Psychological Association journal, Emotion, led researchers from the Université de Montréal Department of Physiology and Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal to conclude that brain thickness and pain sensitivity are related.

"Through training, Zen meditators appear to thicken certain areas of their cortex and this appears to underlie their lower sensitivity to pain", lead author Joshua Grant said.

University of Montreal researchers is revealed to compare the grey matter thickness of 17 Zen meditators and 18 non-meditators and discovered evidence that practicing the centuries-old discipline can establish a central part of the brain known as the anterior cingulate.

The researchers measured thermal pain sensitivity as a part of the study by applying a heated plate to the calf of participants, following brain scans of subjects with structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The study is revealed to have measured the brain thickness of 17 Zen meditators and 18 non-meditators using a MRI.

The scans depicts that the central brain regions that regulate emotion and pain were significantly thicker in meditators compared to non-meditators, according to lead researcher Joshua Grant.