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Good News
6 Photos That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity Plus, Top 10 Good News of the Week!
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Man Drives Hummer in Path of Car to Save Children; Plus, Top 10 Good News of the Week
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Good News: Father and Son Save 120 From Rooftops During Flooding
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Crafted by Kids: Delicious Recipes from the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge
First Look: Delicious Recipes from the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge
Posted by Colleen Curtis on August 17, 2012
On Monday August 20, First Lady Michelle Obama will welcome 54 talented young chefs to the White House for the first-ever Kids State Dinner. The guests — ages 8-12 — are all winners of the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge, and each of them created an original recipe that is healthy, original and affordable, and contains the five food groups (fruits, veggies, protein, low-fat dairy, and whole grains).
The recipes have been gathered into a digital cookbook, which will be published by Epicurious and available as a free download starting this week. But we’re previewing a few of them here — just click the links below and get cooking!
via First Look: Delicious Recipes from the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge | Let’s Move!.
Top 10 Good News of the Week: Dude Spends Summer Traveling the World Doing Favors for Strangers
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Good News: Girl Lifts a Car to Save Her Father; Plus, Top 10 Good News of the Week
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Top 10 Good News Stories of the Week!
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GOOD NEWS NETWORK, PO Box 428, MANASSAS, VA 20108, USA
9 Women Secretly Deliver Cakes to Poor People for 30 Years; Plus, Top 10 Good News Stories of the Week!
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Meditation Research: Mechanisms of white matter changes induced by meditation
Mechanisms of white matter changes induced by meditation
+ Author Affiliations
aDepartment of Psychology, Texas Tech Neuroimaging Institute, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409;
bInstitute of Neuroinformatics and Laboratory for Body and Mind, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China;
cDepartment of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403;
dInstitute of Basic Medical Sciences, Beijing 100850, China; and
eNeuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse-Intramural Research Program, Baltimore, MD 21224
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Contributed by Michael I. Posner, May 9, 2012 (sent for review April 6, 2012)
Abstract
Using diffusion tensor imaging, several recent studies have shown that training results in changes in white matter efficiency as measured by fractional anisotropy (FA). In our work, we found that a form of mindfulness meditation, integrative body–mind training (IBMT), improved FA in areas surrounding the anterior cingulate cortex after 4-wk training more than controls given relaxation training. Reductions in radial diffusivity (RD) have been interpreted as improved myelin but reductions in axial diffusivity (AD) involve other mechanisms, such as axonal density. We now report that after 4-wk training with IBMT, both RD and AD decrease accompanied by increased FA, indicating improved efficiency of white matter involves increased myelin as well as other axonal changes. However, 2-wk IBMT reduced AD, but not RD or FA, and improved moods. Our results demonstrate the time-course of white matter neuroplasticity in short-term meditation. This dynamic pattern of white matter change involving the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain network related to self-regulation, could provide a means for intervention to improve or prevent mental disorders.