The seasoned meditators in the Brewer study had the same strong connection between the control circuit and the default mode seen in beginners, but in addition had less activation within the default mode areas themselves. This was particularly true when they practiced loving-kindness meditation—a corroboration of the maxim that the more we think of the well-being of others, the less we focus on ourselves.8 Intriguingly, the long-term meditators seemed to have roughly the same lessened connectivity in the default mode circuitry while they just rested before the test as they displayed during
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