Can Meditation Permanently Change Your Brain?

This interesting article suggests that it can.

Can meditation change your brain? Contemplative neuroscientists believe it can

From CNN’s Dan Gilgoff:

…found that committed meditators experienced sustained changes in baseline brain function, meaning that they had changed the way their brains operated even outside of meditation.

They have apparently found that very experienced meditators have an increased ability to focus and potentially an increased ability to tap into their brain’s happiness and empathy centers.

This article is from 2010. I wonder if more discoveries have been made in this field.

Here are some benefits I have heard about meditation:

increases inner calm, making it harder to get ruffled about things
increases focus and attention
helps to heal the body and mind
helps us to hear our inner voice of conscience better

For some meditation is all about stress reduction. For others it is about spiritual focus and moving closer to Unity/God. Do you think that touting the benefits of meditation for stress reduction obscures its real purpose for spiritual progress?

What do you think? What are meditations greatest benefits? Do you think meditation has benefits or is it a placebo effect?

More articles about the benefits of meditation: