Meditation may calm the mind, but a recent study suggests it can also reshape brain activity by profoundly altering brain dynamics and increasing neural connections – somewhat similar to psychedelic substances.

As a result, meditation may help practitioners achieve a hypothesized state known as “brain criticality”, in which neural connections are neither too weak nor too strong, but at an optimal level for mental agility and function.

In the study, led by neurophysiologist Annalisa Pascarella of the Italian National Research Council, researchers used high-resolution brain scans and machine learning to examine how meditation can alter brain activity to achieve an equilibrium between neural chaos and order.