Meditation alters response to Pain

By way of Big Ten Science, "Meditation Changes the Brain’s Pain Game."

In the experiment, expert meditators exposed to pain fared better than novices.

In the seconds directly before the pain was administered, the experts had less activity in the amygdala, an anxiety-related area of the brain. What’s more, they had faster neural habituation, the tendency for stimuli to become less intense from having gotten used to it. By opening themselves up to the experience, the expert meditators were able to change their relationship with the pain, rather than changing the experience itself.