Research suggests that all types of meditation, from Metta (also known as loving-kindness) to mindfulness increases the thickness of grey matter in particular regions of the brain. Some will also strengthen the corpus callosum or the junction of neural connections between the two hemispheres, allowing you to better harness logical reasoning skills with creativity at the same time.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Germany studied 300 volunteers for 9 months, scanning brain regions before and after different meditation practices.

The findings were quite remarkable. The brain regions responsible for attention, control and higher intelligence grew thicker in the mindfulness meditators, while the region related to emotional response and empathy increased following compassion meditation. Another method, where volunteers were asked to think about problems from another person’s perspective, also showed a correlation between brain areas involved in social-cognitive skills and increased brain matter density.

I suppose choosing the type of meditation practice boils down to what you want to achieve. If it is calmness and brain wave synchronisation you’re after then simple mindful exercises might suffice. If you are trying to increase emotional resilience and control frustration and anger, then practices focusing on compassion and strengthening the limbic regions with Metta would be your best bet.

I hope that helps.