Meditation may strengthen parts of the brain responsible for maintaining focus, compassion, and empathy, according to a U.S. researcher.

Richard Davidson, a psychologist based at the University of Wisconsin, led a team that scanned the brains of monks with more than 10,000 hours of meditation practice and compared them to brain scans of novice meditators, CNN reports.

The monks showed significantly more activity in their limbic systems -- the brain's emotional network -- than the rookies.

The results suggest that neural circuits linked to positive emotions can be bolstered through long-term meditation.

"We all know that if you engage in certain kinds of exercise on a regular basis you can strengthen certain muscle groups in predictable ways," Davidson told CNN

"Strengthening neural systems is not fundamentally different," he says. "It's basically replacing certain habits of mind with other habits."

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