PsyArXiv
October 9, 2026
Oleksandr Avramchuk, Olha Germanovych, Olha Ivanenko et al.
preprint
Background: Children living in conflict zones experience high levels of psychological distress. Schools can provide an accessible setting for support, yet evidence on the effectiveness of school-based interventions in active war contexts remains limited. Objectives: To evaluate children’s well-being and internal coping resources during the war in Ukraine and to examine the feasibility of a...
Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science
2025
Perla Kaliman, María Jesús Álvarez-López, Asrar Lehodey et al.
Shorter telomeres are associated with increased risk of cognitive decline and age-related diseases. Developing interventions to promote healthy aging by preserving telomere integrity is of paramount importance. Here, we investigated the effect of an 18-month meditation intervention on telomere length (TL) measures in older people without cognitive impairment. A total of 137 adults age ≥65 years...
Brain Behavior and Immunity Integrative
September 1, 2023
Quinn A Conklin, Cavan E. Patterson, Brandon G King et al.
Background: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a modulatory neuroprotein implicated in learning, memory, and neuroplasticity. Studies have found increased peripheral BDNF in participants of meditation interventions, indicating that BDNF may play a role in the learning and habit formation that occurs with meditation training. In this study, we assessed changes in peripheral BDNF protein...
Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology
August 1, 2022
María Jesús Álvarez-López, Quinn A Conklin, Marta Cosín-Tomás et al.
Meditation retreats are characterized by intensive or concentrated periods of meditation practice, commonly undertaken in a residential setting. Although research indicates that meditation training can positively influence physical and mental health outcomes, the biological consequences of meditation retreat interventions are relatively understudied. In this study, we examined the influence of...
Current Opinion in Psychology
August 1, 2019
Perla Kaliman
In the last decade, epigenetics has taken center stage to explain the relationships between stress exposure, health and behavior. Acquired or inherited epigenetic changes modulate gene expression states without modifying the DNA sequence itself, they can be long-lasting, yet, they are potentially reversible. Several studies have explored whether meditation-based interventions can influence gene...
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
August 1, 2018
Quinn A Conklin, Brandon G King, Anthony P Zanesco et al.
correction
a Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, 267 Cousteau Place, Davis, CA 95618, United States Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, 135 Young Hall, Davis, CA 95616, United States c Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, 600 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94158, United States d Center for Neuroscience, University of...
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
May 1, 2018
Quinn A Conklin, Brandon G King, Anthony P Zanesco et al.
A growing body of evidence suggests that meditation training may have a range of salubrious effects, including improved telomere regulation. Telomeres and the enzyme telomerase interact with a variety of molecular components to regulate cell-cycle signaling cascades, and are implicated in pathways linking psychological stress to disease. We investigated the effects of intensive meditation...
Psychoneuroendocrinology
November 2017
Raphaëlle Chaix, María Jesús Álvarez-López, Maud Fagny et al.
In this paper, we examined whether meditation practice influences the epigenetic clock, a strong and reproducible biomarker of biological aging, which is accelerated by cumulative lifetime stress and with age-related chronic diseases. Using the Illumina 450K array platform, we analyzed the DNA methylome from blood cells of long-term meditators and meditation-naïve controls to estimate their...
Psychoneuroendocrinology
November 15, 2013
Perla Kaliman, María Jesús Álvarez-López, Marta Cosín-Tomás et al.
Background: A growing body of research shows that mindfulness meditation can alter neural, behavioral and biochemical processes. However, the mechanisms responsible for such clinically relevant effects remain elusive. Methods: Here we explored the impact of a day of intensive practice of mindfulness meditation in experienced subjects (n=19) on the expression of circadian, chromatin modulatory...