Baseline activity of the CREB transcription factor pathway, inferred from gene expression profiles in blood samples, predicted psychological responses to compassion-based meditation but not to mindfulness meditation. In two randomized controlled trials, individuals with higher pre-intervention CREB activity showed greater reductions in loneliness and negative emotions, and greater increases in life satisfaction, after compassion meditation. CREB activity was unrelated to baseline psychometric measures, suggesting that gene expression profiles may capture non-conscious psychobiological states that could help personalize intervention selection.
Insecurely attached midlife adults from low-SES backgrounds who practiced meditation experienced shifts in their daily emotional profiles. Over 10 weeks, 113 participants were randomly assigned to either loving-kindness or mindfulness meditation for 6 weeks. Those with high attachment anxiety who practiced mindfulness showed increases in positive emotions and decreases in negative emotions over time. Individuals high in attachment avoidance experienced decreases in negative emotions regardless of meditation type. On a daily basis, more anxious individuals showed the strongest dose-response relationship: longer meditation sessions were linked to same-day increases in positive emotions and decreases in negative emotions. The findings suggest meditation can improve emotional well-being in those at risk for chronic illness.
A 6-week workshop in mindfulness meditation reduced expression of proinflammatory genes linked to early-life low socioeconomic status (SES), while loving-kindness meditation unexpectedly increased that same gene expression profile. In 88 at-risk midlife adults, those who learned mindfulness meditation showed significant declines in the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA), whereas those who learned loving-kindness meditation showed significant increases. Both groups reported more positive and fewer negative emotions over the six weeks, but this emotional change did not explain the gene expression differences. The findings suggest mindfulness meditation may help reverse the biological effects of childhood low SES in midlife.