Decreased emotional reactivity after 3-month socio-affective but not attention- or meta-cognitive-based mental training: A randomized, controlled, longitudinal fMRI study.
Neuroimage August 15, 2021 Pauline Favre, Philipp Kanske, Haakon Engen et al.
A three-month mental training module focused on socio-affective skills like compassion (the Affect module) reduced negative feelings when viewing images of human suffering and increased brain activity in the right supramarginal gyrus. Two other three-month modules—one cultivating attention and interoceptive awareness (Presence) and another cultivating socio-cognitive skills like theory of mind (Perspective)—did not produce these effects. The findings suggest that compassion-based mental training specifically improves emotion regulation when facing adversity, whereas attention- or meta-cognitive training does not.