An 8-week Mindfulness-Based Pain Management program increased oxytocin levels in chronic pain patients compared to a wait-list control group, while cytokine and DHEA-S levels decreased but not to statistically significant margins. The attenuation of DHEA-S, a stress marker, without reaching statistical significance suggests pain reduction was not solely due to stress reduction, pointing to oxytocin pathways as more salient than previously considered. Psychological assessments showed substantial improvements in pain perception and mood. The study included 50 chronic pain patients and 15 healthy controls, with salivary assays measuring endocrine markers, oxytocin, and inflammatory cytokines.
How the finite biological structure and function of the brain gives rise to the seemingly infinite expanse of the mind remains a final frontier in basic neuroscience. Contemporary mindfulness and other contemplative practices involve systematic forms of mental training that develop the mind in specific and quantifiable ways. Key questions include how to classify discrete and developmentally-specific mind states of consciousness in line with complex phenomenology to yield ontological quantifications, what measures best represent such classification systems, and whether electrophysiological measures can map developmentally-specified mind states and stages to neurobiological substrates based on extant contention regarding EEG physiology interpretation.
ADHD involves a dominant Default-Mode Network (DMN) and reduced Task Positive Network (TPN) activity, impairing attention and executive function. Using EEG data from 54 ADHD patients and 16 healthy controls, the study found significantly reduced power across EEG spectra and increased medial ventral prefrontal cortex activation in ADHD patients. A 12-week Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) program, with 30 patients randomly assigned to MBCT and 24 to a wait-list, increased beta power and precuneus activation. These changes may reflect enhanced cortical alertness and more adaptive DMN-TPN regulation, suggesting MBCT's clinical utility and potential neural markers for inattention and executive dysfunction.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) reshapes resting-state brain network dynamics in adults with ADHD, as measured by EEG microstates. After a 12-week MBCT program, participants showed increased coverage and duration of microstates A and B, along with changes in microstate A (theta band) and microstate D (alpha band). These neural changes correlated with improvements in ADHD symptoms, mindfulness, quality of life, and executive function. Machine learning models using pre-treatment microstate dynamics predicted individual treatment response with 83% accuracy, suggesting that EEG biomarkers could help personalize mindfulness-based interventions for ADHD.