The effects of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on affective memory recall dynamics in depression: a mechanistic model of rumination
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience May 22, 2014 Marieke Karlijn van Vugt, Peter eHitchcock, Ben eShahar et al.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) helps protect against depression-related deterioration in memory retrieval patterns. In a randomized controlled trial, 29 people with recurrent depression who completed MBCT maintained stable initial affective bias (probability of first recalling a positive or negative word) after a stressor, while 23 wait-list controls showed increased negative bias and decreased positive bias. MBCT also reduced participants' tendency to sustain trains of negative words during free recall, indicating less persistence of negative mind states. These model-based measures of recall dynamics provide detailed insight into how mindfulness may reduce rumination beyond what self-report questionnaires capture.