A disturbed sense of self, particularly feeling disconnected from one's own body (disembodiment), may contribute to delusions in psychosis. In a randomized experiment, 73 patients with psychosis either performed a 10-minute guided self-massage to enhance bodily boundary awareness or massaged a fabric ring. Those who did the self-massage showed a reduced tendency to jump to conclusions (an average of 4.11 pieces of evidence before deciding versus 2.43 in the control group, a moderate effect). However, there was no significant difference in explicit paranoid beliefs. The findings suggest that improving the sense of bodily boundaries can reduce an implicit bias linked to delusional thinking, supporting the idea that disembodiment plays a role in psychotic symptoms.
In a small clinical trial, 17 cancer patients (average age 51, 11 women) completed a 5-week mindfulness-based intervention (two group sessions per week) while their brain responses to emotional images were measured via event-related potentials. Changes in the P3 brainwave component depended on both the emotional valence (positive vs. negative) and arousal level of the images. After the intervention, P3 amplitudes at the frontal electrode site Fz decreased significantly compared to before treatment, suggesting reduced neural reactivity to emotional stimuli. Depressive symptoms also showed a trend toward improvement. The findings indicate that mindfulness training may alter how the brain processes emotional information in cancer patients, with the strongest effects at frontal brain regions.
Both mindfulness therapy and neurofeedback (EEG-biofeedback) can alter how cancer patients' brains process emotional images, as measured by early posterior negativity (EPN), a brain response reflecting very early attention to emotional stimuli. In a randomized trial with 42 cancer patients, 10 sessions of either intervention produced distinct effects: neurofeedback increased EPN for negative images, suggesting a confrontational processing style, while mindfulness therapy increased EPN for positive images, indicating a refocusing of attention toward positive content. The interventions modulated emotional processing differently, though further research is needed to isolate the effects from other factors.