Alterations of Regional Homogeneity and Functional Connectivity Following Short-Term Mindfulness Meditation in Healthy Volunteers
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience October 18, 2019 Qin Xiao, Xing‐Rong Zhao, Guoli Bi et al.
After 8 weeks of weekly Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training, healthy adults with no prior meditation experience showed increased regional homogeneity in the right superior parietal lobule and left postcentral gyrus, along with altered functional connectivity in postcentral gyrus-related networks, as measured by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Mindfulness questionnaire scores improved and negative affect significantly decreased. The results suggest a tendency toward stronger involvement of the parietal cortex in mindfulness beginners, indicating that short-term mindfulness meditation may optimize emotional processing.