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Richard J McNally

2 papers in the library · publishing 2005-2023

Papers

How do mindfulness and compassion programs improve mental health and well-being? The role of attentional processing of emotional information.

Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry December 1, 2023 Pablo Roca, Carmelo Vázquez, Gustavo Díez et al.

Mindfulness and compassion meditation programs similarly reduce the attentional blink deficit, improving attention to emotional and non-emotional stimuli. A study of 103 participants compared a mindfulness program (MBSR), a compassion program (CCT), and a no-intervention group. Both meditation programs led to significant disengagement from first-target emotions and greater accessibility of second-target emotions to consciousness, while the comparison group showed no change. Improvements in psychological distress, emotion regulation, and well-being were mediated by changes in attentional blink and emotion regulation skills. The findings suggest meditation promotes more flexible and balanced attention to emotional information, a key transdiagnostic mechanism for emotional distress and well-being.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2023.101895 (opens in new tab) Full text (opens in new tab) Mindfulness Attentional blink Compassion Distress +1

Sleep paralysis, sexual abuse, and space alien abduction.

Transcultural Psychiatry March 1, 2005 Richard J McNally, Susan A Clancy

Sleep paralysis, often accompanied by hallucinations upon awakening, results from a disconnect between the motor and perceptual aspects of REM sleep. Two studies are summarized: one assessed 10 individuals who reported alien abduction, linking their claims to sleep paralysis episodes where hypnopompic hallucinations were interpreted as aliens. The other found that adults with repressed, recovered, or continuous memories of childhood sexual abuse reported sleep paralysis more often than controls. Among the 31 reporting sleep paralysis, only one linked it to abuse memories, representing a 17% rate among recovered memory participants. People use culturally plausible narratives to make sense of these experiences.

DOI: 10.1177/1363461505050715 (opens in new tab) Full text (opens in new tab)