Mindfulness, defined as nonjudgmental attention to the present moment, is linked to synchronized ongoing activity between the default mode and salience networks in the brain. After two weeks of daily 20-minute attention-to-breath training, healthy participants completed mindfulness questionnaires and resting-state functional MRI. Analysis revealed that intrinsic functional connectivity between subnetworks of the default mode and salience networks—and at a trend level between the salience and left central executive networks—correlated with mindfulness scores. Additional control analyses supported the specificity of these findings. The results suggest that ongoing interactions among core brain networks relate to the ability to attend to current experience without judgment.
The mere presence of a supportive psychotherapist enhances intrinsic functional connectivity of the dorsal anterior cingulate within the anterior medial default mode network during rest, and this change is positively linked with participants' trust in psychotherapists. The social presence-induced connectivity change also relates to social reappraisal-related brain activation in prefrontal and temporoparietal regions and to social reappraisal success, with the latter relationship moderated by trust. These findings suggest that trust-dependent effects of social presence on default mode network states are relevant for social reappraisal, an important process in daily life and psychotherapy.
After two weeks of training in attention-to-breath (ATB) meditation, healthy participants viewed aversive pictures during fMRI. ATB, compared with passive viewing, reduced amygdala activation and increased coupling between the amygdala and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. This increased integration was associated with mindfulness ability. A fronto-parietal network was also recruited during emotional stimulation. The findings suggest that amygdala–dorsal prefrontal cortex integration may be a neural pathway through which mindfulness practice regulates emotion.
Mindfulness training helped maintain sensitivity to learned emotional cues, while controls lost that response. In a pilot study, 46 healthy participants were quasi-randomized to an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course or a waitlist control group. Before and after the course, they underwent a two-day fear conditioning, extinction learning, and extinction memory protocol. Skin conductance response showed that after MBSR, participants maintained a differential response to conditioned versus non-conditioned stimuli, whereas controls did not. MBSR participants also showed increased fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus, a white matter tract linked to emotional learning, though the group-by-time interaction was not significant. Changes in this tract correlated with changes in emotional response, suggesting neural plasticity from mindfulness practice.