Effects of gratitude meditation on neural network functional connectivity and brain-heart coupling.
Scientific Reports July 11, 2017 Sunghyon Kyeong, Joohan Kim, Dae-Jin Kim et al.
Gratitude meditation lowers heart rate and alters brain connectivity in emotion and motivation networks compared with resentment. During a gratitude intervention, average heart rate was significantly lower than during a resentment intervention. Functional connectivity between temporal and striatal brain regions correlated positively with heart rate only during gratitude. Resting-state connectivity in that circuit decreased after gratitude relative to resentment. After gratitude, connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal regions correlated with anxiety and depression scores. The findings suggest gratitude meditation may improve emotion regulation and self-motivation by modulating resting-state functional connectivity in emotion- and motivation-related brain regions.