Journal of Student Research
November 20, 2020
Rebeccah Fleischmann, Michael I Posner
70% of high school students see anxiety and depression as a “major problem” among their peers (Pew Research Center). Meditation decreases anxiety and stress according to Harvard researchers. Stress and memory are very much connected as a recent study concluded that non-stressed people remember more items on average than stressed people. Although several studies have been done on the impacts of...
Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior
2020
Michael I Posner
This paper is a review of our recent studies and ideas related to the neuropsychological issues that Robert Rafal and I worked together to understand attention and hopefully improve it in a variety of patients. Rehabilitation is also a goal of my current research to determine if non invasive stimuli can improve white matter in humans. We have found that fractional anisotropy (FA) is improved in...
Current Opinion in Psychology
April 18, 2019
Yi-Yuan Tang, R. Tang, Mary K. Rothbart et al.
Both brain alpha and theta power have been examined in the mindfulness meditation literature and suggested as key biological signatures that potentially facilitate a successful meditative state. However, the exact role of how alpha and theta waves contribute to the initiation and maintenance of a meditative state remains elusive. In this perspective paper, we discuss the role of frontal midline...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
2015
Xiaoqian Ding, Yi-Yuan Tang, Chengyue Cao et al.
Meditation has been shown to improve creativity in some situation. However, little is known about the brain systems underling insight into a problem when the person fails to solve the problem. Here, we examined the neural correlation using Chinese Remote Association Test, as a measure of creativity. We provide a solution following the failure of the participant to provide one. We examine how...
Frontiers in Psychology
2015
Yi-Yuan Tang, Qilin Lu, Hongbo Feng et al.
Asymmetry in frontal electrical activity has been reported to be associated with positive mood. One form of mindfulness meditation, integrative body-mind training (IBMT) improves positive mood and neuroplasticity. The purpose of this study is to determine whether short-term IBMT improves mood and induces frontal asymmetry. This study showed that 5-days (30-min per day) IBMT significantly...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
June 26, 2012
Yi-Yuan Tang, Qilin Lu, Ming Fan et al.
Using diffusion tensor imaging, several recent studies have shown that training results in changes in white matter efficiency as measured by fractional anisotropy (FA). In our work, we found that a form of mindfulness meditation, integrative body-mind training (IBMT), improved FA in areas surrounding the anterior cingulate cortex after 4-wk training more than controls given relaxation training....
Neuroreport
August 24, 2011
Shaowei Xue, Yi-Yuan Tang, Michael I Posner
Previous studies have found that short-term integrative body-mind training (IBMT) has positive effects on the brain structure and function in the anterior cingulate cortex. Here, we determined whether 11 h of IBMT alters topological properties of the anterior cingulate cortex in brain functional networks. We applied network analysis to resting-state functional connectivity between 90 cortical...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
August 31, 2010
Yi-Yuan Tang, Qilin Lu, Xiujuan Geng et al.
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is part of a network implicated in the development of self-regulation and whose connectivity changes dramatically in development. In previous studies we showed that 3 h of mental training, based on traditional Chinese medicine (integrative body-mind training, IBMT), increases ACC activity and improves self-regulation. However, it is not known whether changes...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
October 11, 2007
Yi-Yuan Tang, Yinghua Ma, Junhong Wang et al.
1,585 citations
Recent studies suggest that months to years of intensive and systematic meditation training can improve attention. However, the lengthy training required has made it difficult to use random assignment of participants to conditions to confirm these findings. This article shows that a group randomly assigned to 5 days of meditation practice with the integrative body-mind training method shows...