When less is more: mindfulness predicts adaptive affective responding to rejection via reduced prefrontal recruitment
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience May 24, 2018 Alexandra Martelli, David Chester, Kirk Warren Brown et al. 31 citations
Mindfulness—receptive attentiveness to present-moment experience—may buffer the distress of social rejection. In a functional MRI study, participants reported their trait mindfulness, then played Cyberball, a social rejection game. Those higher in mindfulness reported less distress during rejection. This effect was mediated by lower activation in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, a brain region linked to inhibiting negative affect. Mindfulness also correlated with weaker functional connectivity between that region and the amygdala and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, areas involved in generating social distress. The findings suggest mindfulness may aid coping with rejection by not over-activating top-down regulatory mechanisms, potentially fostering more effective long-term emotion regulation.