Pushing the Limits: Cognitive, Affective, & Neural Plasticity Revealed by an Intensive Multifaceted Intervention
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience July 4, 2016 Michael David Mrazek, Benjamin W Mooneyham, Kaita Lepore Mrazek et al.
A multifaceted 12-week intervention combining physical exercise, cognitive training, and mindfulness practice produced substantial and enduring improvements across multiple cognitive, affective, and neuroimaging measures in healthy young adults. Participants showed gains in physical health, working memory, standardized test performance, mood, self-esteem, self-efficacy, mindfulness, and life satisfaction. Improvements in mindfulness correlated with increased degree centrality of the insula, greater insula-somatosensory cortex connectivity, and reduced posterior cingulate-somatosensory cortex connectivity. Working memory and reading comprehension gains were linked to increased degree centrality in a middle temporal gyrus region integrated with the executive control network. The findings suggest higher limits for rapid concurrent plasticity than widely assumed.