Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland)
November 18, 2024
Alessandro Lazzarelli, Francesca Scafuto, Cristiano Crescentini et al.
30 citations
Interoceptive ability—detecting and interpreting body signals—can be trained through mind-body interventions and is central to emotion regulation. Mindfulness meditation improves both interoceptive ability and emotion regulation via top-down brain-body processing. Interventions using bottom-up processing through body movement and emotional expression remain under-investigated. The authors argue that interoceptive ability is a crucial aspect linking mind-body interventions to emotion regulation and suggest that studying it with both quantitative and qualitative methods could integrate top-down and bottom-up emotion processing, observational and non-observational body awareness, and conscious and unconscious levels of interoception.
Front Hum Neurosci
January 22, 2025
Sara Sorella, Cristiano Crescentini, Alessio Matiz et al.
8 citations
Greater moment-to-moment fluctuation in brain activity within the default mode network during rest predicts more frequent spontaneous mind wandering. People who report higher mindfulness skills tend to experience less spontaneous mind wandering. The findings suggest a link between the brain's resting-state dynamics and the tendency for the mind to wander, and indicate that mindfulness may relate to reduced variability in this brain network.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2025
Alberto Chiesa, Cristiano Crescentini, Fabio D'Antoni et al.
5 citations
A nine-month mindfulness teacher training program enhanced the ability to perceive and interpret bodily signals—known as interoceptive awareness—in 38 individuals training to become mindfulness-based intervention teachers, compared with 24 matched controls. The trained group showed significantly greater increases in awareness of mind-body integration. Although overall emotional distress did not differ between groups, increases in self-regulation scores within the training group were linked to decreases in depression and total emotional distress. The findings suggest that mindfulness training for future teachers further improves their capacity to attend to, regulate, and interpret bodily signals.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
November 13, 2024
Rebecca Ciacchini, Ciro Conversano, Graziella Orrù et al.
5 citations
A mindfulness-based stress reduction program for people with chronic pain (fibromyalgia or low back pain) improved sleep quality and showed a marginal increase in trait mindfulness. The intervention reduced perceived stress differently between the two diagnostic groups, and it also reduced anxiety in those with fibromyalgia and depressive symptoms in those with low back pain. These results suggest that mindfulness-based approaches could be tailored for personalized pain management.
Psychology Research and Behavior Management
January 1, 2024
Alessio Matiz, Franco Fabbro, Cristiano Crescentini
4 citations
A storytelling-based mindfulness program for children in grades 3 to 5 showed moderate acceptability, with an average rating of 2.9 out of 4. Children with higher persistence, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence traits liked the program more, found it useful, and engaged more. Over half (57.8%) used mindfulness practices in daily life, and 93.9% would recommend it. Children reported learning about emotional and physical difficulties, calm and relaxation, resilience, self-exploration, and attention. Acceptability was higher than similar programs, and certain personality traits may help tailor such interventions for better outcomes.
Mindfulness
April 23, 2025
Alessio Matiz, Stefania Pascut, Franco Fabbro et al.
3 citations
An 8-week internet-based mindfulness training improved Italian school teachers' anxiety, interoceptive awareness, and professional efficacy compared to a control group. Anxiety reduction was medium-sized, interoceptive awareness improvements were medium-to-large, and professional efficacy gains were small-to-medium. The effects depended on teachers' baseline temperament and character: reduced anxiety occurred only for those with higher reward dependence or lower-to-middle self-directedness; improved interoceptive attention regulation occurred for those with middle-to-higher persistence; and improved efficacy for student engagement occurred only for those with lower self-transcendence. The study highlights the need to consider personality dimensions when designing mindfulness interventions for teachers.
Behavioral Sciences
February 24, 2022
Susanna Feruglio, Stefania Pascut, Alessio Matiz et al.
Healthy Italian adolescents who completed eight weeks of either mindfulness-oriented meditation or autogenic training showed increased cooperativeness and reduced emotional symptoms. The more participants' cooperativeness rose, the more their emotional symptoms fell. Both mind-body interventions fostered a cooperative attitude and helped regulate emotions, suggesting they may protect youth well-being and psychosocial adjustment in school settings.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
January 20, 2022
Fabio D’Antoni, Alessio Matiz, Franco Fabbro et al.
A single 40-minute session of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Brainspotting (BSP), or Body Scan Meditation (BSM) each reduced the subjective disturbance (SUD scores) of distressing memories in 40 healthy adult psychologists and medical doctors. EMDR and BSP produced significantly lower disturbance than BSM and a book-reading control condition, both immediately after the session and at follow-up. BSM also lowered disturbance more than book reading. EMDR and BSP additionally shortened the time participants spent telling the memory. The study suggests that even one session of these interventions can help process distressing memories in a non-clinical sample.
Consciousness and Cognition
September 22, 2021
Alessio Matiz, C. Crescentini, M. Bergamasco et al.
The brains of two people meditating together in the same room show different patterns of electrical activity compared to when they meditate alone in separate rooms. Expert meditator couples performed mindfulness-oriented meditation and instructed mind-wandering tasks either in the same room or in different rooms while EEG was recorded. Gamma brainwave activity was higher in limbic areas during mindfulness meditation performed together versus alone, an effect not explained by gender, age, or meditation expertise. Theta and alpha activity also differed between conditions in temporo-occipital regions. The findings suggest that the social context of shared meditation alters brain function in ways specific to mindfulness practice.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
September 21, 2021
Susanna Feruglio, Alessio Matiz, G. Pagnoni et al.
A systematic review of 24 studies examined how Mindfulness Meditation (MM) affects mind wandering (MW). Most pre-post intervention studies showed that at least two weeks of MM practice reduced MW and limited its negative effects on cognitive tasks. Cross-sectional studies found that expert meditators reported less MW and showed decreased Default Mode Network activity during meditation and at rest compared to non-meditators. The reviewed studies varied widely in design, outcome measures, and interventions. The authors call for further research to replicate findings and explore how meditation influences the qualitative characteristics of MW.
Journal of Trauma & Dissociation
June 2, 2021
Fabio D’Antoni, Susanna Feruglio, Alessio Matiz et al.
A 7-week Mindfulness Oriented Meditation (MOM) training reduced dissociative tendencies, increased dispositional mindfulness, and improved interoceptive awareness (not-worrying, self-regulation, body listening) in healthy adults compared to a waiting-list control group. Greater increases in mindfulness skills correlated with greater reductions in dissociation and improvements in interoceptive awareness. More home meditation practice was linked to larger gains in mindfulness skills. The findings suggest mindfulness meditation may cultivate voluntary processes that provide psychological safety and integration, contrasting with the involuntary nature of dissociation.
Psychology and Health
October 23, 2020
Susanna Feruglio, Alessio Matiz, A. Grecucci et al.
Different mindfulness techniques produce distinct effects on mental rumination and time perspective. In an 8-week study, 75 healthy young adults were assigned to mindful breathing, body scan, observing-thoughts meditation, or an active control group. All meditation groups improved mindfulness skills more than the control group. Mindful breathing specifically reduced brooding and increased a positive view of the future compared to the other techniques. These differential effects suggest that tailoring meditation practices could enhance interventions aimed at reducing maladaptive thinking and fostering optimism.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
September 1, 2020
Alessio Matiz, F. Fabbro, Andrea Paschetto et al.
An 8-week Mindfulness-Oriented Meditation (MOM) course improved anxiety, depression, emotional exhaustion, psychological well-being, interoceptive awareness, and mindfulness in Italian female teachers during the Covid-19 lockdown. Teachers with low baseline resilience showed greater improvements in depression and psychological well-being than those with high resilience. The findings suggest mindfulness training can help mitigate pandemic-related psychological distress, especially for more vulnerable individuals.