Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
October 11, 2007
Yi-Yuan Tang, Yinghua Ma, Junhong Wang et al.
1,585 citations
Five days of brief, daily meditation using the integrative body-mind training method improved attention and reduced stress more than relaxation training alone. In a randomized experiment with 40 undergraduate Chinese students, those who practiced 20 minutes of integrative meditation for five days showed greater improvement on the Attention Network Test, lower anxiety, depression, anger, and fatigue, higher vigor, reduced cortisol, and increased immunoreactivity compared to a relaxation control group. The findings suggest that even short-term meditation can produce measurable cognitive and physiological benefits, offering a practical way to study meditation using controlled experimental designs.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
November 23, 2011
Judson A. Brewer, Patrick D. Worhunsky, Jeremy R. Gray et al.
1,410 citations
Experienced meditators show reduced activity in brain regions linked to self-referential thought and mind-wandering, particularly the medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices, across different meditation types. They also exhibit stronger connections between areas involved in self-monitoring and cognitive control, such as the posterior cingulate, dorsal anterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, both at rest and during meditation. These neural patterns align with decreased mind-wandering, offering insight into how meditation may support present-moment awareness and well-being.
Human Brain Mapping
July 29, 2022
Hang Zhang, Shiyou Yang, Yang Qiao et al.
27 citations
Spontaneous low-frequency fluctuations in sustained attention, which cause cognitive and behavioral lapses, originate in the default-mode network (DMN). Analysis of two independent fMRI and behavior datasets shows that neural fluctuations in the DMN mediate behavioral reaction-time fluctuations during sustained attention. The DMN's increased amplitude of fluctuation correlates with behavioral fluctuation specifically in the 0.01-0.1 Hz frequency range, not at lower or higher frequencies. This pattern appears during both auditory and visual sustained attention and replicates across datasets. These findings reveal the DMN as a neural source of attention fluctuation, extending the former view that the DMN is simply deactivated during cognitive tasks.
Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
April 1, 2025
Saampras Ganesan, Fernando A Barrios, Ishaan Batta et al.
6 citations
Meditation practices, which have shown therapeutic benefits for conditions like depression, pain, addiction, and anxiety, have been studied with neuroimaging over the past decade. However, existing neuroscientific models are based on small, heterogeneous datasets, limiting generalizability and replicability. The ENIGMA-Meditation consortium is the first worldwide collaborative effort to conduct systematic meta- and mega-analyses of globally distributed neuroimaging data using standardized methods. This framework aims to improve statistical power and address multidomain heterogeneity in meditation practice types, experience, and experimental design. The consortium will generate rigorous neuroscientific insights into the mechanisms underlying meditation's therapeutic effects on psychological and cognitive attributes.
Scientific Reports
July 25, 2025
Yi-Yuan Tang, Jeffrey S Patterson, Rongxiang Tang et al.
3 citations
A brief mindfulness intervention, integrative body-mind training (IBMT), significantly enhances metabolic profiles, promoting physical and mental health. In a trial with 42 participants, IBMT led to notable increases in glycine derivatives and phosphatidylcholine, while relaxation training showed no significant effects. Specific metabolic pathways related to amino acid and lipid metabolism, including sphingolipid and α-linolenic acid metabolism, were altered after IBMT. These results underscore the potential of mindfulness practices to influence health through metabolic regulation, paving the way for future health promotion strategies.
April 8, 2024
Saampras Ganesan, Aki Tsuchiyagaito, Greg J Siegle et al.
2 citations
preprint
Meditation practices, which have been adapted into manualized interventions for conditions like depression, pain, addiction, and anxiety, show therapeutic promise, but their neuroscientific basis remains unclear. Current neuroimaging studies rely on small, heterogeneous datasets that vary in practice types, participant experience, clinical targets, and imaging methods, limiting generalizability and replicability. To address this, the ENIGMA-Meditation consortium was formed as a global collaboration to conduct systematic meta- and mega-analyses of distributed neuroimaging data using standardized methods. This framework aims to improve statistical power and rigorously characterize the neural mechanisms underlying meditation's effects on psychological and cognitive attributes, advancing the field of contemplative neuroscience.
Stress
February 20, 2024
Yaxin Fan, Yifen Cui, Rongxiang Tang et al.
A brief mindfulness meditation intervention (Integrative Body-Mind Training, or IBMT) alters testosterone and cortisol responses to acute stress differently than relaxation training. In a pilot randomized controlled trial, 20-minute sessions of IBMT or relaxation training were given before and after a stress task. Both groups showed increased cortisol and testosterone after stress, but testosterone rise was not linked to cortisol rise. An additional practice after stress led to higher testosterone in the IBMT group and higher cortisol in the relaxation group. The authors suggest IBMT modulates a dual-hormone profile via the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamus-pituitary-testicular axes.
Neuroimage
June 1, 2021
Yi-Xuan Feng, Ren-Yuan Li, Wei Wei et al.
Closing the eyes alters resting-state brain activity in both sighted and congenitally blind individuals, suggesting that the effect is inherent to human nature rather than learned from vision. The study compared 21 congenitally blind participants with 21 sighted controls using functional MRI. In both groups, eye closure increased low-frequency fluctuations in sensorimotor and occipital regions and decreased them in the medial prefrontal cortex. No differences appeared between blind participants with and without light perception. Between-group differences in the posterior insula and fusiform were attributed to experience (nurture). The authors contend that volitional eye closure focuses attention inward and is a natural human action, not dependent on visual experience.
Journal of Neural Transplantation and Plasticity
November 16, 2020
R. Tang, Karl Friston, Yi-Yuan Tang
Brief mindfulness meditation—ten hours total over two to four weeks—increases gray matter volume in the ventral posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), a brain region central to self-awareness, emotion, cognition, and aging. A randomized controlled trial compared Integrative Body-Mind Training (IBMT) with relaxation training in healthy adults. The increase in ventral PCC volume was smaller in individuals with higher baseline temperamental trait scores, indicating that individual differences modulate training-induced brain plasticity. These structural changes suggest that even short-term mindfulness practice may help protect against mood disorders and age-related cognitive decline.
Current Opinion in Psychology
April 18, 2019
Yi-Yuan Tang, R. Tang, M. Rothbart et al.
Frontal midline theta (FMθ) brain activity may index the mental control needed to maintain a meditative state, while alpha activity relates to the preparation required to achieve it. Without sufficient mental preparation, achieving a meditative state is difficult. Evidence from human and animal studies suggests that mindfulness meditation induces white matter plasticity by increasing FMθ activity, offering insights into how to effectively enhance brain plasticity through meditation.
Translational Behavioral Medicine
March 1, 2016
Yi-Yuan Tang, Leslie D Leve
This paper reviews neuroscience and psychological studies on mindfulness meditation and proposes a translational prevention framework. The framework integrates prevention science with neuroscience, suggesting that mindfulness meditation improves psychological outcomes—such as behavioral, cognitive, and emotional functioning—by enhancing self-regulation through changes in underlying brain systems. The authors discuss clinical and practice implications and outline directions for future research.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2015
Yi-Yuan Tang, Qilin Lu, Hongbo Feng et al.
Five days of integrative body-mind training (IBMT, 30 minutes per day) significantly increased cerebral blood flow in the subgenual/ventral anterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, and insula. Both IBMT and relaxation training increased left-lateralized cerebral blood flow, but only IBMT improved blood flow in the left anterior cingulate cortex and insula, brain regions important for self-regulation. These changes are associated with improved positive mood and frontal asymmetry.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
January 1, 2015
Xiaoqian Ding, Yi-Yuan Tang, Chengyue Cao et al.
After five hours of meditation training, compared with the same amount of relaxation, participants showed greater brain activity in the right cingulate gyrus, insula, putamen, inferior frontal gyrus, and bilateral middle frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and superior temporal gyrus when presented with a solution to a problem they had failed to solve. The authors speculate that these regions may support detecting conflict, breaking mental set, restructuring problem representation, error detection, and the 'Aha' feeling of insight.
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.
Training in a form of mindfulness meditation called integrative body-mind training (IBMT) improved white matter efficiency in brain areas near the anterior cingulate cortex after four weeks, more than relaxation training. The improvement was shown by increased fractional anisotropy (FA) and decreases in both radial diffusivity (RD) and axial diffusivity (AD), suggesting changes in myelin and other axonal properties. After two weeks of IBMT, only AD decreased, with no change in RD or FA, though mood improved. These results demonstrate a time-course for white matter neuroplasticity from short-term meditation, which could inform interventions for mental disorders.