Psychophysiology
May 1, 2025
Isaac N Treves, Anna O Tierney, Simon B. Goldberg et al.
5 citations
A breath-counting task designed to measure mindfulness in adults was tested in 78 adolescents with high rumination. The task showed fair reliability but did not correlate positively with self-reported mindfulness, either as a trait or in daily life. Unexpectedly, more mindful adolescents performed worse on breath counting, and the task showed negative correlations with observing emotions and body sensations and with nonreactivity. Breath-counting performance was also unrelated to clinical, personality, and executive functioning measures. The findings indicate that, in this population, breath counting may measure only a narrow form of sustained attention and may not capture broader mindfulness qualities or have predictive validity.
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
February 5, 2025
Isaac N Treves, Aaron Kucyi, Anna O Tierney et al.
1 citation
During a breath-counting task, 72 adolescents showed increased static connectivity within attention-direction and orienting networks and anticorrelations between attention networks and the default mode network compared to rest. Dynamic connectivity analysis revealed four distinct brain states, including one anticorrelated with the default mode network that was proportionally more present during the task. Brain state markers distinguished breathing tasks from rest and momentary on-task from off-task attention, but no brain states reflected between-individual behavioral variability.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
February 10, 2026
Isaac N Treves, Clare Shaffer, Alexandra Decker et al.
Lapses in attention to internal bodily sensations, such as the breath, are predicted by behavioral and neural markers that overlap with those for lapses in external attention but also involve distinct brain systems. In 93 adolescents with depressive symptoms performing a breath-counting task during fMRI, the strongest predictors of attention lapses were the timing and variability of button responses. Breathing variability and coupling between breathing and behavior showed weaker predictive value. Brain connectivity models, incorporating default-mode, dorsal attention, ventral attention, and somatomotor networks, predicted lapses with modest accuracy and marginally outperformed behavior-only models. These findings suggest shared and unique mechanisms for interoceptive attention failures.
Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience
June 23, 2026
Isaac N Treves, Clare Shaffer, Alexandra Decker et al.
During mind-body practices like meditation, attention to breathing often lapses. This study examined behavioral, physiological, and neural signals preceding such interoceptive lapses in 93 adolescents with elevated anxiety and depression symptoms, who performed a breath-counting task during fMRI. The strongest predictors of lapses were the timing and variability of button responses. Breathing variability and breathing-behavior synchronization had smaller predictive value. Whole-brain connectivity models, incorporating default-mode, attention, and somatomotor networks, predicted lapses moderately and marginally outperformed behavior-only models. Some markers overlapped with known exteroceptive lapses (reaction time variability), while others were unique (perceptual coupling with attention networks). These brain-body markers may aid real-time monitoring during mind-body interventions.