PsyArXiv
May 14, 2026
Jacob Cohen, Peter Parbo, Per Trads Ørskov et al.
preprint
Background: Social anxiety disorder is a chronic and disabling condition with limited response to standard therapies. Low-dose psilocybin may enhance the effectiveness of exposure-based treatments by modulating neural circuits associated with fear and avoidance. Virtual reality exposure therapy offers a controlled and individualized platform for intervention. Objective: This phase 2b,...
Scientific Reports
March 25, 2026
Johannes Björkstrand, Emil Olsson, Oisín Hugh Clancy et al.
Fear-based disorders affect millions worldwide, yet current treatments show limited effectiveness for many patients. While mindfulness is increasingly used clinically for anxiety and trauma disorders, the neural mechanisms underlying its effects on fear processing remain unclear. We conducted a randomized controlled trial using 7T fMRI to test whether mindfulness training enhances fear...
Scientific Reports
March 21, 2026
Ulrich Kirk, Cirkeline Nellemann Hovgaard, Marino Theodor Larsen Persiani et al.
To test whether a 10-day mindfulness program delivered through the ŌURA app improves sleep and stress in healthy adults, eighty-one adults were randomized to mindfulness (n = 49) or waitlist control (n = 32). Participants wore an Ōura ring during baseline, intervention/wait-list, and 4-week follow-up, recording sleep efficiency, total, deep, and light sleep, plus sleep-onset time....
JMIR mHealth and uHealth
October 23, 2025
Walter Staiano, Christine E Callahan, Michelle Davis et al.
Anxiety and depressive disorders affect hundreds of millions globally, with substantial barriers limiting access to evidence-based treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy. Digital mental health interventions offer potential solutions to improve access to support. However, evidence of efficacy through randomized controlled trials is essential for clinical adoption. This study evaluated the...
JMIR mHealth and uHealth
August 8, 2023
Ulrich Kirk, Walter Staiano, Emily A. Hu et al.
21 citations
BACKGROUND: Stress-related mental health disorders have steadily increased and contributed to a worldwide disease burden with up to 50% experiencing a stress-related mental health disorder worldwide. Data suggest that only approximately 20%-65% of individuals receive treatment. This gap in receiving treatment may be attributed to barriers such as limited treatment access, negative stigma...
Frontiers in Psychology
2022
Phoebe Chen, Ulrich Kirk, Suzanne Dikker
In recent years, the possible benefits of mindfulness meditation have sparked much public and academic interest. Mindfulness emphasizes cultivating awareness of our immediate experience and has been associated with compassion, empathy, and various other prosocial traits. However, neurobiological evidence pertaining to the prosocial benefits of mindfulness in social settings is sparse. In this...
Scientific Reports
May 6, 2019
Ulrich Kirk, Giuseppe Pagnoni, Sébastien Hétu et al.
Abstract: Activity changes in dopaminergic neurons encode the ongoing discrepancy between expected and actual value of a stimulus, providing a teaching signal for a reward prediction process. Previous work comparing a cohort of long-term Zen meditators to controls demonstrated an attenuation of reward prediction signals to appetitive reward in the striatum. Using a cross-commodity design...
Neuroimage
June 4, 2016
Ulrich Kirk, Xiaosi Gu, Carla Sharp et al.
Emotions have been shown to exert influences on decision making during economic exchanges. Here we investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of a training regimen which is hypothesized to promote emotional awareness, specifically mindfulness training (MT). We test the hypothesis that MT increases cooperative economic decision making using fMRI in a randomized longitudinal design involving...
Frontiers in Psychology
2015
Ulrich Kirk, P Read Montague
Reinforcement learning models have demonstrated that phasic activity of dopamine neurons during reward expectation encodes information about the predictability of reward and cues that predict reward. Self-control strategies such as those practiced in mindfulness-based approaches is claimed to reduce negative and positive reactions to stimuli suggesting the hypothesis that such training may...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
September 4, 2014
Ulrich Kirk, Kirk Warren Brown, Jonathan Downar
66 citations
Reward seeking is ubiquitous and adaptive in humans. But excessive reward seeking behavior, such as chasing monetary rewards, may lead to diminished subjective well-being. This study examined whether individuals trained in mindfulness meditation show neural evidence of lower susceptibility to monetary rewards. Seventy-eight participants (34 meditators, 44 matched controls) completed the...
Frontiers in Neuroscience
2011
Ulrich Kirk, Jonathan Downar, P. Read Montague
167 citations
Human decision-making is often conceptualized as a competition between cognitive and emotional processes in the brain. Deviations from rational processes are believed to derive from inclusion of emotional factors in decision-making. Here, we investigate whether experienced Buddhist meditators are better equipped to regulate emotional processes compared with controls during economic...