Over the past two decades, the fields of social and contemplative neurosciences have made significant strides. Initial research utilizing fMRI identified neuronal networks involved in empathy, mentalizing, and compassion, as well as complex interactions among these networks. Subsequent studies shifted to testing the plasticity of these social skills via different types of mindfulness- or...
In this study, we investigated whether mindfulness- and meditation-based mental training that improves stress regulation can upregulate BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), an important promoter of hippocampal neuroplasticity, and examined cortisol reduction as a mediating pathway. In a randomized clinical trial, 332 healthy adults were randomly assigned to one of the 3 training cohorts or...
Background: App-based contemplative interventions, such as mindfulness-based interventions, have gained popularity for the promotion of mental health; however, the understanding of underlying intervention-specific mechanisms remains limited, especially related to novel inter-relational dyadic practices. Methods: We tested (n = 253) seven putative mechanisms underlying two brief (daily 12-min)...
Effects of online contemplative practices, especially partner-based practices, on psychological well-being remain mixed, with sparse understanding of potential affective-cognitive mechanisms. The study aimed to assess the efficacy of two online contemplative interventions in improving depression, anxiety, emotion regulation (ER), and resilience, and to evaluate the mechanistic role of negative...
Low-dose app-based contemplative interventions for mental health are increasingly popular, but heterogeneity in intervention responses indicates that a personalized approach is needed. We examined whether different longitudinal resilience-vulnerability trajectories, derived over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, predicted differences in diverse mental health outcomes after mindfulness and...
Contemplative practice has demonstrated benefits for mental health and well-being. Most previous studies, however, implemented in-person trainings containing a mix of different, mostly solitary, practices and focused on pre- to post-training outcomes. In this randomized trial, we explore the immediate differential efficacy of two daily app-delivered practices in shifting emotional (valence,...
Background: Emotion processing deficits of alexithymia are a transdiagnostic risk factor. While such deficits are malleable, the differential efficacy of brief scalable digital mental trainings remains understudied. Methods: This randomized controlled trial probed the efficacy of mindfulness-based (MB) and partner-based socio-emotional Affect Dyad (SE) practice, both supported by weekly...
Contemplative trainings have been found to effectively improve social skills such as empathy and compassion. However, there is a lack of research on the efficacy of app-delivered mindfulness-based and dyadic practices in boosting socioaffective capacity. The first aim of this study was to compare a novel app-delivered, partner-based socioemotional intervention (Affect Dyad) with...
The human brain supports social cognitive functions, including Theory of Mind, empathy, and compassion, through its intrinsic hierarchical organization. However, it remains unclear how the learning and refinement of social skills shapes brain function and structure. We studied if different types of social mental training induce changes in cortical function and microstructure, investigating 332...
Objective: There is little knowledge about which types of meditation-based training are effective for alleviating which facets of psychological distress. We investigated shared and specific effects of three meditation-based training programs on distress. Method: 332 healthy adults were assigned to a retest control cohort or to one of three 3-month mental training cohorts including: the...
Objectives Psychosocial stress is an inherent part of modern lifestyle, and many suffer from chronic stress exposure and the subsequent development of stress-related diseases. In searching for efficient low-cost interventions to reduce stress, we investigated the effects of regular contemplative mental practice on diurnal cortisol activity as an indicator of the basal, everyday stress load....
No contemporary unifying framework has been provided for the study of non-ordinary states of consciousness (NSCs) despite increased interest in hypnosis, meditation, and psychedelics. NSCs induce shifts in experiential contents (what appears to the experiencer) and/or structure (how it appears). This can allow the investigation of the plastic and dynamic nature of experience from a multiscale...
Mindfulness-based mental training interventions have become a popular means to alleviate stress and stress-associated health risks. Previous scientific investigations emphasize the importance of exploring the effects of such interventions in naturalistic settings to evaluate their implementation into daily life. Therefore, the current study examined the effects of three distinct mental training...
Recent decades have witnessed an increasing interest in effects of meditation-based interventions on the improvement of cognitive abilities, ranging from perceptual discrimination to metacognition. However, intervention studies face numerous conceptual and methodological challenges, and results are fairly inconsistent. In a large-scale 9-month mental training study, we investigated differential...
Based on its role in social processing and stress, oxytocin has been suggested to mediate stress reduction of socio-affective, compassion-based mental training. We tested this hypothesis in the ReSource Project, a 9-month longitudinal mental training study. Participants practiced three different types of mental training, targeting either attentional abilities (Presence Module), socio-affective...
Meditation-based mental training interventions show physical and mental health benefits. However, it remains unclear how different types of mental practice affect emotion processing at both the neuronal and the behavioural level. In the context of the ReSource project, 332 participants underwent an fMRI scan while performing an emotion anticipation task before and after three 3-month training...
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has led to a mental health crisis on a global scale. Epidemiological studies have reported a drastic increase in mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, increased loneliness and feelings of disconnectedness from others, while resilience levels have been negatively affected, indicating an urgent need for intervention. The current study is embedded within...
Meditation-based mental training interventions show great benefits for physical and mental health. However, it remains unclear how different types of mental practice differentially affect emotion processing at both the neuronal and the behavioural level. In the context of the ReSource project, 332 participants underwent an fMRI scan while performing an emotion reactivity task before and after...
Mindfulness- and, more generally, meditation-based interventions increasingly gain popularity, effectively promoting cognitive, affective, and social capacities. It is unclear, however, if different types of practice have the same or specific effects on mental functioning. Here we tested three consecutive three-month training modules aimed at cultivating either attention, socio-affective...
Mindfulness interventions have gained much attraction, also due to their promise to improve health and wellbeing. However, not enough attention is devoted to the differentiation between various mental practice types. Here, we summarize findings from the ReSource Project, a 9-month longitudinal mental training study comparing practices focusing on (a) present-moment attention and interoception,...
Despite increasing interest in effects of meditation, systematic in-depth research on how it qualitatively feels to engage in different kinds of contemplative practices is still missing. To fill this gap, we explore the validity of Micro-phenomenological Interviews (MpI) to assess experiences during breathing meditation (BM), observing-thought meditation (OTM), and loving-kindness meditation...
Self-referential processing is a key component of the emotional self-concept. Previous studies have shown that emotional self-referential processing is related to structure and function of cortical midline areas such as medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and that it can be altered on a behavioral level by specific mental training practices. However, it remains unknown how behavioral...
Research on the effects of mindfulness- and compassion-based interventions is flourishing along with self-report scales to assess facets of these broad concepts. However, debates remain as to which mental practices are most appropriate to develop the attentional, cognitive, and socio-affective facets of mindfulness and compassion. One crucial question is whether present-moment,...
Psychosocial stress is a public health burden in modern societies. Chronic stress-induced disease processes are, in large part, mediated via the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system. We asked whether the contemplative mental training of different practice types targeting attentional, socio-affective (for example, compassion),...