Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2012
Gaelle Desbordes, Lobsang Negi, Thaddeus W W Pace et al.
445 citations
Eight weeks of mindfulness meditation training reduced right amygdala activation in healthy adults when viewing positive emotional images, even when they were not actively meditating. A compassion-based meditation program showed a trend toward increased right amygdala response to negative images, which correlated with lower depression scores. No changes occurred in a control group. The results suggest meditation training can alter emotional processing in the brain during ordinary, non-meditative states, indicating that such training may produce lasting, process-specific changes in mental function rather than only task-specific effects.
Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ)
January 24, 2018
Benjamin G. Shapero, Jonathan Greenberg, Paola Pedrelli et al.
165 citations
Mindfulness meditation, a practice with deep roots in eastern traditions, has gained widespread public and scientific interest. Mindfulness is a natural state of present-moment awareness, and interventions have been developed to train this skill. This review discusses the concept of mindfulness and its use in treating psychiatric disorders. It identifies which patients benefit from mindfulness-based interventions and summarizes how they work, including cognitive, psychological, and neural mechanisms that drive clinical improvements. The review offers a foundation for incorporating these interventions into clinical practice.
Frontiers in Psychology
November 22, 2021
Willoughby B. Britton, Gaelle Desbordes, Rebecca L. Acabchuk et al.
77 citations
Self-related processes (SRPs) such as rumination, self-compassion, self-efficacy, and self-esteem are theorized to be key mechanisms of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). This evidence map introduces a framework for categorizing SRPs and assesses how well mindfulness training engages these targets and whether engagement relates to improved outcomes. Rumination shows the strongest evidence as a mechanism for depression, with support for other health outcomes as well. Self-compassion consistently engages with mindfulness training but inconsistently links to better outcomes. Decentering and interoception are emerging potential mechanisms, though their construct validity remains under development. Few SRPs have been measured in MBIs, and more research with well-validated measures is needed.
October 3, 2019
Gaelle Desbordes, Tim Gard, Elizabeth A Hoge et al.
6 citations
Equanimity, an even-minded mental state toward all experiences regardless of their pleasantness, is proposed as a key outcome measure for contemplative research. While mindfulness has been used as a measurable outcome of meditation, it encompasses multiple components, some better characterized as equanimity. The article defines and discusses the inter-relationship between mindfulness and equanimity from classical Buddhist and modern psychology perspectives, reviews meditation techniques for cultivating equanimity, and examines psychological, physiological, and neuroimaging methods for assessing it. Equanimity captures potentially the most important psychological element in improving well-being and should be a focus in future research.
Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging
March 1, 2025
Michael Datko, Jacqueline Lutz, Richa Gawande et al.
1 citation
Mindfulness training for primary care patients with anxiety or depression increased activity in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex when anticipating pain, and this brain change was strongly linked to initiating health behavior changes. Greater increases in this brain response correlated with higher levels of action plan initiation, suggesting that mindfulness strengthens emotion regulation and goal-directed behavior in the face of discomfort.
BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
June 1, 2012
Gaelle Desbordes, Riccardo Barbieri, Luca Citi et al.
Electrocardiogram recordings from eight healthy adults without prior meditation experience, collected as part of a larger randomized controlled trial, showed that an eight-week mindful-attention meditation intervention increased heart rate variability (HRV) and decreased the LF/HF ratio, indicating improved autonomic function and more predominant vagal tone. These changes were not seen in the control group. A marked increase in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) occurred during meditation compared to rest. The authors suggest RSA may be a useful marker of the meditative state and encourage further research on HRV measures as indicators of autonomic health after meditation.
Gaelle Desbordes, Lobsang Negi
Modern neuroscience uses objective, quantitative methods to measure how mental events correspond to brain activity, while ancient contemplative traditions have relied on first-person introspective practices to understand the mind. Combining these approaches could be mutually enriching and synergistic. The scientific study of the mind would benefit greatly from including expert contemplative practitioners not only as study participants but as full co-investigators.
Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging
December 1, 2022
Michael Datko, Jacqueline Lutz, Richa Gawande et al.
An 8-week Mindfulness Training for Primary Care (MTPC) program altered brain activity during interoceptive attention in adults with anxiety and/or depression. After training, fMRI scans showed increased response in the left anterior insula when participants focused on their heartbeat compared to a visual task. Among patients with moderate-to-severe depression, this increased insula response was linked to greater Body Trusting—a sense of trusting one's own body sensations and viewing the body as a safe place to attend to. The findings suggest that depression severity influences how patients respond to mindfulness-based treatment, and that cultivating body trust may be a key component for those with more severe depression.
Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.)
October 1, 2020
Michael P Berry, Jacqueline Lutz, Zev Schuman-Olivier et al.
A brief self-compassion training (eight contact hours plus two weeks of home practice) reduced clinical pain intensity and disability and increased trait self-compassion and interoceptive awareness in people with chronic low back pain. Brain imaging showed that after training, evoked pressure pain response decreased in the right temporo-parietal junction, and pain anticipation responses increased in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and ventral posterior cingulate cortex. These brain changes were associated with improvements in self-compassion and body awareness. The authors argue that self-compassion may help regulate pain through self-referential, salience-processing, and emotion regulatory brain areas, but note that controlled studies are needed to confirm specificity.