Scientific Reports
July 18, 2022
Hadley Rahrig, David R. Vago, Matthew A. Passarelli et al.
83 citations
A meta-analysis of twelve studies (226 mindfulness participants, 204 controls) found that mindfulness training increased resting-state functional connectivity between the left middle cingulate cortex (part of the salience network) and the posterior cingulate cortex (a hub of the default mode network), compared to control conditions. This effect, though small (Hedge's g = 0.234), was statistically significant and showed low heterogeneity across studies. The result supports the idea that mindfulness training enhances communication between brain networks involved in flexible, internally-oriented attentional control. No evidence of publication bias was detected.
International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHP
January 1, 2023
Fabio Giommi, Prisca R. Bauer, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana et al.
70 citations
Rigidity, or inflexibility, is a core feature of transdiagnostic processes underlying many mental health disorders. The pattern theory of self (PTS) defines the self as a dynamic, nonlinear pattern of multiple interacting processes. Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) can reduce rigid, habitual self-patterns, thereby improving mental health. MBIs alter psychological and behavioral aspects of the self-pattern and can shift the entire self-pattern as a gestalt. Neuroscientific evidence shows that the phenomenology of the self is reflected in cortical networks, and meditation alters these networks. Combining PTS and neuroscientific findings may deepen understanding of psychopathology and improve diagnosis and treatment.
Perspectives on Psychological Science
August 28, 2020
Vera U. Ludwig, Kirk Warren Brown, Judson A. Brewer
69 citations
Self-regulation is often seen as a struggle between impulses and willpower, but an alternative approach emphasizes autonomous motivation, where behavior aligns with personal values or intrinsic satisfaction. Advances in neuroscience show that reward valuation involves brain regions like the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex, and clinical treatments like mindfulness training suggest a shift from forced to unforced behavior change. This paper proposes that bringing awareness to subjective experience and behavior can change the valuation of learned unhealthy behaviors, leading to sustainable self-regulatory shifts without relying on willpower.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
September 4, 2014
Ulrich Kirk, Kirk Warren Brown, Jonathan Downar
66 citations
Reward seeking is common and adaptive, but excessive pursuit of monetary rewards can reduce well-being. People trained in mindfulness meditation show lower brain reactivity to monetary incentives. In a functional MRI study, 34 meditators and 44 matched controls performed a monetary incentive delay task equally well, but meditators had lower activation in the caudate nucleus during reward anticipation and higher activation in the bilateral posterior insula. During reward receipt, meditators showed reduced activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Connectivity between the right caudate and bilateral anterior insula was weaker in meditators during anticipation. These findings indicate that mindfulness meditators are less susceptible to monetary rewards at a neural level.
PLoS One
July 19, 2019
Jordan T. Quaglia, Fadel Zeidan, Peter G. Grossenbacher et al.
64 citations
Mindfulness training improves cognitive control in social situations by enhancing early top-down attention. In a randomized controlled study, participants who completed four brief mindfulness sessions showed better discrimination of facial expressions and more efficient cognitive control compared to a control group. Those with poorer baseline performance benefited most. Mindfulness also improved conflict monitoring of behavioral tendencies, as shown by larger No-Go N200 brain responses. These results suggest mindfulness helps people manage the unique demands of social contexts, particularly for those with greater room for improvement, and that early attention deployment may be a key mechanism behind mindfulness's regulatory benefits.
PLoS One
July 11, 2019
Daniella K. Villalba, Emily K. Lindsay, Anna L. Marsland et al.
59 citations
Two randomized controlled trials tested whether mindfulness training reduces inflammation, measured by C-Reactive Protein (CRP), in stressed community adults. One trial used a 2-week smartphone-based intervention; the other used an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program. Training that combined attention monitoring with acceptance skills did not lower CRP compared to training without acceptance or to a control condition. Exploratory analyses combining data from both studies suggested that either mindfulness approach might reduce CRP in midlife-to-older adults and individuals with high body mass index, populations at risk for systemic inflammation.
Mindfulness
April 11, 2023
Shaun Gallagher, Antonino Raffone, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana et al.
49 citations
Buddhist psychology's insights into mind-body phenomena and non-self align with the pattern theory of self, which describes the self as a dynamic, temporal, and enactive pattern of processes. Although Buddhist concepts do not map directly onto the self-pattern, both frameworks share similarities in explaining experiences of self and non-self through pragmatic, relational processes. This mutual perspective offers implications for well-being and flexibility that reduce anxiety, attachment, craving, and suffering.
Journal of Experimental Psychology General
September 24, 2020
Brian Chin, Emily K. Lindsay, Carol M. Greco et al.
49 citations
An 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention that included both monitoring and acceptance skills, and a modified version that focused on monitoring skills only, both improved momentary and trait attentional control compared with no treatment. Improvements in momentary attentional control partially accounted for gains in trait attentional control. Performance on a dichotic listening sustained-attention task did not improve. The results suggest that present-focused monitoring skills training is a key driver of mindfulness-related improvements in attentional control.
Psychophysiology
February 19, 2022
Kirk Warren Brown, Daniel R. Berry, Kristina Eichel et al.
38 citations
Mindfulness-based trainings like Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teach two meditation forms: focused attention (FA) and open monitoring (OM). A dismantling trial compared structurally equivalent 8-week trainings in MBCT, FA, and OM among 89 community adults with varying depressive symptoms. Electroencephalographic (EEG) frontal alpha asymmetry and self-reported emotional responses to images were measured before and after training. FA and MBCT produced leftward shifts in frontal alpha asymmetry, indicating a shift toward approach-based positive affect, and improved self-reported emotional reactivity and regulation for negative images. OM showed limited benefits, restricted to subjective outcomes. The findings suggest MBCT's benefits may come mainly from FA training.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
May 24, 2018
Alexandra Martelli, David Chester, Kirk Warren Brown et al.
31 citations
Mindfulness—receptive attentiveness to present-moment experience—may buffer the distress of social rejection. In a functional MRI study, participants reported their trait mindfulness, then played Cyberball, a social rejection game. Those higher in mindfulness reported less distress during rejection. This effect was mediated by lower activation in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, a brain region linked to inhibiting negative affect. Mindfulness also correlated with weaker functional connectivity between that region and the amygdala and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, areas involved in generating social distress. The findings suggest mindfulness may aid coping with rejection by not over-activating top-down regulatory mechanisms, potentially fostering more effective long-term emotion regulation.
Social Psychological and Personality Science
November 18, 2021
Daniel R. Berry, Catherine S. J. Wall, Justin D. Tubbs et al.
29 citations
A randomized controlled trial tested whether a 4-day mindfulness training, compared to a sham meditation training, increased helping behaviors toward racial outgroup members. People with higher baseline trait mindfulness showed more helping behavior before the intervention. Mindfulness training increased interracial helping in a lab simulation. Among participants with lower baseline trait mindfulness, mindfulness training predicted more real-world helping behavior reported via ecological momentary assessment. However, neither training condition reduced the tendency to preferentially help racial ingroup members. The findings suggest mindfulness fosters helping toward strangers regardless of race, but does not eliminate ingroup bias.
Mindfulness
August 1, 2024
Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Kirk Warren Brown, Shaun Gallagher et al.
22 citations
A selfless state of consciousness, reported for centuries in wisdom traditions, involves both temporary and lasting conditions. In psychology, the healthy self is typically emphasized, and the idea of selfless modes is sometimes dismissed, hindering empirical progress. This paper offers an interdisciplinary conceptual discussion grounded in the pattern theory of self (PTS), which views the self as a complex pattern of dynamically related processes. It proposes that meditative practices induce a reorganization of the self-pattern, enabling temporary or persistent selfless experience. The authors present a heuristic model, the pattern theory of selflessness (PTSL), with six nonlinear transformations: consolidating and integrating the self-pattern; cultivating concentration and present-moment awareness; cultivating mindful awareness; self-deconstruction states; self-flexibility; and self-liberation as a trait. This integrative view advances understanding of non-self experience and guides empirical research.
Psychosomatic Medicine
March 3, 2021
Emily K. Lindsay, J. David Creswell, Harrison J. Stern et al.
18 citations
An 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program buffered increases in glucocorticoid resistance (GCR)—a measure of immune cells' reduced sensitivity to anti-inflammatory signals—among lonely older adults aged 65–85, compared with a matched health enhancement program. GCR increased in the control group from before to after the intervention, while the MBSR group showed a small, nonsignificant reduction. The between-group difference was moderate immediately after the program but was not maintained at a 3-month follow-up. The findings suggest MBSR may protect against short-term declines in immune regulation in at-risk older adults.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
July 23, 2021
Hadley Rahrig, James M. Bjork, Camila Tirado et al.
17 citations
Reactive aggression, a hostile response to perceived threat, has been linked to emotion regulation failures. A pilot study compared two weeks of mindfulness training (MT) to active coping training (CT) in healthy adults, using fMRI during a retaliatory aggression task. The groups did not differ in aggression levels. However, MT participants showed greater ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activity during punishment events, while CT participants showed greater dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) activity when deciding retaliation. The findings suggest mindfulness and cognitive control training may regulate aggression through different neural circuits at different stages of provocation.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
July 21, 2021
Yingqi Gu, Yi Zhu, Kirk Warren Brown
12 citations
Mindfulness practices affect key brain circuits and networks relevant to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The executive attention, sustained attention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity circuits are all engaged by mindfulness, as are the central executive, default mode, and salience networks. The authors suggest that more research is needed to identify the neuropsychological mechanisms by which mindfulness alleviates ADHD symptoms.
August 21, 2018
Emily K. Lindsay, Brian Chin, Carol M. Greco et al.
9 citations
Training in both monitoring present-moment experiences and accepting them boosts positive emotions more than monitoring alone. In two randomized trials with stressed community adults, a mindfulness intervention that taught monitoring plus acceptance skills increased daily positive affect, while a structurally equivalent intervention teaching only monitoring did not. The acceptance-focused intervention raised end-of-day positive affect in an 8-week group-based study and both end-of-day and momentary positive affect in a 2-week smartphone-based study. All active interventions reduced negative affect. These results indicate that cultivating acceptance toward present-moment experiences is a key mechanism through which mindfulness interventions enhance positive emotions in everyday life.
September 28, 2017
Emily K. Lindsay, Shinzen Young, Joshua M. Smyth et al.
9 citations
preprint
Training in both monitoring present-moment experience and accepting it reduces biological stress reactivity, whereas monitoring alone does not. In a randomized trial, 153 stressed adults completed one of three 15-lesson smartphone-based trainings: Monitor+Accept, Monitor Only, or an active Coping control. After training, a social stress test showed that Monitor+Accept training lowered cortisol and systolic blood pressure reactivity compared to the other two conditions. Subjective stress levels were moderate across all groups. The findings indicate that acceptance is a key mechanism driving mindfulness-related stress reduction effects on biology.
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.
Oxford Handbooks Online
October 5, 2016
Mark R. Leary, Kirk Warren Brown, Kate J. Diebels
3 citations
People with a hypo-egoic mindset are more focused on the present moment, process experiences with minimal internal commentary, and have a less individuated identity. They balance their own interests with others' needs, care less about how others evaluate them, and show greater emotional equanimity. Interpersonally, they tend to be agreeable, attentive, and caring. These characteristics likely make them more prone to experiences such as flow, awe, compassion, and mystical states.
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.
Research Square
January 6, 2022
Hadley Rahrig, David R. Vago, Matthew A. Passarelli et al.
2 citations
Mindfulness training increases resting-state functional connectivity between the salience network and the default mode network, specifically between the left middle cingulate and the posterior cingulate cortex. This finding supports the idea that mindfulness enhances flexible control of internally-oriented attention. The meta-analysis included 12 studies with 226 mindfulness participants and 204 controls. The effect was small but significant, and there was no evidence of publication bias.
October 18, 2023
Hadley Rahrig, Liangsuo Ma, Kirk Warren Brown et al.
preprint
A brief mindfulness induction altered functional brain networks in intimate partner dyads, reducing coherence within the Default Mode Network and increasing connectivity within the Frontoparietal Control and Salience Networks, while decoupling primary visual and attention-linked networks. However, these neural changes did not translate into reduced intimate partner aggression, and aggression was broadly unassociated with any network indices. The findings suggest that minimal doses of focused attention meditation can produce transient changes in large-scale brain networks, but their implications for aggressive behavior remain uncertain.
Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience
December 1, 2023
Hadley Rahrig, Liangsuo Ma, Kirk Warren Brown et al.
A brief mindfulness induction—a single session of focused attention meditation—altered large-scale brain networks in intimate partner dyads. In 100 participants (50 couples), mindfulness instruction reduced coherence within the Default Mode Network and increased connectivity in the Frontoparietal Control and Salience Networks, while decoupling visual and attention-linked networks. However, these neural changes did not translate into reduced intimate partner aggression, and aggression was unrelated to any network measures. The results suggest that minimal doses of mindfulness can produce transient brain network changes, but their behavioral implications for aggression remain unclear.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
May 1, 2022
Emily K. Lindsay, J. D. Creswell, Harrison J. Stern et al.
Mindfulness training may boost immune responsivity in lonely older adults. In a trial of 190 adults aged 65–85, an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program led to greater increases in stimulated interleukin-6 production—a marker of innate immune function—compared to a control health program. The effect was seen immediately after the intervention and persisted at a 3-month follow-up. No adverse events occurred. The findings suggest that mindfulness training could help counteract age- and stress-related declines in immunocompetence, potentially reducing infection risk and improving recovery.
Biological Psychiatry
July 1, 2016
J David Creswell, Adrienne A. Taren, Emily K. Lindsay et al.
A 3-day intensive mindfulness meditation training, compared with relaxation training, increased resting-state functional connectivity between the default mode network and the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in stressed unemployed adults. These brain connectivity changes statistically explained 30% of the mindfulness meditation training effects on reducing interleukin-6, a marker of systemic inflammation, at 4-month follow-up. The findings suggest that mindfulness meditation may improve inflammatory health markers by strengthening brain networks involved in executive control.