Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
2026
Maria Serra-Blasco, Neus Miquel-Giner, Muriel Vicent-Gil et al.
Introduction: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic condition where many patients remain symptomatic despite first-line treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. This randomised controlled trial evaluated mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) efficacy as an augmentation strategy and its impact on brain functional connectivity....
iScience
November 21, 2025
Yuhua Yu, Quentin Raffaelli, Delaney Freveletti et al.
Human thoughts often arise unprompted, forming a stream of consciousness. Despite their ubiquity, it remains unknown how the brain supports unprompted thoughts as an integrated experience with rich content and dynamics. Applying latent state modeling to fMRI data collected while individuals spoke aloud their thoughts, we identified recurring brain states linked to moment-to-moment thought...
European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology
May 1, 2024
Víctor De la Peña-arteaga, Marta Cano, Daniel Porta-Casteràs et al.
5 citations
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) stands out as a promising augmentation psychological therapy for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). To identify potential predictive and response biomarkers, this study examines the relationship between clinical domains and resting-state network connectivity in OCD patients undergoing a 3-month MBCT programme. Twelve OCD patients...
Revista de psiquiatria y salud mental
2023
Neus Miquel-Giner, Muriel Vicent-Gil, Ignacio Martínez-zalacaín et al.
4 citations
Around 40-50% of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) suffer from obsessions and compulsions after receiving first-line treatments. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has been proposed as a reasonable augmentation strategy for OCD. MBCT trains to decentre from distressful thoughts and emotions by focusing on them voluntarily and with consciousness. This practice develops...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
September 30, 2021
Yoni K Ashar, Jessica R Andrews-Hanna, Joan Halifax et al.
Compassion meditation (CM) is a promising intervention for enhancing compassion, although its active ingredients and neurobiological mechanisms are not well-understood. To investigate these, we conducted a three-armed placebo-controlled randomized trial (N = 57) with longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We compared a 4-week CM program delivered by smartphone application...
Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
August 1, 2016
Yoni K Ashar, Jessica R Andrews-Hanna, Tal Yarkoni et al.
Compassion is critical for societal wellbeing. Yet, it remains unclear how specific thoughts and feelings motivate compassionate behavior, and we lack a scientific understanding of how to effectively cultivate compassion. Here, we conducted 2 studies designed to a) develop a psychological model predicting compassionate behavior, and b) test this model as a mediator of a Compassion Meditation...
Neuroimage
February 25, 2015
Kieran C. R. Fox, R. Nathan Spreng, Melissa Ellamil et al.
717 citations
The neural basis and cognitive functions of various spontaneous thought processes, particularly mind-wandering, are increasingly being investigated. Although strong links have been drawn between the occurrence of spontaneous thought processes and activation in brain regions comprising the default mode network (DMN), spontaneous thought also appears to recruit other, non-DMN regions just as...
Frontiers in Psychology
2013
Jonathan Smallwood, Jessica R Andrews-Hanna
441 citations
The waking mind is often occupied with mental contents that are minimally constrained by events in the here and now. These self-generated thoughts-e.g., mind-wandering or daydreaming-interfere with external task performance and can be a marker for unhappiness and even psychiatric problems. They also occupy our thoughts for upwards of half of the time, and under non-demanding conditions they (i)...
Yuhua Yu, Quentin Raffaelli, Delaney Freveletti et al.
preprint
Human thoughts often arise unprompted, forming a stream of consciousness. Despite their ubiquity, it remains unknown how the brain supports unprompted thoughts as an integrated experience encompassing diverse content embedded in rich temporal dynamics. Using latent brain state modelling of fMRI data collected while individuals spoke aloud their unprompted thoughts, we identified recurring...