Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
November 23, 2011
Judson A. Brewer, Patrick D. Worhunsky, Jeremy R. Gray et al.
1,410 citations
Experienced meditators show reduced activity in brain regions linked to self-referential thought and mind-wandering, particularly the medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices, across different meditation types. They also exhibit stronger connections between areas involved in self-monitoring and cognitive control, such as the posterior cingulate, dorsal anterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, both at rest and during meditation. These neural patterns align with decreased mind-wandering, offering insight into how meditation may support present-moment awareness and well-being.
Journal of Management
November 19, 2015
Darren Good, Christopher Lyddy, Theresa M. Glomb et al.
1,007 citations
A growing body of evidence suggests mindfulness is closely tied to many aspects of workplace functioning, but this knowledge has not been systematically integrated. This review organizes the expanding mindfulness scholarship into a framework to guide management research. The framework shows how mindfulness affects attention, which then influences cognition, emotion, behavior, and physiology. These domains ultimately impact key workplace outcomes such as performance, relationships, and well-being. The evidence on mindfulness at work raises important questions and challenges key assumptions in management science, pointing toward an agenda for future research.
Psychological Medicine
December 29, 2016
Rebecca S. Crane, Judson A. Brewer, Christina Feldman et al.
861 citations
A framework defines essential characteristics of mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) like MBSR and MBCT, distinguishing them from other interventions. MBPs draw from contemplative traditions, science, medicine, psychology, and education; are grounded in a model addressing causes of human distress and pathways to relief; foster present-moment focus, decentering, and an approach orientation; cultivate qualities such as joy, compassion, wisdom, equanimity, and self-regulation; and involve sustained intensive meditation training, experiential inquiry, and exercises. The framework aims to support clarity for systematic research and maintain integrity as MBPs expand into healthcare, education, criminal justice, and workplaces.
Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience
April 22, 2015
Kathleen A. Garrison, Thomas Zeffiro, Dustin Scheinost et al.
309 citations
Meditation is linked to reduced activity in the default mode network, a brain system tied to self-focused thought and mind wandering, even when compared to an active cognitive task rather than just rest. In a larger group than prior studies, meditators showed less default mode network activation during meditation than non-meditators performing a control task. Key regions involved were the posterior cingulate/precuneus and anterior cingulate cortex. These findings suggest that suppression of default mode processing is a central neural process in long-term meditation, extending beyond what is seen during other effortful tasks.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2013
Judson A. Brewer, Kathleen A. Garrison, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli
264 citations
The posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) is consistently activated during self-referential tasks like judging personality traits or mind-wandering, and deactivated during present-centered tasks such as working memory or meditation. Despite this pattern, the PCC's exact role in self-related processes remains unclear. Recent real-time fMRI neurofeedback studies suggest PCC activity may reflect a sub-component of self-reference: 'getting caught up in' one's experience, such as a craving or viewpoint. This review synthesizes converging evidence across cognitive neuroscience domains, including neurophenomenological studies, to support this interpretation.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2013
Kathleen A. Garrison, Juan F. Santoyo, Jake H. Davis et al.
226 citations
Meditators' subjective experiences during a real-time fMRI neurofeedback study align with activity in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), a core region of the default mode network. Reports of undistracted awareness—such as concentration, observing sensory experience, and effortless doing (including not efforting and contentment)—correspond with decreased PCC activity. In contrast, experiences of distracted awareness (distraction, interpreting) and controlling (efforting, discontentment) correspond with increased PCC activity. The findings also generated novel hypotheses, including a distinction between meditating and trying to meditate, offering insights into how meditation relates to mind wandering and self-related thinking.
Journal of Counseling Psychology
July 15, 2021
Shufang Sun, Danhua Lin, Simon B. Goldberg et al.
148 citations
A mindfulness-based mobile health intervention reduced anxiety more than a social-support-based mobile health intervention among young adult students in quarantine in China who had elevated anxiety or depressive symptoms. Both groups improved on depression, with no significant difference between them. The mindfulness program was also rated as more feasible and acceptable. Emotional suppression reduction helped explain the improvements. The study suggests that delivering mindfulness or social support via smartphone apps can help reduce distress during a pandemic, with mindfulness especially effective for anxiety.
Neuroimage
September 1, 2017
Remko Van Lutterveld, Edwin Van Dellen, Prasanta Pal et al.
85 citations
During meditation, experienced meditators show more integrated brain networks in the alpha frequency band (8-13 Hz) than novice meditators. EEG measures of network integration—maximum betweenness centrality and leaf fraction—were higher in experienced meditators, while diameter and average eccentricity were lower, indicating more efficient network topology. No differences were found in theta or beta bands. The findings suggest that long-term meditation practice is associated with greater functional integration of alpha-band brain networks.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2018
Judson A. Brewer, Andrea Ruf, Ariel L Beccia et al.
83 citations
Modern food environments interact with human biology to promote reward-related eating through associative learning, specifically operant conditioning. Standard weight-loss diets that rely on dietary restriction have shown little long-term benefit and may be counterproductive because they do not directly target the habit-based reward-related eating cultivated by positive and negative reinforcement. Mindfulness training that targets reward-based learning may help rewire the eating process. Teaching patients to act on intrinsic rewards—such as enjoying healthy eating, not overeating, and self-compassion—rather than extrinsic rewards like weighing oneself, offers a promising new direction for improving individuals' relationship with food.
Brain and Behavior
February 12, 2014
Kathleen A. Garrison, Dustin Scheinost, R. Todd Constable et al.
80 citations
During loving kindness meditation—a practice of directing well-wishing through silent phrases—experienced meditators show reduced brain activity and intrinsic connectivity in the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus compared to novices, regions linked to self-related processing and mind wandering. Meditators also exhibit greater connectivity between the posterior cingulate/precuneus and the left inferior frontal gyrus, while novices show stronger connectivity with other default-mode network regions, the posterior insula, and the parahippocampus/hippocampus. These patterns suggest that loving kindness meditation fosters a present-centered, selfless focus in experienced practitioners relative to beginners.
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.
Medical problems of performing artists
June 1, 2015
Matthew Steinfeld, Judson A. Brewer
11 citations
Mindfulness meditation offers a useful model for understanding how musicians can maintain a musical "practice" over time and across contexts. Sitting meditation, which involves observing the contents of the mind without mediation, can help musicians grasp the phenomenology of music-making and the "flow" states that arise from embodied practice. Reconceptualizing music-making as a mindfulness practice carries psychological and pedagogical implications for developing musicians.
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.
Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
April 1, 2025
Clemens C C Bauer, Daniel A Atad, Norman A. S. Farb et al.
3 citations
The observer effect—the idea that observing a phenomenon changes it—is often seen as a problem to control, but this paper argues it should be actively studied and used. Mindfulness practices, which cultivate present-moment, nonjudgmental awareness, are proposed as a way to account for and intentionally harness this effect. In research, mindfulness training may help participants give more precise self-reports by reducing reactive biases. Evidence suggests mindfulness improves interoceptive awareness and reduces automatic judgment, potentially increasing measurement validity. Clinically, therapies often aim to make unconscious patterns observable; mindfulness cultivates meta-awareness, allowing individuals to observe cravings or anxiety without reactivity, facilitating psychological change. The paper proposes developing an observer-effect index to code observer influence.
BMC Medical Education
July 17, 2025
Denish Gunawan, Lia Antico, William Nardi et al.
2 citations
A mindfulness program designed for Indonesian pre-clinical medical students was feasible and acceptable. Over three iterative phases, students reported moderate and rising interest (mean range: 5.75 to 6.6), high relevance to stress, perfectionism, and communication challenges, and a strong likelihood of applying practices like S.T.O.P. meditation and journaling. Qualitative feedback highlighted themes of relevance, practical benefit, and cultural fit. The program appears culturally appropriate and suitable for stress management and personal growth, though it remains in an early evaluative phase.
JMIR Formative Research
January 24, 2025
Lia Antico, Judson A. Brewer
2 citations
A short digital mindfulness training program, designed with clinician input and delivered via podcast or app, reduced cynicism—a key component of burnout—by 33% in two pilot studies with physicians and nurse practitioners. Anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, personal distress, and sleep disturbances also decreased, while self-compassion and mindfulness improved. No changes were observed for depression, perspective taking, or empathic concern. The findings suggest that this brief, digital mindfulness training can be a practical tool for alleviating burnout and anxiety among physicians.
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.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2024
Frederick M Hecht, Rebecca S. Crane, Patricia J Moran et al.
2 citations
Teaching quality in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) courses, measured by the Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI:TAC), shows fair to good inter-rater reliability depending on the number of raters. Using a single rater, reliability was fair (intraclass correlation coefficients 0.33–0.56 across six domains); with three raters, reliability was good (0.6–0.8). Among 152 MBSR students, anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep, and social role function improved from before the course to two and four months later (improvements of 2.3 to 6.3 points). Higher MBI:TAC ratings predicted greater anxiety reduction: each one-unit increase in composite teaching rating was associated with a 0.31-point greater decrease in anxiety score. No significant relationships were found for other health domains.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
March 27, 2026
Morgan Rose Healey, Yaser Sanchez-Gama, Mengyuan Ding et al.
Self-transcendence, the shift of experience away from the self toward others, nature, or broader meaning, is a key aspect of human psychology, but its neural basis was unclear. By applying lesion network mapping to 88 neurosurgical patients assessed before and after surgery for trait self-transcendence, a distributed brain network was identified whose disruption alters this capacity. This network overlapped with the default mode network and frontoparietal control subnetworks. Posterior midline regions were the most stable correlates of increased self-transcendence after lesions. The findings suggest that posterior midline hubs constrain, while brainstem and anterior midline regions facilitate, self-transcendent experience.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
January 1, 2014
Judson A. Brewer, Kathleen A Garrison
Mindfulness training targets brain regions like the posterior cingulate cortex, a hub of the default mode network, according to a review of psychological and neuroimaging research. Ancient and modern models of stress, such as operant conditioning, converge on plausible biological mechanisms for mindfulness. Recent studies using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging neurofeedback in neurophenomenological investigations reveal how meditation alters activity in task-positive and default mode networks, reducing mind wandering. The paper highlights emerging findings that link mindfulness practice to changes in brain function, though it does not report new experimental results.