Brain Behavior & Immunity - Health
September 14, 2022
Estelle T. Higgins, Richard J. Davidson, William W. Busse et al.
20 citations
Background: Psychological distress and comorbid psychopathology contribute to exacerbation risk in patients with asthma. Thus, interventions designed to reduce stress and improve emotion regulation, such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), may augment standard care. Few studies have addressed this question and a paucity of data exists to determine the ability of MBSR to impact...
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
August 1, 2022
Tammi R. A. Kral, Regina C Lapate, Ted Imhoff‐Smith et al.
Mindfulness meditation has been shown to increase resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which is thought to reflect improvements in shifting attention to the present moment. However, prior research in long-term meditation practitioners lacked quantitative measures of attention that would provide a...
July 31, 2022
Christian A. Webb, Matthew J. Hirshberg, Richard J. Davidson et al.
1 citation
BACKGROUND Meditation apps have surged in popularity in recent years, with an increasing number of individuals turning to these apps to cope with stress, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, meditation apps now represent the most commonly used mental health apps for depression and anxiety. However, little is known regarding who is well-suited to these apps. OBJECTIVE The aim of this...
American Journal of Psychiatry
July 28, 2022
Joseph Wielgosz, Tammi R. A. Kral, David M Perlman et al.
21 citations
OBJECTIVE: Mindfulness-based interventions are widely used to target pain, yet their neural mechanisms of action are insufficiently understood. The authors studied neural and subjective pain response in a randomized active-control trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) alongside long-term meditation practitioners. METHODS: Healthy participants (N=115) underwent functional...
Science Advances
May 20, 2022
Tammi R. A. Kral, Kaley Davis, Cole Korponay et al.
67 citations
Studies purporting to show changes in brain structure following the popular, 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) course are widely referenced despite major methodological limitations. Here, we present findings from a large, combined dataset of two, three-arm randomized controlled trials with active and waitlist (WL) control groups. Meditation-naïve participants ( n = 218) completed...
JMIR Formative Research
November 14, 2021
Thaddeus W W Pace, Katharine H. Zeiders, S. Cook et al.
Background Firefighters are often exposed to occupational stressors that can result in psychological distress (ie, anxiety and depression) and burnout. These occupational stressors have only intensified with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and will likely persist in the postpandemic world. Objective To address occupational stressors confronting firefighters, we pilot tested a novel,...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
September 17, 2021
Tammi R. A. Kral, Regina C Lapate, Ted Imhoff‐Smith et al.
preprint
Abstract Mindfulness meditation has been shown to increase resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which is thought to reflect improvements in attention to the present moment. However, prior research in long-term meditation practitioners lacked quantitative measures of attention that would provide a...
Frontiers in Psychology
September 3, 2021
Daniel W Grupe, Jonah L. Stoller, Carmen Alonso et al.
43 citations
Unaddressed occupational stress and trauma contribute to elevated rates of mental illness and suicide in policing, and to violent and aggressive behavior that disproportionately impacts communities of color. Emerging evidence suggests mindfulness training with police may reduce stress and aggression and improve mental health, but there is limited evidence for changes in biological outcomes or...
July 29, 2021
Christian A. Webb, Matthew J. Hirshberg, Richard J. Davidson et al.
1 citation
preprint
Meditation apps are popular and may reduce psychological distress, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is not clear who is most likely to benefit. Using randomized controlled trial data comparing a 4-week meditation app (Healthy Minds Program; HMP) with an assessment-only control in school system employees (n=662), we developed an algorithm predicting who is most likely to...
medRxiv
June 16, 2021
Tammi R. A. Kral, Kaley Davis, Cole Korponay et al.
2 citations
preprint
Abstract Studies purporting to show changes in brain structure following the popular, eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course are widely referenced despite major methodological limitations. Here, we present findings from a large, combined dataset of two, three-arm randomized controlled trials with active and waitlist (WL) control groups. Meditation-naive participants (n=218)...
Psychotherapy Research
June 2, 2021
Simon B. Goldberg, Sin U Lam, Willoughby B. Britton et al.
110 citations
OBJECTIVE: Meditation practice and meditation-based psychotherapies have become increasingly popular. Although psychological benefits associated with meditation are well-documented, potential risks are unclear. METHOD: We conducted a population-based survey to evaluate the occurrence of a broad range of meditation-related adverse effects (MRAE). RESULTS: Nine hundred and fifty three...
Assessment
May 18, 2021
Simon B. Goldberg, Scott A. Baldwin, Kevin M. Riordan et al.
73 citations
The working alliance may be relevant in unguided smartphone-based interventions, but no validated measure exists. We evaluated the psychometric properties of the six-item Digital Working Alliance Inventory (DWAI) using a cross-sectional survey of meditation app users ( n = 290) and the intervention arm of a randomized trial testing a smartphone-based meditation app ( n = 314). Exploratory...
March 30, 2021
Matthew J. Hirshberg, Corrina Frye, Cortland J. Dahl et al.
5 citations
preprint
While the extraordinary pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic on student mental health have received considerable attention, less attention has been placed on the well-being of educators. School system employees play a vital role in society, and teacher levels of well-being are associated with the educational outcomes of young people. We extend extant research on the prevalence and correlates of...
Perspectives on Psychological Science
February 16, 2021
Simon B. Goldberg, Kevin M. Riordan, Shufang Sun et al.
492 citations
In response to questions regarding the scientific basis for mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), we evaluated their empirical status by systematically reviewing meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We searched six databases for effect sizes based on four or more trials that did not combine passive and active controls. Heterogeneity, moderators, tests of publication bias,...
Cognition & Emotion
January 29, 2021
Simon B. Goldberg, Lisa Flook, Matthew J. Hirshberg et al.
6 citations
Mindfulness-based interventions that span multiple sessions over time appear to confer psychological benefits. However, the effects of brief periods of mindfulness meditation training are less clear, particularly on measures of cognitive functioning. This study assessed whether brief mindfulness practice (breath awareness) or training in two other contemplative practices – loving-kindness and...
Frontiers in Psychology
January 28, 2021
Dylan Thomas Lott, Tenzin Yeshi, N. Norchung et al.
18 citations
Recent EEG studies on the early postmortem interval that suggest the persistence of electrophysiological coherence and connectivity in the brain of animals and humans reinforce the need for further investigation of the relationship between the brain’s activity and the dying process. Neuroscience is now in a position to empirically evaluate the extended process of dying and, more specifically,...
JMIR Mental Health
November 27, 2020
Simon B. Goldberg, Ted Imhoff‐Smith, Daniel M. Bolt et al.
104 citations
BACKGROUND: A growing number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) suggest psychological benefits associated with meditation training delivered via mobile health. However, research in this area has primarily focused on mindfulness, only one of many meditative techniques. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of 2 versions of a self-guided, smartphone-based meditation app-the...
August 28, 2020
Simon B. Goldberg, Ted Imhoff‐Smith, Daniel M. Bolt et al.
BACKGROUND A growing number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) suggest psychological benefits associated with meditation training delivered via mobile health. However, research in this area has primarily focused on mindfulness, only one of many meditative techniques. OBJECTIVE This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of 2 versions of a self-guided, smartphone-based meditation app—the...
January 30, 2020
Matthew J. Hirshberg, Simon B. Goldberg, Melissa A. Rosenkranz et al.
5 citations
preprint
Background: Mindfulness meditation has become a common method for reducing stress, stress-related psychopathology and some physical symptoms. As mindfulness programs become ubiquitous, concerns have been raised about their unknown potential for harm. We estimate multiple indices of harm following Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on two primary outcomes: global psychological and...
Scientific Reports
November 22, 2019
Isaac N Treves, Lawrence Y. Tello, Richard J. Davidson et al.
118 citations
Abstract Although awareness of bodily sensations is a common mindfulness meditation technique, studies assessing the relationship between mindfulness and body awareness have provided mixed results. The current study sought to meta-analytically examine the relationship between mindfulness operationalized as a dispositional trait or a construct trained through short- (i.e., randomized controlled...
PLoS One
August 28, 2019
Simon B. Goldberg, Matthew J. Hirshberg, Lawrence Y. Tello et al.
2 citations
The impact of meditation training on self-report psychological variables is well-established. Although meditation training is purported to have interpersonal impacts, whether naïve observers perceive differences associated with long- and short-term meditation training is largely unknown. The current study provided a stringent test of this possibility through observer ratings of a very thin...
Scientific Reports
August 19, 2019
Cole Korponay, Daniela Dentico, Tammi R. A. Kral et al.
49 citations
Interest has grown in using mindfulness meditation to treat conditions featuring excessive impulsivity. However, while prior studies find that mindfulness practice can improve attention, it remains unclear whether it improves other cognitive faculties whose deficiency can contribute to impulsivity. Here, an eight-week mindfulness intervention did not reduce impulsivity on the go/no-go task or...
Current Opinion in Psychology
August 1, 2019
Cortland J. Dahl, Richard J. Davidson
Despite the growing popular and scientific interest in mindfulness and other forms of meditation, there are important gaps in our understanding of the full range of contemplative practices and the manner in which specific forms of meditation may contribute to well-being. In this article, we discuss the relationship between mindfulness and other forms of meditation, such as those related to...
Journal of Counseling Psychology
July 25, 2019
Simon B. Goldberg, Cara Knoeppel, Richard J. Davidson et al.
71 citations
= .879). In multilevel mediation models, improved practice quality mediated the link between practice time and changes in self-report mindfulness, suggesting improved practice quality functions as a mechanism linking practice time and outcome in MBSR. Future research evaluating practice quality in clinical samples, in tandem with intensive sampling paradigms (e.g., experience sampling) and...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
July 1, 2019
Tammi R. A. Kral, Ted Imhoff‐Smith, D. Dean et al.
Abstract Mindfulness meditation training has been shown to increase resting-state functional connectivity between nodes of the frontoparietal executive control network (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [DLPFC]) and the default mode network (posterior cingulate cortex [PCC]). We investigated whether these effects generalized to a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course and tested for...