June 11, 2019
Daniel W Grupe, Chad Mcgehee, Christine E. Smith et al.
BACKGROUND. Police officers are exposed daily to high levels of organizational and operational stressors that have a negative impact on health and well-being outcomes. This population has elevated rates of cardiovascular disease, sleep disorders, symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicide. Although there are few empirically supported effective stress reduction...
June 4, 2019
Simon B. Goldberg, Raymond P. Tucker, Preston A. Greene et al.
5 citations
Because they provide data on responsiveness to experimental manipulation, clinical trials involving mindfulness-based inter- ventions are a source of evidence for the construct validity of self-report measures of mindfulness. Within-group and between- group changes in mindfulness were examined from randomized clinical trials comparing mindfulness interventions to other bona fide treatment...
Psychology of consciousness (Washington, D.C.)
March 1, 2019
Benjamin Baird, Brady A. Riedner, Melanie Boly et al.
41 citations
Strong conceptual and theoretical connections have been made between meditation practice, mindfulness and lucid dreaming. However, only a handful of empirical studies have evaluated the relationship between lucid dreaming and meditation, and conclusions remain tempered by methodological limitations. Here we evaluate the relationship between meditation, mindfulness and lucid dream frequency...
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
February 8, 2019
Simon B. Goldberg, Raymond P. Tucker, Preston A. Greene et al.
174 citations
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) appears to be a promising intervention for the prevention of relapse in major depressive disorder, but its efficacy in patients with current depressive symptoms is less clear. Randomized clinical trials of MBCT for adult patients with current depressive symptoms were included (k = 13, N = 1046). Comparison conditions were coded based on whether they...
January 14, 2019
Simon B. Goldberg, Raymond P. Tucker, Preston A. Greene et al.
38 citations
Despite widespread scientific and popular interest in mindfulness-based interventions, questions regarding the empirical status of these treatments remain. We sought to examine the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions for clinical populations on disorder-specific symptoms. To address the question of relative efficacy, we coded the strength of the comparison group into five categories: no...
PLoS One
December 12, 2018
Matthew J. Hirshberg, Simon B. Goldberg, S. Schaefer et al.
33 citations
Mindfulness practices are increasingly being utilized as a method for cultivating well-being. The term mindfulness is often used as an umbrella for a variety of different practices and many mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) contain multiple styles of practice. Despite the diversity of practices within MBIs, few studies have investigated whether constituent practices produce specific...
Annual Review of Clinical Psychology
December 11, 2018
Joseph Wielgosz, Simon B. Goldberg, Tammi R. A. Kral et al.
441 citations
Mindfulness meditation is increasingly incorporated into mental health interventions, and theoretical concepts associated with it have influenced basic research on psychopathology. Here, we review the current understanding of mindfulness meditation through the lens of clinical neuroscience, outlining the core capacities targeted by mindfulness meditation and mapping them onto cognitive and...
European Journal of Neuroscience
August 24, 2018
Daniela Dentico, David R. W. Bachhuber, Brady A. Riedner et al.
18 citations
Our recent finding of a meditation-related increase in low-frequency NREM sleep EEG oscillatory activities peaking in the theta-alpha range (4-12 Hz) was not predicted. From a consolidated body of research on sleep homeostasis, we would expect a change peaking in slow wave activity (1-4 Hz) following an intense meditation session. Here we compared these changes in sleep with the post-meditation...
Neuropsychologia
July 21, 2018
Enrico Fucci, Oussama Abdoun, Anne Caclin et al.
58 citations
Non-dual meditation aims to undo maladaptive cognitive and affective patterns by recognizing their constructed and transient nature. We previously found high-amplitude spontaneous gamma (25-40 Hz) oscillatory activity during such practice. Nonetheless, it is unclear how this meditation state differs from other practices, in terms of perceptual information processing. Here, we hypothesized that...
Neuroimage
July 7, 2018
Tammi R. A. Kral, Brianna S. Schuyler, Jeanette A. Mumford et al.
ABSTRACT Meditation training can improve mood and emotion regulation, yet the neural mechanisms of these affective changes have yet to be fully elucidated. We evaluated the impact of long‐ and short‐term mindfulness meditation training on the amygdala response to emotional pictures in a healthy, non‐clinical population of adults using blood‐oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance...
Clinical Psychology Review
February 1, 2018
Simon B. Goldberg, Raymond P. Tucker, Preston A. Greene et al.
Despite widespread scientific and popular interest in mindfulness-based interventions, questions regarding the empirical status of these treatments remain. We sought to examine the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions for clinical populations on disorder-specific symptoms. To address the question of relative efficacy, we coded the strength of the comparison group into five categories: no...
Frontiers in Psychology
2018
Helen Y. Weng, Regina C Lapate, Diane E Stodola et al.
Compassion meditation training is hypothesized to increase the motivational salience of cues of suffering, while also enhancing equanimous attention and decreasing emotional reactivity to suffering. However, it is currently unknown how compassion meditation impacts visual attention to suffering, and how this impacts neural activation in regions associated with motivational salience as well as...
PLoS One
October 31, 2017
Simon B. Goldberg, Raymond P. Tucker, Preston A. Greene et al.
134 citations
BACKGROUND: Despite an exponential growth in research on mindfulness-based interventions, the body of scientific evidence supporting these treatments has been criticized for being of poor methodological quality. OBJECTIVES: The current systematic review examined the extent to which mindfulness research demonstrated increased rigor over the past 16 years regarding six methodological features...
Perspectives on Psychological Science
October 10, 2017
Richard J. Davidson, Cortland J. Dahl
123 citations
Van Dam et al. raise a number of critical issues in contemporary research on mindfulness and meditation and offer a prescriptive agenda for future work in this area. While we agree with all of the key points made in their article, there are a number of important issues omitted that are central to a comprehensive agenda for future research in this area. This commentary highlights five key...
Oxford Handbooks Online
October 5, 2017
Helen Y. Weng, Brianna S. Schuyler, Richard J. Davidson
Compassion meditation is a form of mental training that cultivates compassion towards oneself and other people, and is thought to result in greater prosocial behavior in real-world settings. This framework views compassion as a quality that can be trained, rather than a stable trait, and scientists have started testing these hypotheses using neuroscientific and objective behavioral methods. How...
Connectomics in neuroimaging : First International Workshop, CNI 2017, held in conjunction with MICCAI 2017, Quebec City, QC, Canada, September 14, 2017, proceedings. CNI (Workshop) (1st : 2017 : Quebec, Quebec)
2017
Yuan Wang, Moo K Chung, Daniela Dentico et al.
Meditation practice as a non-pharmacological intervention to provide health related benefits has generated much neuroscientific interest in its effects on brain activity. Electroencephalogram (EEG), an imaging modality known for its inexpensive procedure and excellent temporal resolution, is often utilized to investigate the neuroplastic effects of meditation under various experimental...
Scientific Reports
June 7, 2016
Joseph Wielgosz, Brianna S. Schuyler, Antoine Lutz et al.
124 citations
Respiration rate is known to correlate with aspects of psychological well-being, and attention to respiration is a central component of mindfulness meditation training. Both traditional contemplative systems and recent empirical evidence support an association between formal mindfulness practice and decreased respiration rate. However, the question of whether long-term mindfulness training is...
PLoS One
February 22, 2016
Daniela Dentico, Fabio Ferrarelli, Brady A. Riedner et al.
43 citations
STUDY OBJECTIVES: We have recently shown higher parietal-occipital EEG gamma activity during sleep in long-term meditators compared to meditation-naive individuals. This gamma increase was specific for NREM sleep, was present throughout the entire night and correlated with meditation expertise, thus suggesting underlying long-lasting neuroplastic changes induced through prolonged training. The...
Psychophysiology
February 12, 2016
Ayla Kruis, Heleen A. Slagter, David R. W. Bachhuber et al.
29 citations
A rapidly growing body of research suggests that meditation can change brain and cognitive functioning. Yet little is known about the neurochemical mechanisms underlying meditation-related changes in cognition. Here, we investigated the effects of meditation on spontaneous eyeblink rates (sEBR), a noninvasive peripheral correlate of striatal dopamine activity. Previous studies have shown a...
Psychological Assessment
October 13, 2015
Simon B. Goldberg, Joseph Wielgosz, Cortland J. Dahl et al.
180 citations
The current study attempted a rigorous test of the construct validity of a widely used self-report measure of dispositional mindfulness, the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), within the context of an active controlled randomized trial (n = 130). The trial included three arms: mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), an active control condition that did not include instruction in...
American Psychologist
October 1, 2015
Richard J. Davidson, Alfred W. Kaszniak
778 citations
Both basic science and clinical research on mindfulness, meditation, and related constructs have dramatically increased in recent years. However, interpretation of these research results has been challenging. The present article addresses unique conceptual and methodological problems posed by research in this area. Included among the key topics is the role of first-person experience and how it...
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
July 28, 2015
Cortland J. Dahl, Antoine Lutz, Richard J. Davidson
Scientific research highlights the central role of specific psychological processes, in particular those related to the self, in various forms of human suffering and flourishing. This view is shared by Buddhism and other contemplative and humanistic traditions, which have developed meditation practices to regulate these processes. Building on a previous paper in this journal, we propose a novel...
Developmental Psychology
November 10, 2014
Lisa Flook, Simon B. Goldberg, Laura Pinger et al.
561 citations
Self-regulatory abilities are robust predictors of important outcomes across the life span, yet they are rarely taught explicitly in school. Using a randomized controlled design, the present study investigated the effects of a 12-week mindfulness-based Kindness Curriculum (KC) delivered in a public school setting on executive function, self-regulation, and prosocial behavior in a sample of 68...
Frontiers in Psychology
October 24, 2014
Daniel B. Levinson, Eli L. Stoll, Sonam D. Kindy et al.
297 citations
Mindfulness practice of present moment awareness promises many benefits, but has eluded rigorous behavioral measurement. To date, research has relied on self-reported mindfulness or heterogeneous mindfulness trainings to infer skillful mindfulness practice and its effects. In four independent studies with over 400 total participants, we present the first construct validation of a behavioral...
Journal of Traumatic Stress
August 1, 2014
Emma M Seppala, Jack B. Nitschke, Dana Tudorascu et al.
180 citations
Given the limited success of conventional treatments for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), investigations of alternative approaches are warranted. We examined the effects of a breathing-based meditation intervention, Sudarshan Kriya yoga, on PTSD outcome variables in U.S. male veterans of the Iraq or Afghanistan war. We randomly assigned 21 veterans to an active (n = 11) or...