Psychosomatic Medicine
July 1, 2003
Richard J. Davidson, Jon Kabat‐zinn, Jessica R. Schumacher et al.
2,924 citations
An 8-week mindfulness meditation training program for healthy employees increased left-sided anterior brain activation, a pattern linked to positive emotion, and boosted antibody titers after an influenza vaccine compared with a wait-list control group. The magnitude of the brain activation increase predicted the size of the antibody response. These results indicate that a brief meditation intervention can measurably alter brain and immune function.
Psychological Assessment
October 13, 2015
Simon B. Goldberg, Joseph Wielgosz, Cortland J. Dahl et al.
180 citations
A randomized trial with 130 participants tested whether the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) validly measures dispositional mindfulness. The study included three groups: mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), an active control condition (Health Enhancement Program, HEP) that did not teach mindfulness meditation, and a waitlist control. At baseline, FFMQ facets correlated with measures of psychological symptoms and well-being, providing partial evidence for convergent validity. FFMQ scores increased for MBSR relative to the waitlist, but they also increased for HEP relative to the waitlist, and MBSR and HEP did not differ from each other. The FFMQ thus failed to show discriminant validity, raising questions about its ability to specifically measure mindfulness.
JMIR Mental Health
November 27, 2020
Simon B. Goldberg, Ted Imhoff‐Smith, Daniel M. Bolt et al.
104 citations
An eight-week randomized controlled trial tested two versions of a self-guided smartphone-based meditation app, the Healthy Minds Program, against a waitlist control. One version combined mindfulness with practices for positive relationships; the other combined mindfulness with insight into the self. Among 343 randomized adults without extensive meditation experience, both app conditions led to larger improvements in psychological distress, social connectedness, and mindfulness compared to the control group, with effect sizes ranging from small to moderate. The two app versions did not differ from each other. Improvements in distress were linked to days of app use. The study provides initial evidence that the app can reduce distress and enhance well-being.
Nature. Mental health
July 10, 2023
Julieta Galante, Claire Friedrich, Napaporn Aeamla-Or et al.
102 citations
Mindfulness-based programmes reduce psychological distress (anxiety and depression) in community adults who volunteer to participate, with a small to moderate effect size. The analysis of 13 randomized controlled trials with 2,371 participants from 8 countries found a standardized mean difference of -0.32, with high confidence in the result. The effect was not clearly influenced by participants' baseline distress level, gender, age, education, or dispositional mindfulness. More research is needed to understand why outcomes vary between individuals.
Science Advances
May 20, 2022
Tammi R. A. Kral, Kaley Davis, Cole Korponay et al.
67 citations
A large, rigorously controlled study failed to find evidence that an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) course changes brain structure. Combining data from two randomized controlled trials with 218 meditation-naïve participants, the study compared MBSR to an active control and a waitlist group. Using structural MRI scans before and after the intervention, researchers assessed gray matter volume, gray matter density, and cortical thickness. No neuroplastic changes were observed in the MBSR group compared to either control group, either across the whole brain or in regions previously reported to change. This contradicts widely referenced earlier claims that MBSR alters brain structure.
Frontiers in Psychology
September 3, 2021
Daniel W Grupe, Jonah L. Stoller, Carmen Alonso et al.
43 citations
An 8-week mindfulness intervention for police officers led to self-reported improvements in psychological distress, mental health symptoms, and sleep quality, with gains maintained at 3-month follow-up. The mindfulness group also had a significantly lower cortisol awakening response at follow-up compared to a waitlist control group. No effects were found on hair cortisol, diurnal cortisol slope, or inflammatory markers. The findings suggest mindfulness training may buffer against long-term consequences of chronic stress in policing.
Scientific Reports
September 24, 2023
Tammi R. A. Kral, Helen Y. Weng, Vikramjit Mitra et al.
25 citations
Lower resting respiration rate (RR) may serve as a physiological marker of well-being, particularly among people who practice meditation. In a study of 245 adults, long-term meditators showed an association between lower RR and lower psychological distress. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) decreased RR compared to a waitlist control, though not compared to an active control. Decreased RR was linked to fewer medical symptoms across all participants. After training, lower RR was associated with higher psychological well-being in training groups relative to waitlist, but there were no significant differences in change in well-being between groups. The findings suggest RR may indicate physical or psychological well-being in those who engage in wellness practices.
Brain Behavior & Immunity - Health
September 14, 2022
Estelle T. Higgins, Richard J. Davidson, William W. Busse et al.
20 citations
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training improved asthma control and reduced airway inflammation in adults with asthma. In a randomized trial, 32% of MBSR participants achieved a clinically significant improvement in asthma control compared to 12% of wait-list controls, an effect maintained four months after the intervention. Improvement was linked to reduced distress and was greatest among those with higher baseline depressive symptoms. MBSR also lowered exhaled nitric oxide, a biomarker of airway inflammation. The findings suggest MBSR may benefit asthma management, especially for patients with psychological comorbidity.
Human Brain Mapping
January 1, 2025
Isaac N Treves, Aaron Kucyi, Madelynn Park et al.
8 citations
Trait mindfulness—the tendency to attend to present experience non-judgmentally—is linked to better mental health, but its neural basis remains unclear. In the largest resting-state fMRI study of trait mindfulness to date, involving 367 meditation-naïve adults across three sites, no connections predicted overall trait mindfulness. However, neural models for two subscales, Acting with Awareness and Non-judging, were identified. Positive networks for these subscales involved distinct fronto-parietal and default-mode networks, while negative networks overlapped across subscales and included somatomotor, visual, and default-mode regions. Only negative networks generalized to predict subscale scores in some out-of-sample tests. Predictions negatively correlated with a mind-wandering model. The findings provide preliminary evidence for generalizable connectivity models of mindfulness facets, but incomplete generalization across sites and model overlap highlight the challenge of identifying robust brain markers.
January 30, 2020
Matthew J. Hirshberg, Simon B. Goldberg, Melissa A. Rosenkranz et al.
5 citations
preprint
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) does not increase harm compared to no treatment, and may instead protect against harm. Analyzing data from over 2,000 community clinic participants and from three randomized controlled trials, the study found no evidence that MBSR leads to higher rates of worsened psychological or physical symptoms, anxiety, depression, interpersonal discomfort, paranoid ideation, or psychoticism. On many measures, community MBSR participants showed significantly lower rates of harm than controls. The findings suggest MBSR is not associated with increased harm, though a small proportion of participants do experience harm, warranting further research.
medRxiv
June 16, 2021
Tammi R. A. Kral, Kaley Davis, Cole Korponay et al.
2 citations
preprint
A large, rigorously controlled study combining data from two three-arm randomized controlled trials found no evidence that an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course produces changes in brain structure. Meditation-naive participants (218 total) were randomly assigned to a waitlist, an 8-week MBSR program, or a validated active control group. Structural MRI scans taken before and after the intervention showed no significant differences in gray matter volume, gray matter density, or cortical thickness between MBSR and either control group, at either the whole-brain level or in brain regions previously linked to MBSR. These results fail to replicate earlier, widely cited claims of MBSR-induced neuroplasticity.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
July 14, 2024
Isaac N Treves, Aaron Kucyi, Madelynn Park et al.
1 citation
preprint
Trait mindfulness—the tendency to attend to present-moment experience non-judgmentally—is linked to better mental health, but its neural basis remains unclear. In the largest resting-state fMRI study of trait mindfulness to date, involving 367 adults across three samples, researchers used connectome predictive modeling to test whether brain connectivity patterns could predict mindfulness scores. No connections predicted overall trait mindfulness, but models for two subscales—Acting with Awareness and Non-judging—were identified. Positive networks for these subscales involved fronto-parietal and default-mode networks, respectively. Negative networks, which overlapped across subscales, included somatomotor, visual, and default-mode connections. Only negative networks generalized to predict subscale scores in some out-of-sample datasets, and predictions correlated negatively with a mind-wandering model. The incomplete generalization and model overlap highlight the challenge of identifying robust brain markers for mindfulness facets.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
September 17, 2021
Tammi R. A. Kral, Regina C Lapate, Ted Imhoff‐Smith et al.
preprint
Long-term mindfulness meditation is associated with stronger resting-state functional connectivity between the posterior cingulate cortex and rostrolateral prefrontal cortex, lower connector hub strength of the default mode network relative to other networks, and better attention to task. In a sample of 40 long-term meditators (average 3,759 hours of practice) compared to 124 meditation-naïve controls, orienting attention positively correlated with posterior cingulate–rostrolateral prefrontal connectivity and negatively correlated with default mode network connector hub strength. These findings suggest that posterior cingulate–rostrolateral prefrontal connectivity may support attention orienting, consistent with a role for rostrolateral prefrontal cortex in meta-cognitive background awareness, a core component of mindfulness training.
August 28, 2020
Simon B. Goldberg, Ted Imhoff‐Smith, Daniel M. Bolt et al.
A fully remote randomized controlled trial tested two versions of a self-guided smartphone-based meditation app, the Healthy Minds Program, against a waitlist control in 343 adults without extensive meditation experience. Both app conditions—one combining mindfulness with practices for positive relationships, the other combining mindfulness with insight into the self—produced larger improvements in psychological distress, social connectedness, mindfulness, and insight-related measures than the control group, with effect sizes ranging from -0.28 to 0.41. Improvements in distress were linked to days of app use. The two app conditions did not differ from each other on any outcome.
Scientific Reports
May 18, 2026
Estelle T. Higgins, William W. Busse, Danika R. Klaus et al.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training in adults with asthma reduced brain responses in the lateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex when viewing emotional cues, and this reduction was linked to increased mindfulness. Decreased activity in the salience network after training was associated with lower psychological distress and less airway inflammation. Some of these brain and clinical changes persisted at a 6-month follow-up, while others did not. The findings indicate that MBSR promotes more efficient emotional processing and reduces reactivity, helping explain how mindfulness improves asthma control and inflammation through mind-brain-immune interactions.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
August 1, 2022
Tammi R. A. Kral, Regina C Lapate, Ted Imhoff‐Smith et al.
Long-term mindfulness meditation is associated with stronger functional connectivity between the posterior cingulate cortex and rostrolateral prefrontal cortex, lower connector hub strength across the default mode network, and better subjective attention. In a sample of 40 long-term meditators averaging 3759 hours of practice, compared with 124 meditation-naive controls, orienting attention positively correlated with PCC-RLPFC connectivity and negatively correlated with default mode network connector hub strength. These results suggest that PCC-RLPFC connectivity may support attention orienting, a core component of metacognitive awareness trained in mindfulness meditation.