Virtual Reality
December 21, 2025
Joana Vidal, Catherine I. Andreu, Maja Wrzesien et al.
A single multi-person virtual reality experience can induce a state of selflessness—where the sense of self as the immediate subject of experience fades—and enhance interpersonal connectedness. It also increases low-arousal positive affect and warmth, and generates mystical and peak experiences in a notable subset of participants. The experience is widely accepted, with few adverse effects reported. This offers a cost-effective, non-pharmacological alternative to meditation and psychedelics for cultivating selflessness.
International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology
December 17, 2025
Aida Palacios, Sara Martínez‐Gregorio, Catherine I. Andreu et al.
A compassion practice improved mental health and prosocial behaviors across all groups, but adding virtual reality (VR) boosted positive affect more than the practice alone, while adding a heating pad as somatosensory priming reduced negative affect less than the practice alone. Among participants with low mental imagery skills, VR significantly reduced criticism toward others. The study suggests that tools like VR can optimize compassion-based interventions for individuals who struggle with mental imagery.
Mindfulness
September 1, 2025
Lorena Desdentado, Marta Miragall, Ausiàs Cebolla et al.
A pilot randomized controlled trial tested the feasibility of three online-delivered mindfulness practices—visceral body scan, somatosensory body scan, and external (non-body) meditation—in 48 adults recruited from social networks. The retention rate was 66.20% and adherence to meditation practice was 56.53%. Acceptability and practice quality were moderate, and most participants reported no adverse effects. Preliminary effects emerged: the visceral body scan was linked to decreased attention to unpleasant bodily sensations, and both visceral and somatosensory body scans were associated with a decrease in dampening of positive emotions. The authors conclude that feasibility improvements are needed before larger-scale research.
Mindfulness
June 3, 2025
Catherine I. Andreu, Joana Vidal, Ylenia D’elia et al.
A 15-minute guided Tonglen meditation, a Tibetan Buddhist practice of taking in others' suffering and sending them well-being, increased heart rate variability, compassion state, and positive affective responses to suffering in healthcare workers compared to listening to a story. This is the first evidence of the acute effectiveness of Tonglen in this population, suggesting it may help those experiencing empathic distress and burnout.
Scientific Reports
September 13, 2019
Catherine I. Andreu, Ismael Palacios, Cristóbal Moënne-Loccoz et al.
Long-term Vipassana meditators made significantly fewer errors than athletes on an emotional Go/Nogo task measuring response inhibition, while being equally fast. This behavioral improvement was accompanied by reduced midfrontal theta activity in Nogo versus Go trials, but no changes in the N2 and P3 brainwave components. Meditators also rated emotional pictures lower in valence and arousal. The results suggest that meditation may enhance response inhibition and emotional control.
Mindfulness
December 1, 2017
Catherine I. Andreu, Cristóbal Moënne-Loccoz, Vladimir Lopez et al.
Regular long-term meditation practice is associated with enhanced performance monitoring, the ability to detect and correct errors. Meditators made significantly fewer errors than non-meditator athletes on a challenging attention task. EEG recordings showed larger amplitudes in two brain potentials related to performance monitoring—the error-related negativity and correct-related negativity—in meditators compared to controls. These results suggest that meditation may improve cognitive control, specifically performance monitoring, which is often impaired in psychiatric disorders such as ADHD and substance use disorder.