Mindfulness
May 11, 2026
Marne L. White, Yanli Lin, Todd S. Braver
Abstract Objectives Focused attention (FA) and open monitoring (OM) are distinct mindfulness practices that produce unique psychological effects. Prior research has frequently investigated the neural correlates of FA and OM states utilizing electroencephalographic (EEG) methods, focusing on changes in spectral power within theta and alpha bands. Yet the functional significance of these neural...
Network Neuroscience
March 13, 2026
Yanli Lin, Marne L. White, Jihong Zhang et al.
1 citation
Abstract Neural oscillatory activity within the alpha and theta bands have long been considered putative markers of state mindfulness, yet understanding of their functional role has been limited by the challenges of linking objective brain indices with subjective experience. To address this gap, the current study applied longitudinal network analysis to a unique dataset from 16 novices who...
Annual Review of Psychology
2026
Yuval Hadash, Omer Dar, Iftach Amir et al.
Attention is theorized to have a definitive role in mindfulness and its salutary effects. Yet, findings from more than two decades of research testing this central theoretical premise have been surprisingly mixed. To account for this paradoxical disparity between theory and findings, we propose the Mindfulness Internal Attention (MIA) framework. We theorize and review initial findings...
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
June 1, 2025
Resh S Gupta, Wendy Heller, Todd S. Braver
3 citations
Prior research has provided initial support for the claim that cognitive control mediates the relationship between anxiety and mindfulness; however, findings are often inconsistent. In this review, we argue that the inconsistency may be due to a lack of both conceptual and methodological precision in terms of how anxiety, cognitive control, and mindfulness are operationalized and assessed, and...
Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
April 1, 2025
Saampras Ganesan, Fernando A Barrios, Ishaan Batta et al.
6 citations
Meditation is a family of ancient and contemporary contemplative mind-body practices that can modulate psychological processes, awareness, and mental states. Over the last 40 years, clinical science has manualized meditation practices and designed various meditation interventions that have shown therapeutic efficacy for disorders including depression, pain, addiction, and anxiety. Over the past...
Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
April 1, 2025
Jarrod A Lewis-Peacock, Tor D Wager, Todd S. Braver
2 citations
Identifying the brain mechanisms that underlie the salutary effects of mindfulness meditation and related practices is a critical goal of contemplative neuroscience. Here, we suggest that the use of multivariate predictive models represents a promising and powerful methodology that could be better leveraged to pursue this goal. This approach incorporates key principles of multivariate decoding,...
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging
April 1, 2025
Todd S. Braver, Sara W. Lazar
Introduction to the Special Issue on Cognitive Neuroscience of Mindfulness.
Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)
2025
Ruiqi Chen, Matthew Singh, Todd S. Braver et al.
Analyses of functional connectivity (FC) in resting-state brain networks (RSNs) have generated many insights into cognition. However, the mechanistic underpinnings of FC and RSNs are still not well-understood. It remains debated whether resting-state activity is best characterized as reflecting noise-driven fluctuations around a single stable state, or instead, as a nonlinear dynamical system...