bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
March 27, 2026
Morgan Rose Healey, Yaser Sanchez-Gama, Mengyuan Ding et al.
Abstract Self-transcendence, the reorientation of experience away from the self toward others, nature, or broader meaning, is a fundamental dimension of human psychology, yet its causal neural architecture remains poorly understood. Here we applied lesion network mapping to 88 neurosurgical patients with pre- and post-operative assessments of trait self-transcendence to identify the distributed...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
December 9, 2025
Bryce A. Keating, David R. Vago, Kilian Hett et al.
Neurofluids, including cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and interstitial fluid, circulate through regulated central nervous system pathways to clear cerebral waste and support brain health, with elevated CSF flow hyperdynamicity and regurgitation through the cerebral aqueduct associating with aging and neurodegeneration. Sleep exerts state-dependent effects on neurofluid circulation, yet similar...
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...
Mindfulness
August 1, 2024
Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Kirk Warren Brown, Shaun Gallagher et al.
22 citations
Abstract For many centuries, scholars and philosophers from wisdom traditions in different cultures have reported and discussed non-self states of consciousness. These states can be both short-term (state, transitory) and long-term (trait, lasting) conditions. However, in psychology, the importance of a healthy self is usually emphasized, and some theorists have dismissed the idea of “selfless”...
Mindfulness
April 11, 2023
Shaun Gallagher, Antonino Raffone, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana et al.
49 citations
Abstract In this paper, we address core insights from Buddhist psychology about mind-body phenomena and the self, and we relate such insights to the notion of the self-pattern developed in the pattern theory of self. We emphasize the dynamic, temporal and enactive characteristics of the self-pattern, consistent with the core Buddhist notion of non-self. Although there is no one-to-one mapping...
International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHP
2023
Fabio Giommi, Prisca R. Bauer, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana et al.
70 citations
Clinical and neuroscientific evidence indicates that transdiagnostic processes contribute to the generation and maintenance of psychopathological symptoms and disorders. Rigidity (inflexibility) appears a core feature of most transdiagnostic pathological processes. Decreasing rigidity may prove important to restore and maintain mental health. One of the primary domains in which rigidity and...
Scientific Reports
July 18, 2022
Hadley Rahrig, David R. Vago, Matthew A. Passarelli et al.
83 citations
Abstract This meta-analysis sought to expand upon neurobiological models of mindfulness through investigation of inherent brain network connectivity outcomes, indexed via resting state functional connectivity (rsFC). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of rsFC as an outcome of mindfulness training (MT) relative to control, with the hypothesis that MT would increase cross-network...
Research Square
January 6, 2022
Hadley Rahrig, David R. Vago, Matthew A. Passarelli et al.
2 citations
Abstract This meta-analysis sought to expand upon neurobiological models of mindfulness through investigation of inherent brain network connectivity outcomes, indexed via resting state functional connectivity (rsFC). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of rsFC as an outcome of mindfulness training (MT) relative to structurally-equivalent programs, with the hypothesis that that MT...
Frontiers in Psychology
November 22, 2021
Willoughby B. Britton, Gaelle Desbordes, Rebecca L. Acabchuk et al.
77 citations
Self-related processes (SRPs) have been theorized as key mechanisms of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), but the evidence supporting these theories is currently unclear. This evidence map introduces a comprehensive framework for different types of SRPs, and how they are theorized to function as mechanisms of MBIs (target identification). The evidence map then assesses SRP target...
National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Journal
September 1, 2021
Hanna Culang, Elizabeth L. Davis, Laura Egan et al.
4 citations
Youth at risk for negative health outcomes due to reduced access to social, mental health, and educational support systems are in particular need of resources promoting social-emotional resilience and positive educational outcomes. A growing body of research documents the positive benefits of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), but few studies have examined the impact of MBIs for at-risk...
Neuropsychology Review
August 4, 2021
Tim Whitfield, Thorsten Barnhofer, Rebecca L. Acabchuk et al.
193 citations
Mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) are increasingly utilized to improve mental health. Interest in the putative effects of MBPs on cognitive function is also growing. This is the first meta-analysis of objective cognitive outcomes across multiple domains from randomized MBP studies of adults. Seven databases were systematically searched to January 2020. Fifty-six unique studies (n = 2,931) were...
Alzheimer s & Dementia
December 1, 2020
Tim Whitfield, Thorsten Barnhofer, Rebecca L. Acabchuk et al.
6 citations
Abstract Background The primary focus of mindfulness‐based program (MBP) research to date has been on mental health. More recently, attention has turned to putative effects on cognition. An evidence synthesis is required to answer the key question of ‘Do MBPs confer cognitive benefit, and if so, for whom?’ A particularly crucial distinction is whether benefits differ according to individuals’...
Harvard Review of Psychiatry
November 1, 2020
Zev Schuman-Olivier, Marcelo Trombka, David Lovas et al.
Abstract Initiating and maintaining behavior change is key to the prevention and treatment of most preventable chronic medical and psychiatric illnesses. The cultivation of mindfulness, involving acceptance and nonjudgment of present-moment experience, often results in transformative health behavior change. Neural systems involved in motivation and learning have an important role to play. A...
October 3, 2019
Gaelle Desbordes, Tim Gard, Elizabeth A Hoge et al.
6 citations
In light of a growing interest in contemplative practices such as meditation, the emerging field of contemplative science has been challenged to describe and objectively measure how these practices affect health and well-being. While “mindfulness” itself has been proposed as a measurable outcome of contemplative practices, this concept encompasses multiple components, some of which, as we...
Current Opinion in Psychology
August 1, 2019
Poppy la Schoenberg, David R. Vago
59 citations
Exploration of human consciousness remains a final frontier within basic neuroscience; that is, how the finite biological structure and function of the brain give rise to the seemingly infinite expanse that encompasses the terrain of the mind. Contemporary mindfulness and other contemplative practices across historical and post-modern traditions involve systematic forms of mental training that...
Current Opinion in Psychology
August 1, 2019
David R. Vago, Resh S Gupta, Sara W. Lazar
One potential pathway by which mindfulness-based meditation improves health outcomes is through changes in cognitive functioning. Here, we summarize and comment upon three systematic reviews conducted over the last seven years that have had the goal of identifying the impact of mindfulness on cognitive outcomes. In our analysis, we identified a number of methodological limitations and potential...
PLoS One
November 7, 2018
Cassandra Vieten, Helané Wahbeh, B Rael Cahn et al.
124 citations
The science of meditation has grown tremendously in the last two decades. Most studies have focused on evaluating the clinical effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions, neural and other physiological correlates of meditation, and individual cognitive and emotional aspects of meditation. Far less research has been conducted on more challenging domains to measure, such as group and...
November 2, 2018
David R. Vago, Resh S Gupta, Sara W. Lazar
3 citations
One potential pathway by which mindfulness-based meditation improves health outcomes is through changes in cognitive functioning. A systematic review of randomized controlled trials of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) was conducted with a focus on assessing the state of the evidence for effects on cognitive processes and associated assays. Here, we comment on confounding issues...
October 18, 2018
Poppy L A Schoenberg, David R. Vago
5 citations
Exploration of human consciousness remains a final frontier within basic neuroscience; that is, how the finite biological structure and function of the brain gives rise to the seemingly infinite expanse that encompasses the terrain of the mind. Contemporary mindfulness and other contemplative practices across historical and post-modern traditions involve systematic forms of mental training that...
Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science
2018
Nicholas T. van Dam, Marieke K. van Vugt, David R. Vago et al.
In response to our article, Davidson and Dahl offer commentary and advice regarding additional topics crucial to a comprehensive prescriptive agenda for future research on mindfulness and meditation. Their commentary raises further challenges and provides an important complement to our article. More consideration of these issues is especially welcome because limited space precluded us from...
Perspectives on Psychological Science
October 10, 2017
Nicholas T. van Dam, Marieke K. van Vugt, David R. Vago et al.
1,500 citations
During the past two decades, mindfulness meditation has gone from being a fringe topic of scientific investigation to being an occasional replacement for psychotherapy, tool of corporate well-being, widely implemented educational practice, and "key to building more resilient soldiers." Yet the mindfulness movement and empirical evidence supporting it have not gone without criticism....
Review of General Psychology
May 1, 2017
David Bryce Yaden, Jonathan Haidt, Ralph W. Hood et al.
682 citations
Various forms of self-loss have been described as aspects of mental illness (e.g., depersonalization disorder), but might self-loss also be related to mental health? In this integrative review and proposed organizational framework, we focus on self-transcendent experiences (STEs)—transient mental states marked by decreased self-salience and increased feelings of connectedness. We first identify...
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
June 1, 2016
Fadel Zeidan, David R. Vago
304 citations
Pain is a multidimensional experience that involves interacting sensory, cognitive, and affective factors, rendering the treatment of chronic pain challenging and financially burdensome. Further, the widespread use of opioids to treat chronic pain has led to an opioid epidemic characterized by exponential growth in opioid misuse and addiction. The staggering statistics related to opioid use...
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
June 1, 2016
David R. Vago, Fadel Zeidan
165 citations
Mind wandering and mindfulness are often described as divergent mental states with opposing effects on cognitive performance and mental health. Spontaneous mind wandering is typically associated with self-reflective states that contribute to negative processing of the past, worrying/fantasizing about the future, and disruption of primary task performance. On the other hand, mindful awareness is...
Psychological Assessment
April 14, 2016
Yuval Hadash, Reut Plonsker, David R. Vago et al.
69 citations
We propose that Experiential Self-Referential Processing (ESRP)-the cognitive association of present moment subjective experience (e.g., sensations, emotions, thoughts) with the self-underlies various forms of maladaptation. We theorize that mindfulness contributes to mental health by engendering Experiential Selfless Processing (ESLP)-processing present moment subjective experience without...