Research Square
January 6, 2022
Hadley Rahrig, David R. Vago, Matthew A. Passarelli et al.
2 citations
Mindfulness training increases resting-state functional connectivity between the salience network and the default mode network, specifically between the left middle cingulate and the posterior cingulate cortex. This finding supports the idea that mindfulness enhances flexible control of internally-oriented attention. The meta-analysis included 12 studies with 226 mindfulness participants and 204 controls. The effect was small but significant, and there was no evidence of publication bias.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
March 27, 2026
Morgan Rose Healey, Yaser Sanchez-Gama, Mengyuan Ding et al.
Self-transcendence, the shift of experience away from the self toward others, nature, or broader meaning, is a key aspect of human psychology, but its neural basis was unclear. By applying lesion network mapping to 88 neurosurgical patients assessed before and after surgery for trait self-transcendence, a distributed brain network was identified whose disruption alters this capacity. This network overlapped with the default mode network and frontoparietal control subnetworks. Posterior midline regions were the most stable correlates of increased self-transcendence after lesions. The findings suggest that posterior midline hubs constrain, while brainstem and anterior midline regions facilitate, self-transcendent experience.
medRxiv
September 12, 2025
Bryce A. Keating, David R. Vago, Kilian Hett et al.
preprint
Focused attention (FA) meditation reduces regurgitant cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow through the cerebral aqueduct and increases low-frequency CSF fluctuations near the skull base, directionally opposite to patterns seen in aging and neurodegeneration and similar to sleep-related CSF dynamics. In 23 adept meditators, absolute aqueduct CSF flow decreased from 4.60±2.27 mL/min during mind wandering to 4.17±2.10 mL/min during FA meditation, driven by reduced cranially-directed regurgitant velocity. No changes occurred in meditation-naïve control groups. The findings suggest mindfulness meditation may be a non-pharmacological waking state that modulates neurofluid circulation in a manner consistent with sleep and contrary to aging-related decline.
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.
Mindfulness meditation may alter the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain in a way that resembles sleep and counters age-related changes. Using MRI, researchers measured CSF movement through the cerebral aqueduct and fluctuations near the cervicomedullary junction in meditation-naïve adults and adept meditators. During focused attention meditation, adept meditators showed decreased absolute CSF flow (from 4.60 to 4.17 mL/min) due to reduced backward flow, along with increased low-frequency CSF fluctuations that inversely correlated with gray matter fluctuations. No changes were seen in control groups. The findings suggest meditation could be a waking state that modulates neurofluid dynamics similarly to sleep and opposite to aging.
Harvard Review of Psychiatry
November 1, 2020
Zev Schuman-Olivier, Marcelo Trombka, D. Lovas et al.
Mindfulness, defined as nonjudgmental present-moment awareness, can help initiate and maintain behavior change, which is crucial for preventing and treating chronic medical and psychiatric illnesses. This integrative review synthesizes the neuroscience of mindfulness, integrating motivation and learning mechanisms into a mindful self-regulation model that explains how mindfulness affects behavior change. It also reviews clinical research on mindfulness-based interventions for health behaviors relevant to psychiatric care. The authors highlight current research limitations and propose mechanisms for future study to enhance mindfulness's impact on behavior change.
Current Opinion in Psychology
August 1, 2019
David R. Vago, Resh S Gupta, Sara W. Lazar
A review of three systematic reviews on mindfulness-based meditation and cognitive outcomes identifies methodological limitations and confounding factors that hinder interpretation of results. The analysis covers what is known about how mindfulness affects cognition, variable criteria defining mindfulness-based interventions, limitations of cognitive measurement tools, and methodological quality of trials. Constructive recommendations are offered for advancing research on mindfulness and cognition.
Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science
January 1, 2018
Nicholas T. van Dam, Marieke K. van Vugt, David R. Vago et al.
The authors reply to a commentary by Davidson and Dahl, agreeing with many suggestions but emphasizing that their original concerns remain especially relevant to mindfulness and meditation research. They highlight the vulnerability of this relatively young field compared to more mature scientific disciplines, discuss special characteristics of research participants, and stress the serious consequences of adverse experiences that a significant subset of individuals suffer during mindfulness and other contemplative practices. They also scrutinize common applications of mindfulness and meditation to illness and introduce caveats regarding mobile technologies for guiding contemplative practices.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2014
Tim Gard, Jessica J Noggle, Crystal L Park et al.
A theoretical framework and systems-based network model proposes that yoga integrates top-down and bottom-up forms of self-regulation to improve psychological health. The model emphasizes how specific components of yoga practice affect cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and autonomic output under stress through interoception and bottom-up input, resulting in bidirectional feedback between high- and low-level brain networks and afferent input from interoceptive processes. From a predictive coding perspective, yoga shifts perceptual inference for stress modulation and optimal self-regulation. Over time and practice, self-regulatory processes become more automatized and efficient, requiring less effort to initiate and terminating more rapidly when no longer needed. The paper synthesizes evidence from behavior theory and cognitive neuroscience with emerging yoga and meditation research to guide future research on stress-mediated psychological disorders.