Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science
March 1, 2025
Lara M.c. Puhlmann, Pascal Vrtička, Roman Linz et al.
In this study, we investigated whether mindfulness- and meditation-based mental training that improves stress regulation can upregulate BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), an important promoter of hippocampal neuroplasticity, and examined cortisol reduction as a mediating pathway. In a randomized clinical trial, 332 healthy adults were randomly assigned to one of the 3 training cohorts or...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
2023
Veronika Engert, Olga Maria Klimecki, Philipp Kanske
Research over the past decades has revealed a variety of beneficial effects of meditation training. These beneficial effects span the levels of health and well-being, cognition, emotion, and social behavior. Around the same time, sociologists have shown that traits and outcomes on the individual level have the potential to spread in communities over three or more degrees. This means, for...
Psychoneuroendocrinology
July 1, 2022
Katja Hoehne, Pascal Vrtička, Veronika Engert et al.
Based on its role in social processing and stress, oxytocin has been suggested to mediate stress reduction of socio-affective, compassion-based mental training. We tested this hypothesis in the ReSource Project, a 9-month longitudinal mental training study. Participants practiced three different types of mental training, targeting either attentional abilities (Presence Module), socio-affective...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
November 13, 2020
Lara M.c. Puhlmann, Pascal Vrtička, Roman Linz et al.
preprint
Objective This study had the objective to investigate the effect of regular contemplative mental training on endocrine indices of long-term stress.
Current Opinion in Psychology
August 1, 2019
Tania Singer, Veronika Engert
Mindfulness interventions have gained much attraction, also due to their promise to improve health and wellbeing. However, not enough attention is devoted to the differentiation between various mental practice types. Here, we summarize findings from the ReSource Project, a 9-month longitudinal mental training study comparing practices focusing on (a) present-moment attention and interoception,...