Perspectives on Psychological Science
October 10, 2017
Nicholas T. van Dam, Marieke K. van Vugt, David R. Vago et al.
1,500 citations
Mindfulness meditation has become widely used in therapy, corporate wellness, education, and the military, but the research backing it has faced criticism for poor methodology and misinformation. This article reviews the current state of mindfulness research, discussing difficulties in defining mindfulness, the proper scope of studies, and key methodological issues. The authors summarize what is known and unknown, offering a prescriptive agenda for contemplative science that focuses on assessment, training, possible adverse effects, and brain imaging. The goal is to inform scientists, media, and the public, minimize harm, curb poor research practices, and stop the spread of misinformation about mindfulness's benefits, costs, and future.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
June 28, 2007
Julie A. Brefczynski-Lewis, Antoine Lutz, Hillary S. Schaefer et al.
988 citations
Meditation is a family of mental training practices that familiarize practitioners with specific mental processes. In age-matched participants, using functional MRI, activation in brain regions involved in sustained attention showed an inverted u-shaped curve: expert meditators with an average of 19,000 hours of practice had more activation than novices, but experts with an average of 44,000 hours had less activation. In response to distracter sounds, experts versus novices had less brain activation in regions related to discursive thoughts and emotions and more activation in regions related to response inhibition and attention. Correlation with hours of practice suggests possible plasticity in these mechanisms.
PLoS One
March 25, 2008
Antoine Lutz, Julie A. Brefczynski-Lewis, Tom Johnstone et al.
942 citations
During loving-kindness-compassion meditation, expert practitioners show greater brain activation in the insula and limbic regions when hearing emotional sounds, especially negative ones, compared to novices. This enhanced response correlates with self-reported meditation intensity. Experts also exhibit increased activity in the amygdala, temporo-parietal junction, and posterior superior temporal sulcus, suggesting improved detection of emotional vocalizations and mental state reasoning. The findings indicate that training in cultivating positive emotion alters neural circuits associated with empathy and theory of mind.
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.