Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
2015
Florian Kurth, Allan MacKenzie-Graham, Arthur W Toga et al.
Previous studies have revealed an increased fractional anisotropy and greater thickness in the anterior parts of the corpus callosum in meditation practitioners compared with control subjects. Altered callosal features may be associated with an altered inter-hemispheric integration and the degree of brain asymmetry may also be shifted in meditation practitioners. Therefore, we investigated...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
October 1, 2014
Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Joseph Glicksohn, Abraham Goldstein
The default mode network (DMN) has been largely studied by imaging, but not yet by neurodynamics, using electroencephalography (EEG) functional connectivity (FC). mindfulness meditation (MM), a receptive, non-elaborative training is theorized to lower DMN activity. We explored: (i) the usefulness of EEG-FC for investigating the DMN and (ii) the MM-induced EEG-FC effects. To this end, three MM...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
September 4, 2014
Ulrich Kirk, Kirk Warren Brown, Jonathan Downar
66 citations
Reward seeking is ubiquitous and adaptive in humans. But excessive reward seeking behavior, such as chasing monetary rewards, may lead to diminished subjective well-being. This study examined whether individuals trained in mindfulness meditation show neural evidence of lower susceptibility to monetary rewards. Seventy-eight participants (34 meditators, 44 matched controls) completed the...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
June 12, 2014
Maternal anxiety during pregnancy has been consistently shown to negatively affect offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes. However, little is known about the impact of positive maternal traits/states during pregnancy on the offspring. The present study was aimed at investigating the effects of the mother's mindfulness and anxiety during pregnancy on the infant's neurocognitive functioning at 9...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
May 2, 2014
Carissa L. Philippi, Daniel Tranel, Melissa Duff et al.
152 citations
Functional neuroimaging studies have implicated the default mode network (DMN) in autobiographical memory (AM). Convergent evidence from a lesion approach would help clarify the role of the DMN in AM. In this study, we used a voxelwise lesion-deficit approach to test the hypothesis that regions of the DMN are necessary for AM. We also explored whether the neural correlates of semantic AM (SAM)...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
March 27, 2014
Margaret C. Wardle, Matthew G. Kirkpatrick, Harriet de Wit
52 citations
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 'ecstasy') is used recreationally to improve mood and sociability, and has generated clinical interest as a possible adjunct to psychotherapy. One way that MDMA may produce positive 'prosocial' effects is by changing responses to emotional stimuli, especially stimuli with social content. Here, we examined for the first time how MDMA affects subjective...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
October 4, 2013
Cédric M. Hysek, Yasmin Schmid, Linda D. Simmler et al.
356 citations
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 'ecstasy') releases serotonin and norepinephrine. MDMA is reported to produce empathogenic and prosocial feelings. It is unknown whether MDMA in fact alters empathic concern and prosocial behavior. We investigated the acute effects of MDMA using the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET), dynamic Face Emotion Recognition Task (FERT) and Social Value Orientation...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
April 24, 2013
Fadel Zeidan, Katherine T. Martucci, Robert A Kraft et al.
196 citations
Anxiety is the cognitive state related to the inability to control emotional responses to perceived threats. Anxiety is inversely related to brain activity associated with the cognitive regulation of emotions. Mindfulness meditation has been found to regulate anxiety. However, the brain mechanisms involved in meditation-related anxiety relief are largely unknown. We employed pulsed arterial...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
October 18, 2012
Yi-Yuan Tang, Michael I Posner
Mindfulness neuroscience is an emerging research field that investigates the underlying mechanisms of different mindfulness practices, different stages and different states of practice as well as different effects of practice over the lifespan. Mindfulness neuroscience research integrates theory and methods from eastern contemplative traditions, western psychology and neuroscience, and from...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
October 9, 2012
An extensive body of research defines the default-mode network (DMN) to be one of the critical networks of the human brain, playing a pivotal functional role in processes of internal mentation. Alterations in the connectivity of this network as a function of aging have been found, with reductions associated with functional ramifications for the elderly population. This study examined...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
September 5, 2012
Jennifer S Mascaro, James K. Rilling, Lobsang Tenzin Negi et al.
225 citations
The ability to accurately infer others' mental states from facial expressions is important for optimal social functioning and is fundamentally impaired in social cognitive disorders such as autism. While pharmacologic interventions have shown promise for enhancing empathic accuracy, little is known about the effects of behavioral interventions on empathic accuracy and related brain activity....
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
September 5, 2012
Yi-Yuan Tang, Michael I Posner
Mindfulness neuroscience is a new, interdisciplinary field of mindfulness practice and neuroscientific research; it applies neuroimaging techniques, physiological measures and behavioral tests to explore the underlying mechanisms of different types, stages and states of mindfulness practice over the lifespan. Mindfulness-based meditation (MBM) or mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) has been a...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
July 18, 2012
Mei-Kei Leung, Chetwyn C H Chan, Jing Yin et al.
145 citations
Previous voxel-based morphometry (VBM) studies have revealed that meditation is associated with structural brain changes in regions underlying cognitive processes that are required for attention or mindfulness during meditation. This VBM study examined brain changes related to the practice of an emotion-oriented meditation: loving-kindness meditation (LKM). A 3 T magnetic resonance imaging...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
June 19, 2012
Natalie A Paul, Steven J Stanton, Jeffrey M Greeson et al.
Mindfulness-based interventions are effective for reducing depressive symptoms. However, the psychological and neural mechanisms are unclear. This study examined which facets of trait mindfulness offer protection against negative bias and rumination, which are key risk factors for depression. Nineteen male volunteers completed a 2-day functional magnetic resonance imaging study. One day...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
June 11, 2012
Norman A. S. Farb, Zindel V. Segal, Adam K. Anderson
566 citations
One component of mindfulness training (MT) is the development of interoceptive attention (IA) to visceral bodily sensations, facilitated through daily practices such as breath monitoring. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined experience-dependent functional plasticity in accessing interoceptive representations by comparing graduates of a Mindfulness-Based Stress...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
May 29, 2012
B Rael Cahn, Arnaud Delorme, John Polich
Long-term Vipassana meditators sat in meditation vs. a control (instructed mind wandering) states for 25 min, electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded and condition order counterbalanced. For the last 4 min, a three-stimulus auditory oddball series was presented during both meditation and control periods through headphones and no task imposed. Time-frequency analysis demonstrated that...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
May 13, 2012
Philippe R. Goldin, Michal Ziv, Hooria Jazaieri et al.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is thought to reduce emotional reactivity and enhance emotion regulation in patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD). The goal of this study was to examine the neural correlates of deploying attention to regulate responses to negative self-beliefs using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants were 56 patients with generalized SAD in a...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
May 7, 2012
Do‐hyung Kang, Hang Joon Jo, Wi Hoon Jung et al.
A convergent line of neuroscientific evidence suggests that meditation alters the functional and structural plasticity of distributed neural processes underlying attention and emotion. The purpose of this study was to examine the brain structural differences between a well-matched sample of long-term meditators and controls. We employed whole-brain cortical thickness analysis based on magnetic...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
April 15, 2012
Rimma Teper, Michael Inzlicht
Previous studies have documented the positive effects of mindfulness meditation on executive control. What has been lacking, however, is an understanding of the mechanism underlying this effect. Some theorists have described mindfulness as embodying two facets-present moment awareness and emotional acceptance. Here, we examine how the effect of meditation practice on executive control manifests...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
March 24, 2012
Véronique A. Taylor, Véronique Daneault, Joshua A Grant et al.
317 citations
Mindfulness meditation has been shown to promote emotional stability. Moreover, during the processing of aversive and self-referential stimuli, mindful awareness is associated with reduced medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) activity, a central default mode network (DMN) component. However, it remains unclear whether mindfulness practice influences functional connectivity between DMN regions and,...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
March 1, 2012
Janna Dickenson, Elliot T Berkman, Joanna J Arch et al.
Mindfulness meditation-the practice of attending to present moment experience and allowing emotions and thoughts to pass without judgment-has shown to be beneficial in clinical populations across diverse outcomes. However, the basic neural mechanisms by which mindfulness operates and relates to everyday outcomes in novices remain unexplored. Focused attention is a common mindfulness induction...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
January 17, 2012
Kirk Warren Brown, Robert J. Goodman, Michael Inzlicht
266 citations
Considerable research has disclosed how cognitive reappraisals and the modulation of emotional responses promote successful emotion regulation. Less research has examined how the early processing of emotion-relevant stimuli may create divergent emotional response consequences. Mindfulness--a receptive, non-evaluative form of attention--is theorized to foster emotion regulation, and the present...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
November 22, 2011
Cecilia Westbrook, J. David Creswell, Golnaz Tabibnia et al.
278 citations
An emerging body of research suggests that mindfulness-based interventions may be beneficial for smoking cessation and the treatment of other addictive disorders. One way that mindfulness may facilitate smoking cessation is through the reduction of craving to smoking cues. The present work considers whether mindful attention can reduce self-reported and neural markers of cue-induced craving in...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
June 2010
Lambros Malafouris
Cultural neuroscience provides a new approach for understanding the impact of culture on the human brain (and vice versa) opening thus new avenues for cross-disciplinary collaboration with archaeology and anthropology. Finding new meaningful and productive unit of analysis is essential for such collaboration. But what can archaeological preoccupation with material culture and long-term change...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
March 1, 2010
Britta K. Hölzel, James Carmody, Karleyton C Evans et al.
Stress has significant adverse effects on health and is a risk factor for many illnesses. Neurobiological studies have implicated the amygdala as a brain structure crucial in stress responses. Whereas hyperactive amygdala function is often observed during stress conditions, cross-sectional reports of differences in gray matter structure have been less consistent. We conducted a longitudinal MRI...