Mindfulness Meditation Training Reshapes Somatomotor Edge-Centric Connectivity Underlying Somatic Awareness: Insights for Healthy and Depressed Individuals
Yuwen He, Shan Lei, Wangli Si, Matthew D. Sacchet, Amy Jing-Wen Yin, Wenyue Gao, An Gu, Natalia Chan, Xinyun Xiao, Jiaze Li, Jieting Chen, Mek Wong, Elvo Kuai Long Sou, Yizhong Shen, Jingju Quan, Weng Ieong Tou, Lin Ian Lio, Chia-Ying Chou, Peng Zhang, Bin Liu, Zhen Yuan
medRxiv July 29, 2025 preprint DOI: 10.1101/2025.07.29.25331685 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 86 |
| Population | Healthy and depressed adults |
| Intervention | Mindfulness meditation training |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Mindfulness meditation Training meteorology Psychotherapist Clinical psychology |
| Key findings | Mindfulness meditation training alters somatomotor network functional connectivity in both population-common and population-specific ways, and these changes predict insomnia improvements. |
Abstract
Abstract Background Somatic awareness is a fundamental practice for novice mindfulness practitioners. It has been proposed that mindfulness meditation training (MMT) enhances brain function through somatic awareness in both non-clinical and clinical populations. However, the neural signatures underlying this mechanism remain poorly understood.
Methods: In our study, we conducted mindfulness interventions in both healthy (51 subjects) and depressed (35 subjects) populations and examined whether somatomotor network (SMN)-related edge-centric functional connectivity (eFC) is modulated by MMT, uncovering the population common and population-specific functioning pathways that may underlie somatic awareness. In addition, we tested whether such SMN-related eFCs can predict the insomnia status across populations.
Results: Our findings revealed population-common eFC changes involving the SMN and attentional networks, indicating MMT may modulate the attentional system across populations via somatic awareness. Additionally, we identified population-specific eFC profiles engaging SMN-subcortical networks in the healthy population, suggesting MMT may target more pervasively the automatic processes in the healthy population. The specific eFC profile engaged SMN-default mode network interactions in the depressed population, which may be the functioning mechanism explaining MMT is efficient for depressed individuals. These findings demonstrate the differential neural signatures underlying different focuses of mindfulness via somatic awareness in different populations. Furthermore, support vector regression analysis demonstrated that these altered eFCs significantly predicted improvements in insomnia after MMT in both populations.
Conclusions: In summary, our results highlight both shared and distinct neural functioning signatures underlying mindfulness-related mental health improvements via somatic awareness in both the healthy and depressed populations.