Brain Network Organization During Mindful Acceptance of Emotions

When people face anxiety, they can either mindfully accept their feelings or elaborate on them through narrative. Mindful acceptance, which broadens attention to present-moment sensations without judgment, was linked to a more globally interconnected brain network, greater integration of interoceptive insula regions, and a shift in striatal connectivity from the default mode to the salience network. It also shifted central hubs from the default network to frontoparietal control network regions, which support metacognitive awareness and cognitive control. These findings suggest that the neural landscape underlying mindful acceptance is more integrated and flexible, aiding emotion regulation.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Individuals use various strategies to cope with challenging emotions such as anxiety. Mindful acceptance involves broadening attentional scope and fully experiencing present moment sensory feelings (whether pleasant or unpleasant) without judgment or elaboration. In contrast, narrative-evaluation involves focusing on a narrow band of sensory experience and generating an elaborate narrative about the meaning and desirability of one’s emotional feelings. The current study examined brain network organization during these strategies using graph theoretic analyses. We used a naturalistic task paradigm in which participants reflected on an anxiety-provoking issue from their personal lives and adopted each strategy in different blocks. Compared to narrative-evaluation, mindful acceptance was associated with: (i) increased global network connectivity; (ii) greater integration of interoceptive regions (mid and posterior insula) into large-scale networks; (iii) reorganization of motivational circuits including a shift in the striatum’s network assignment from the default network to the salience network; and (iv) a shift from default network to frontoparietal control network (FPCN) regions as central hubs that coordinate information flow. Functional connectivity patterns within the left FPCN were associated with acceptance reports. Thus, broadening attentional scope during mindful acceptance is supported by a more globally interconnected neural landscape, as well as greater information flow through FPCN regions that underlie metacognitive awareness and cognitive control.