The efficacy of meditation on insula dysfunction in patients with chronic schizophrenia.
Di Kong, Shoukang Zou, Yanqing Huang, Zezhi Li, Mi Yang, Donghong Cui
Frontiers in Psychiatry 2025 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1622594 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Prospective controlled study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 30 |
| Population | Chronic schizophrenia patients |
| Interventions | meditation antipsychotic medication |
| Duration | 8-month intervention |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Dynamic functional connection FMRI Insula Schizophrenia |
| Key points | Meditation combined with antipsychotics improved insula dynamic functional connectivity and psychiatric symptoms in schizophrenia patients over eight months. |
Abstract
Meditation combined with antipsychotic medication can effectively improve the clinical symptoms and prognosis of patients with schizophrenia, but its underlying neural circuit mechanism is not clear. Many previous studies have shown that the symptoms of schizophrenia are related to dysfunction of the insula. We aimed to explore the neural circuitry mechanisms associated with insular dynamic functional connectivity in the treatment of schizophrenia with meditation combined with antipsychotics in a prospective controlled study. 30 chronic schizophrenia patients were accepted meditation + antipsychotic drug intervention for 8 months. At baseline, 29 age-matched normal healthy controls were used to identify the differential brain regions of dynamic functional connectivity between the insula subregions and the whole brain in the schizophrenia patient group. PANSS scale scores, RBANS scale scores and MRI data were collected at baseline, third month, and eighth month in the schizophrenia group, MRI data was collected at baseline in the healthy control group, then dynamic functional connectivity analysis of the whole brain was conducted using the six subregions of the insula(the left ventral anterior insula (L-vAI), right ventral anterior insula (R-vAI), left dorsal anterior insula (L-dAI), right dorsal anterior insula (R-dAI), left posterior insula (L-PI), and right posterior insula (R-PI)) as seed. Identify which dynamic functional connections in the differential brain regions were improved after meditation intervention at third and eighth month compared with baseline. At baseline, global functional connectivity was significantly lower in the meditation group than in the healthy control group in the left orbital inferior frontal gyrus, right orbital inferior frontal gyrus, medial and paracingulate gyri, right hippocampus, and left auxiliary motor area. At the third and eighth month, schizophrenia patients in the meditation group showed significant improvement of functional connectivity between L-dAI、L-PI and right orbital part of inferior frontal gyrus compared with baseline. Although the PANSS scale scores were significant improvement in the meditation group at the third and eighth month than baseline, there was no significant difference in the RBANS scale scores. Long-term treatment with meditation can improve the overall psychiatric symptoms of patients with schizophrenia and the abnormal dynamic functional association of the insula, which provides a clinical and neuroimaging basis for the widespread application of meditation in the treatment of schizophrenia.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Undergraduate students | 2006 | Observational cohort | |
| Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders Patients with generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia | 1992 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Participants with extensive Insight meditation experience and matched controls | 2005 | Observational cohort | n = 20 |
| Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Experienced meditators and matched meditation-naive controls | 2011 | Observational cohort | |
| Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Long-term Buddhist practitioners and controls | 2004 | Observational cohort |
Citations in the library
Cites 13
- Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2004
- Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 23, 2011
- Mindfulness meditation increases default mode, salience, and central executive network connectivity Scientific Reports August 2, 2022
- Real-time fMRI neurofeedback reduces auditory hallucinations and modulates resting state connectivity of involved brain regions: Part 2: Default mode network -preliminary evidence Psychiatry Research January 14, 2020
- Resting-State Network Functional Connectivity Patterns Associated with the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale Brain Connectivity November 13, 2017
and 8 more in the library