Increased insula response to interoceptive attention following mindfulness training is associated with increased body trusting among patients with depression.

An 8-week Mindfulness Training for Primary Care (MTPC) program altered brain activity during interoceptive attention in adults with anxiety and/or depression. After training, fMRI scans showed increased response in the left anterior insula when participants focused on their heartbeat compared to a visual task. Among patients with moderate-to-severe depression, this increased insula response was linked to greater Body Trusting—a sense of trusting one's own body sensations and viewing the body as a safe place to attend to. The findings suggest that depression severity influences how patients respond to mindfulness-based treatment, and that cultivating body trust may be a key component for those with more severe depression.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Interoceptive dysfunction is often present in anxiety and depression. We investigated the effects of an 8-week intervention, Mindfulness Training for Primary Care (MTPC), on brain mechanisms of interoceptive attention among patients with anxiety and/or depression. We hypothesized that fMRI brain response to interoception in the insula, a region known for interoceptive processing, would increase following the MTPC intervention, and that such increases would be associated with post-intervention changes in self-reported measures of interoceptive awareness. Adults (n = 28) with anxiety and/or depression completed baseline and post-intervention fMRI visits, including a task in which they alternated between focusing on their heartbeat (interoception (INT)) and a control visual attention task (exteroception (EXT)). Following MTPC, we observed increased evoked fMRI response (relative to baseline) in left anterior insula during the INT-EXT task contrast (z > 3.1, p < 0.001 corrected). In patients with moderate-to-severe depression as defined by the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS), increased post-intervention insula response was associated with increased Body Trusting, a subscale of the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (z > 3.1, p = 0.007 corrected). This study demonstrates that patients with mood disorders may respond differentially to mindfulness-based treatment depending on depression severity, and that among those who are more depressed, increased trusting in one's own body sensations and experiencing the body as a safe place to attend to may be necessary components of positive responses to mindfulness-based interventions.