Increased insula response to interoceptive attention following mindfulness training is associated with increased body trusting among patients with depression.
Michael Datko, Jacqueline Lutz, Richa Gawande, Alexandra Comeau, My Ngoc To, Tenzin Desel, Jenny Gan, Gaelle Desbordes, Vitaly Napadow, Zev Schuman-Olivier
Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging December 1, 2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2022.111559 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Pre-post intervention study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 28 |
| Population | Adults with anxiety and/or depression |
| Intervention | Mindfulness Training for Primary Care (MTPC) |
| Duration | 8-week intervention |
| Topics | Anxiety Meditation Depression |
| Keywords | Interoception Intervention Mood disorders FMRI |
| Key points | Mindfulness Training for Primary Care increased left anterior insula response during interoceptive attention, and in patients with moderate-to-severe depression, this increase was associated with greater Body Trusting. |
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.
Comparable studies
Other non-randomized and open-label trials on depression, most cited first.
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Cites 7
- Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self Trends in Cognitive Sciences October 12, 2013
- Active interoceptive inference and the emotional brain Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences October 11, 2016
- Interoception, contemplative practice, and health Frontiers in Psychology June 9, 2015
- Mindfulness meditation training alters cortical representations of interoceptive attention Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience June 11, 2012
- Mindful attention reduces neural and self-reported cue-induced craving in smokers Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience November 22, 2011
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