Body-mind relaxation meditation modulates the thalamocortical functional connectivity in major depressive disorder: a preliminary resting-state fMRI study.
Fangfang Chen, Xueyu Lv, Jiliang Fang, Tao Li, Jinping Xu, Xiaoling Wang, Yang Hong, Lan Hong, Jian Wang, Weidong Wang, Chao Wang
Translational Psychiatry October 23, 2021 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-021-01637-8 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 45 |
| Population | Medication-naive adolescents with major depressive disorder and matched healthy controls |
| Intervention | Body-mind relaxation meditation |
| Duration | Single session of BMRM intervention, pre- and post-intervention fMRI scans |
| Topics | Depression Meditation |
| Key findings | Body-mind relaxation meditation normalizes aberrant thalamocortical functional connectivity in adolescents with major depressive disorder. |
Abstract
Mindfulness-based interventions such as meditation have increasingly been utilized for the treatment of psychological disorders and have been shown to be effective in the treatment of depression and relapse prevention. However, it remains largely unclear the neural mechanism of the therapeutic effects of meditation among depressed individuals. In this study, we investigated how body-mind relaxation meditation (BMRM) can modulate the thalamocortical functional connectivity (FC) in major depressive disorder patients and healthy controls. In the present study, we recruited 21 medication-naive adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDDs) and 24 matched healthy controls (HCs). We designed an audio recording to induce body-mind relaxation meditation. Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) scans were collected before and after the BMRM intervention in both groups. The thalamus subregions were defined according to the Human Brainnetome Atlas, and functional connectivity (FC) was measured and compared to find brain regions that were affected by the BMRM intervention. Before the BMRM intervention, MDDs showed reduced FC of the bilateral precuneus/post cingulate cortex with the left posterior parietal thalamus and left caudal temporal thalamus, as well as an increased FC of the left occipital thalamus with the left medial frontal cortex. Moreover, aberrant FCs in MDDs at baseline were normalized following the BMRM intervention. After the BMRM intervention, both MDDs and HCs showed decreased FC between the left rostral temporal thalamus and the left inferior occipital. Given the small sample used in this study, future studies are warranted to evaluate the generalizability of these findings. Our findings suggest that BMRM is associated with changes in thalamocortical functional connectivity in MDDs. BMRM may act by strengthening connections between the thalamus and the default mode network, which are involved in a variety of high-level functioning, such as attention and self-related processes.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on depression, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metacognitive awareness and prevention of relapse in depression: Empirical evidence. Residually depressed patients and nondepressed controls; recovered depressed patients | 2002 | Observational cohort with intervention components | |
| Psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression: fMRI-measured brain mechanisms. Patients with treatment-resistant depression | 2017 | Observational cohort | n = 19 |
| Antidepressant effects of a single dose of ayahuasca in patients with recurrent depression: a preliminary report Patients with a depressive disorder | 2015 | Observational study | |
| Concomitant BDNF and sleep slow wave changes indicate ketamine-induced plasticity in major depressive disorder Patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder | 2012 | Observational cohort | n = 30 |
| Altered peripheral immune profiles in treatment-resistant depression: response to ketamine and prediction of treatment outcome Healthy controls and actively depressed patients with treatment-resistant depression... | 2017 | Observational cohort | n = 59 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 7
- Psilocybin induces spatially constrained alterations in thalamic functional organizaton and connectivity. Neuroimage October 15, 2022
- Neural correlates of mindfulness meditation and hypnosis on magnetic resonance imaging: similarities and differences. A scoping review. Journal of neuroradiology = Journal de neuroradiologie March 1, 2024
- Meditation for Human Mind and Brain: Findings from Functional Neuroimaging Investigations Annals of Advanced Biomedical Sciences 2023
- Where is God? A comparison of the neural correlates of mystical and religious praying bioRxiv Preprint Server February 22, 2026
- Mindfulness Meditation Training Reshapes Somatomotor Edge-Centric Connectivity Underlying Somatic Awareness: Insights for Healthy and Depressed Individuals medRxiv July 29, 2025
and 2 more in the library
Cites 18
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- Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences October 11, 2007
- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: Replication and Exploration of Differential Relapse Prevention Effects. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 2004
- Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse JAMA Psychiatry April 28, 2016
- Mindfulness starts with the body: somatosensory attention and top-down modulation of cortical alpha rhythms in mindfulness meditation Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2013
and 13 more in the library