Does Meditation Alter Brain Responses to Negative Stimuli? A Systematic Review

Meditation practice appears to engage cognitive and attentional control resources in the brain when people face negative emotional stimuli, even without being asked to regulate their emotions. A systematic review of 11 eligible studies found that both novice and long-term meditators showed greater prefrontal and frontal brain activity during exposure to negative stimuli, suggesting increased recruitment of control mechanisms. Findings from emotion-related brain areas were limited, but some studies indicated greater insular activity in meditators, potentially reflecting heightened bodily awareness. These results support the idea that meditation fosters interoceptive awareness of bodily and emotional states.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Background: Despite several attempts to review and explain how meditation alters the brain and facilitates emotion regulation, the extent to which meditation and emotion regulation strategies share the same neural mechanisms remains unclear. Objective: We aim to understand the influence of meditation on the neural processing of negative emotional stimuli in participants who underwent meditation interventions (naive meditators) and long-term meditators. Methodology: A systematic review was conducted using standardized search operators that included the presence of terms related to emotion, meditation and neuro-imaging techniques in PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. Results: Searches identified 882 papers, of which 11 were eligible for inclusion. Results showed a predominance of greater prefrontal/frontal activity related to meditation, which might indicate the increased recruitment of cognitive/attentional control resources in naïve and long-term meditators. This increased frontal activity was also observed when participants were asked to simply react to negative stimuli. Findings from emotion-related areas were scarce but suggested increased insular activity in meditators, potentially indicating that meditation might be associated with greater bodily awareness. Conclusions: Meditation practice prompts regulatory mechanisms when participants face aversive stimuli, even without an explicit request. Moreover, some studies reported increased insular activity in meditators, consistent with the hypothesis that meditation helps foster an interoceptive awareness of bodily and emotional states.