Neural correlates of mindful self-awareness in mindfulness meditators and meditation-naïve subjects revisited.

Mindful self-awareness, a core component of mindfulness meditation, is linked to reduced activity in brain regions involved in self-referential thinking (cortical midline structures) and emotion (amygdala), alongside increased activity in somatosensory areas. Using fMRI, experienced meditators (average 4,652 practice hours) and meditation-naïve participants engaged in short periods of mindful self-awareness and self-referential thinking. Both groups showed somatosensory activation and decreased cortical midline activity during mindful awareness, but experienced meditators exhibited significantly stronger decreases in prefrontal midline regions and reduced activity in language-related areas. Higher amygdala and midline activity during mindful awareness correlated with depressiveness. Meditation training may reduce self-reference and verbalization during mindful awareness, supporting its role in healthy self-related neural functions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Mindful self-awareness is central to mindfulness meditation and plays a key role in its salutary effects. It has been related to decreased activation in cortical midline structures (CMS) and amygdala, and increased activation in somatosensory regions. However, findings in untrained individuals are contradictory, and scarce in experienced meditators. Using fMRI, we investigated experienced mindfulness meditators (LTM, n=21, average 4652 practice-hours) and matched meditation-naïve participants (MNP, n=19) during short periods of mindful self-awareness (FEEL) and self-referential thinking (THINK). We report somatosensory activations and decreases in CMS during FEEL for both groups, but significantly stronger decreases in prefrontal CMS in LTM. LTM further showed decreases in language-related and amygdala regions, but the latter was not significantly different between groups. Overall, higher activations in amygdala and mid-line regions during FEEL were related to levels of depressiveness. Neural patterns of mindful self-awareness emerge already in MNP but more pronounced in LTM. Specifically, meditation training might reduce self-reference and verbalization during mindful awareness. We further corroborate the suggested link between mindfulness and healthy self-related functions on the neural level. Longitudinal studies need to corroborate these findings.