Effects of Mindfulness Training on Emotion Regulation in Patients With Depression: Reduced Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Activation Indexes Early Beneficial Changes
Thorsten Barnhofer, Tim Jonas Reeß, Maria Fißler, Emilia Winnebeck, Simone Grimm, Matti Gärtner, Yan Fan, Julia M. Huntenburg, Titus A. Schroeter, Marie Gummersbach, Malek Bajbouj, Britta K. Hölzel
Psychosomatic Medicine May 5, 2021 DOI: 10.1097/psy.0000000000000955 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 38 |
| Population | Depressed patients with recurrent lifetime history |
| Interventions | Mindfulness-based intervention Psychoeducation and resting |
| Duration | 2-week intervention |
| Topics | Meditation Depression |
| Keywords | Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex Cognitive reappraisal Amygdala Depression economics Audiology Clinical psychology Cognition |
| Citations | 24 |
| Registration | NCT02801513 |
| Key findings | Decreased right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation in response to angry faces after a 2-week mindfulness-based intervention was correlated with increased decentering, decreased brooding, and decreased depressive symptoms. |
Abstract
Objective: Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been found to be a promising approach for the treatment of recurrent courses of depression. However, little is known about their neural mechanisms. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study set out to investigate activation changes in corticolimbic regions during implicit emotion regulation.
Methods: Depressed patients with a recurrent lifetime history were randomized to receive a 2-week MBI (n = 16 completers) or psychoeducation and resting (PER; n = 22 completers). Before and after, patients underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while labeling the affect of angry, happy, and neutral facial expressions and completed questionnaires assessing ruminative brooding, the ability to decenter from such thinking, and depressive symptoms.
Results: Activation decreased in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in response to angry faces after MBI (p < .01, voxel-wise family-wise error rate correction, T > 3.282; 56 mm3; Montreal Neurological Institute peak coordinate: 32, 24, 40), but not after PER. This change was highly correlated with increased decentring (r = -0.52, p = .033), decreased brooding (r = 0.60, p = .010), and decreased symptoms (r = 0.82, p = .005). Amygdala activation in response to happy faces decreased after PER (p < .01, family-wise error rate corrected; 392 mm3; Montreal Neurological Institute peak coordinate: 28, -4, -16), whereas the MBI group showed no significant change.
Conclusions: The dlPFC is involved in emotion regulation, namely, reappraisal or suppression of negative emotions. Decreased right dlPFC activation might indicate that, after the MBI, patients abstained from engaging in elaboration or suppression of negative affective stimuli; a putatively important mechanism for preventing the escalation of negative mood.Trial
Registration: The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02801513; 16/06/2016).
Comparable studies
Other randomized controlled trials on depression, most cited first.
Citations in the library
Cited by 9
- Mindfulness meditation and psychedelics: potential synergies and commonalities Pharmacological Reports November 6, 2023
- ENIGMA-Meditation: Worldwide Consortium for Neuroscientific Investigations of Meditation Practices. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging April 1, 2025
- A systematic review on mindfulness-based immersive interventions in depressive disorders npj Mental Health Research April 2, 2026
- Improving Prefrontal Oxygenation and Cardiac Autonomic Activity Following Meditation: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Study. Cureus August 1, 2024
- The effects of intensive mindfulness interventions on athletes’ psychological states and cognitive performance: an fNIRS study BMC Psychology March 9, 2026
and 4 more in the library
Cites 23
- Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2004
- Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression August 21, 2006
- Metacognitive awareness and prevention of relapse in depression: Empirical evidence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 2002
- Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness During Affect Labeling Psychosomatic Medicine July 1, 2007
- Effects of mindful-attention and compassion meditation training on amygdala response to emotional stimuli in an ordinary, non-meditative state Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2012
and 18 more in the library