Mindful attention reduces neural and self-reported cue-induced craving in smokers
Cecilia Westbrook, J. David Creswell, Golnaz Tabibnia, Erica Julson, Hedy Kober, Hilary A. Tindle
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience November 22, 2011 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsr076 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 47 |
| Population | Treatment-seeking smokers, meditation-naïve, 12-hour abstinent |
| Intervention | Mindful attention |
| Topics | Addiction |
| Keywords | Craving Cue reactivity Cognitive psychology Clinical psychology Cognition |
| Citations | 278 |
| Key findings | Mindful attention reduced self-reported craving and neural activity in sgACC, and reduced functional connectivity between sgACC and other craving-related regions when viewing smoking cues. |
Abstract
An emerging body of research suggests that mindfulness-based interventions may be beneficial for smoking cessation and the treatment of other addictive disorders. One way that mindfulness may facilitate smoking cessation is through the reduction of craving to smoking cues. The present work considers whether mindful attention can reduce self-reported and neural markers of cue-induced craving in treatment seeking smokers. Forty-seven (n = 47) meditation-naïve treatment-seeking smokers (12-h abstinent from smoking) viewed and made ratings of smoking and neutral images while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were trained and instructed to view these images passively or with mindful attention. Results indicated that mindful attention reduced self-reported craving to smoking images, and reduced neural activity in a craving-related region of subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC). Moreover, a psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed that mindful attention reduced functional connectivity between sgACC and other craving-related regions compared to passively viewing smoking images, suggesting that mindfulness may decouple craving neurocircuitry when viewing smoking cues. These results provide an initial indication that mindful attention may describe a 'bottom-up' attention to one's present moment experience in ways that can help reduce subjective and neural reactivity to smoking cues in smokers.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on addiction, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition | |
| Neural Correlates of Ongoing Conscious Experience: Both Task-Unrelatedness and Stimulus-Independence Are Related to Default Network Activity Participants performing a go/no-go task while undergoing functional neuroimaging | 2011 | Observational neuroimaging study using thought-probes during a go/no-go task | |
| DOI-Induced Activation of the Cortex: Dependence on 5-HT2AHeteroceptors on Thalamocortical Glutamatergic Neurons Rat | 2000 | Experimental study | |
| Noribogaine is a G-protein biased κ-opioid receptor agonist. | 2015 | Experimental study with binding experiments, functional assays, and computational simulations | |
| ‘Ecstasy’ as a social drug: MDMA preferentially affects responses to emotional stimuli with social content Healthy occasional MDMA users | 2014 | Within-subjects experimental design | n = 101 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 55
- Mindfulness Interventions Annual Review of Psychology September 30, 2016
- Contemplating Mindfulness at Work Journal of Management November 19, 2015
- Investigating the phenomenological matrix of mindfulness-related practices from a neurocognitive perspective. American Psychologist October 1, 2015
- Mindfulness Meditation and Psychopathology Annual Review of Clinical Psychology December 11, 2018
- Can Mindfulness Address Maladaptive Eating Behaviors? Why Traditional Diet Plans Fail and How New Mechanistic Insights May Lead to Novel Interventions. Frontiers in Psychology 2018
and 50 more in the library
Cites 22
- Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2004
- Mechanisms of mindfulness Journal of Clinical Psychology December 29, 2005
- Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects Psychological Inquiry October 19, 2007
- Attending to the present: mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience August 13, 2007
- A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation versus relaxation training: Effects on distress, positive states of mind, rumination, and distraction Annals of Behavioral Medicine February 1, 2007
and 17 more in the library