Effects of compassion training on brain responses to suffering others.
Yoni K Ashar, Jessica R Andrews-Hanna, Joan Halifax, Sona Dimidjian, Tor D Wager
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience September 30, 2021 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab052 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Placebo-controlled Longitudinal Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 57 |
| Population | Adults |
| Intervention | Compassion meditation |
| Duration | 4-week intervention |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Burnout Compassion training Empathy Placebo |
| Key findings | Compassion meditation increased brain responses in the medial orbitofrontal cortex to suffering others, and this increase correlated with self-reported compassion-related feelings and attributions. |
Abstract
Compassion meditation (CM) is a promising intervention for enhancing compassion, although its active ingredients and neurobiological mechanisms are not well-understood. To investigate these, we conducted a three-armed placebo-controlled randomized trial (N = 57) with longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We compared a 4-week CM program delivered by smartphone application with (i) a placebo condition, presented to participants as the compassion-enhancing hormone oxytocin, and (ii) a condition designed to control for increased familiarity with suffering others, an element of CM which may promote compassion. At pre- and post-intervention, participants listened to compassion-eliciting narratives describing suffering others during fMRI. CM increased brain responses to suffering others in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) relative to the familiarity condition, p < 0.05 family-wise error rate corrected. Among CM participants, individual differences in increased mOFC responses positively correlated with increased compassion-related feelings and attributions, r = 0.50, p = 0.04. Relative to placebo, the CM group exhibited a similar increase in mOFC activity at an uncorrected threshold of P < 0.001 and 10 contiguous voxels. We conclude that the mOFC, a region closely related to affiliative affect and motivation, is an important brain mechanism of CM. Effects of CM on mOFC function are not explained by familiarity effects and are partly explained by placebo effects.
Comparable studies
Other randomized controlled trials on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation Healthy employees in a work environment | 2003 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 41 |
| Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Recovered recurrently depressed patients | 2000 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 145 |
| Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Working adults | 2008 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 139 |
| Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation Undergraduate Chinese students | 2007 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 40 |
| Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: Replication and Exploration of Differential Relapse Prevention Effects. Recovered recurrently depressed patients | 2004 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 73 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- Emotional indicators of university students: a quasi-experimental pilot study with Hatha-Yoga. Revista latino-americana de enfermagem 2025
- WITHDRAWN: I feel your pain: Higher empathy is associated with higher posterior default mode network activity bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) August 15, 2023
- Effects of meditation on neural responses to pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis of fMRI studies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews July 1, 2024
Cites 27
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- Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for preventing relapse in recurrent depression: A randomized dismantling trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology December 3, 2013
and 22 more in the library