Functional Connectivity Within the Executive Control Network Mediates the Effects of Long-Term Tai Chi Exercise on Elders' Emotion Regulation.
Zhiyuan Liu, Yuyan Wu, Lin Li, Xiuyan Guo
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 2018 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2018.00315 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 52 |
| Population | Elders with long-term tai chi experience and demographically matched healthy elders |
| Intervention | Tai chi |
| Measures | Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), sequential decision task |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Emotion regulation Executive control network Resting-state functional connectivity Tai chi |
| Key findings | Long-term tai chi practitioners showed greater non-judgment of inner experiences, stronger emotion-regulation ability, and weaker DLPFC-MFG resting-state connectivity than matched controls. In the tai chi group, this weaker connectivity fully mediated the relationship between non-judgment of inner experience and emotion-regulation ability, which the authors interpret as evidence that tai chi's benefit for emotion regulation works through altered executive control network connectivity. |
Abstract
Previous research has identified the effects of tai chi exercise on elders' executive control or on their emotion regulation. However, few works have attempted to reveal the relationships between tai chi, executive control, and emotion regulation in the same study. The current resting-state study investigated whether the impact of tai chi on elders' emotion regulation was mediated by the resting-state functional connectivity within the executive control network. A total of 26 elders with long-term tai chi experience and 26 demographically matched healthy elders were recruited. After the resting-state scan, both groups were required to complete a series of questionnaires, including the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), and a sequential decision task, which offered an index of the subjects' emotion-regulation ability by calculating how their emotional response could be affected by the objective outcomes of their decisions. Compared to the control group, the tai chi group showed higher levels of non-judgment of inner experiences (a component of the FFMQ), stronger emotion-regulation ability, and a weaker resting-state functional connectivity between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Moreover, the functional connectivity between the DLPFC and the MFG in the tai chi group fully mediated the impact of non-judgment of inner experience on their emotion-regulation ability. These findings highlighted that the modulation of non-judgment of inner experience on long-term tai chi practitioners' emotion regulation was achieved through decreased functional connectivity within the executive control network.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and Nonmeditating Samples Experienced meditators and nonmeditating comparison groups | 2008 | Cross-sectional study | |
| Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness During Affect Labeling Adult participants | 2007 | Observational cross-sectional | n = 27 |
| Assessing mindfulness in children and adolescents: Development and validation of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM). School-aged children and adolescents | 2011 | Cross-sectional validation study | n = 1,413 |
| Mindfulness and self-compassion as predictors of psychological wellbeing in long-term meditators and matched nonmeditators Experienced meditators and demographically matched nonmeditators | 2012 | Cross-sectional study | n = 152 |
| Mechanisms of Action in the Inverse Relationship Between Mindfulness and Psychological Distress Undergraduates | 2008 | Cross-sectional, correlational |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
- Lasting effects of a single psilocybin dose on resting-state functional connectivity in healthy individuals Journal of Psychopharmacology June 30, 2021
- Meditation effect in changing functional integrations across large-scale brain networks: Preliminary evidence from a meta-analysis of seed-based functional connectivity Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology 2020
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