Mindfulness enhancements predict aberrant salience reductions and improve stress management.
Isabel Wießner, Júlia Paula Souza, Marcelo Demarzo, Luís Fernando Tófoli
Discover Mental Health April 8, 2025 DOI: 10.1007/s44192-025-00179-5 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Pre-post-intervention pilot study Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 21 |
| Population | Adults completing an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Health Promotion course |
| Intervention | Mindfulness-Based Health Promotion (MBHP) course |
| Duration | 8-week intervention, 3-month follow-up |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Aberrant salience Awareness Psychosis Stress management Stress relief Concentration Mindfulness meditation meditation Contemplation Mindful practice Anxiety reduction Attention training focus Mental wellbeing Emotional health |
| Citations | 3 |
| Key points | Mindful attention increased and correlated with reduced aberrant salience (specifically Heightened Emotionality), while total aberrant salience decreased from after the course to three months later. |
Abstract
Mindfulness improves mental health and clinical conditions including psychosis and modulates attentional processes including salience-the automatic direction of attention to prominent elements. Aberrant salience-the exaggerated significance attribution to perceived elements-is associated with psychotic experiences, but its interactions with mindfulness remain unexplored. This pre-post-intervention pilot study included 21 participants completing an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Health Promotion (MBHP) course with measurements before (T0), after (T1), and three months post-course (T2). Primary outcomes were mindful attention (Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, MAAS), decentering (Experiences Questionnaire, EQ), aberrant salience (Aberrant Salience Inventory, ASI), and correlations between time-dependent changes (T1-T0, T2-T0, T2-T1). Secondary outcomes included qualitative reports on Motivations, Learnings, Preferred Practices, and Stress Management. Regarding mindfulness, MAAS and EQ continuingly increased (T0 vs. T1/T2). Regarding aberrant salience, the factor Heightened Cognition (ASI) increased post-course (T0 vs. T1), whereas Heightened Emotionality (T0 vs. T2) and Total Aberrant Salience (T1 vs. T2) decreased. Importantly, MAAS (T1-T0, T2-T0) correlated negatively with Heightened Emotionality (T2-T0). Qualitative findings revealed consistent stressors but improved stress management, integrated mindfulness practices into participants' daily lives, and potential mechanisms of presence, observation, perspective change, and emotion regulation underlying decreased aberrant salience. Mindfulness may modulate pre-attentional and attentional processes and improve well-being and stress management, as reflected by reduced aberrant salience and promoted mindful attention and decentering. Our findings suggest that mindful attention may play a crucial role in reducing aberrant salience, offering a promising direction for future research on mindfulness interventions in psychosis.
Comparable studies
Other non-randomized and open-label trials on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Relation to Quality of Life, Mood, Symptoms of Stress, and Immune Parameters in Breast and Prostate Cancer Outpatients Early-stage breast and prostate cancer patients | 2003 | Pre-post intervention study | n = 59 |
| Exploring self‐compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) Community sample | 2010 | Pre-post intervention study | |
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Lowers Psychological Distress In Medical Students Second-year medical students | 2003 | Prospective nonrandomized cohort-controlled study | n = 302 |
| Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Retreat participants and matched controls | 2011 | Controlled trial with wait-list control group | n = 60 |
| The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training for Children with ADHD and Mindful Parenting for their Parents Children aged 8-12 with ADHD and their parents | 2011 | Within-group waitlist controlled trial | n = 22 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- A narrative review of research status and prospects of mindfulness-based interventions in schizophrenia Frontiers in Psychology October 12, 2026
- DMT, Madness, and Healing: Psychosis Model, Therapy Model, and Their Relations to Mystical Experiences and Positive Emotionality Research Square May 20, 2026
- Easing the burden: a pilot study on the impact of mindfulness on the mental health of Brazilian medical students. BMC Medical Education August 1, 2025
Cites 19
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Mechanisms of mindfulness Journal of Clinical Psychology December 29, 2005
- Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 2003
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Stress Management in Healthy People: A Review and Meta-Analysis The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine May 1, 2009
- Inside the Mindful Mind Current Directions in Psychological Science December 1, 2013
and 14 more in the library