A shift in perspective: Decentering through mindful attention to imagined stressful events.
Lauren A M Lebois, Esther K. Papies, Kaundinya Gopinath, Romeo Cabanban, Karen S Quigley, Venkatagiri Krishnamurthy, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Lawrence W. Barsalou
Neuropsychologia June 22, 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.05.030 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental neuroimaging study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Non-meditators |
| Intervention | Immersion |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Brain Humans Stress, psychological Imagination Attention Adolescent Female Young adult Self Neuroimaging Mental simulation Decentering |
| Key findings | The authors argue that mindful attention produces decentering by disengaging an embodied sense of self from imagined stressful events, preventing affect from developing. In conjunction analyses, mindful attention down-regulated processing of stressful events relative to baseline while immersion up-regulated it; direct contrasts linked mindful attention to perspective shifting and effortful attention, and immersion to self-processing and visceral states. |
Abstract
Ruminative thoughts about a stressful event can seem subjectively real, as if the imagined event were happening in the moment. One possibility is that this subjective realism results from simulating the self as engaged in the stressful event (immersion). If so, then the process of decentering--disengaging the self from the event--should reduce the subjective realism associated with immersion, and therefore perceived stressfulness. To assess this account of decentering, we taught non-meditators a strategy for disengaging from imagined events, simply viewing these events as transient mental states (mindful attention). In a subsequent neuroimaging session, participants imagined stressful and non-stressful events, while either immersing themselves or adopting mindful attention. In conjunction analyses, mindful attention down-regulated the processing of stressful events relative to baseline, whereas immersion up-regulated their processing. In direct contrasts between mindful attention and immersion, mindful attention showed greater activity in brain areas associated with perspective shifting and effortful attention, whereas immersion showed greater activity in areas associated with self-processing and visceral states. These results suggest that mindful attention produces decentering by disengaging embodied senses of self from imagined situations so that affect does not develop.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cited by 32
- A neurophenomenological approach to non-ordinary states of consciousness: hypnosis, meditation, and psychedelics Trends in Cognitive Sciences December 22, 2022
- Towards a computational phenomenology of mental action: modelling meta-awareness and attentional control with deep parametric active inference. Neuroscience of Consciousness 2021
- From Generative Models to Generative Passages: A Computational Approach to (Neuro) Phenomenology. Review of Philosophy and Psychology 2022
- Mindful attention promotes control of brain network dynamics for self-regulation and discontinues the past from the present Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 3, 2023
- Mindfulness in the focus of the neurosciences - The contribution of neuroimaging to the understanding of mindfulness. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience October 17, 2022
and 27 more in the library
Cites 38
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2004
- Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2003
- Mechanisms of mindfulness Journal of Clinical Psychology December 29, 2005
- Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects Psychological Inquiry October 19, 2007
and 33 more in the library