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Fadel Zeidan - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Mindfulness Meditation based pain relief a mechanistic account
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2016Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, David R. VagoAbstract:Pain is a multidimensional experience that involves interacting sensory, cognitive, and affective factors, rendering the treatment of chronic pain challenging and financially burdensome. Further, the widespread use of opioids to treat chronic pain has led to an opioid epidemic characterized by exponential growth in opioid misuse and addiction. The staggering statistics related to opioid use highlight the importance of developing, testing, and validating fast-acting nonpharmacological approaches to treat pain. Mindfulness Meditation is a technique that has been found to significantly reduce pain in experimental and clinical settings. The present review delineates findings from recent studies demonstrating that Mindfulness Meditation significantly attenuates pain through multiple, unique mechanisms-an important consideration for the millions of chronic pain patients seeking narcotic-free, self-facilitated pain therapy.
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Mindfulness Meditation based pain relief is not mediated by endogenous opioids
The Journal of Neuroscience, 2016Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, John G Mchaffie, Adrienne L Adlerneal, Rebecca Erwin Wells, Emily Stagnaro, Lisa M May, James C Eisenach, Robert C CoghillAbstract:Mindfulness Meditation, a cognitive practice premised on sustaining nonjudgmental awareness of arising sensory events, reliably attenuates pain. Mindfulness Meditation activates multiple brain regions that contain a high expression of opioid receptors. However, it is unknown whether Mindfulness-Meditation-based analgesia is mediated by endogenous opioids. The present double-blind, randomized study examined behavioral pain responses in healthy human volunteers during Mindfulness Meditation and a nonmanipulation control condition in response to noxious heat and intravenous administration of the opioid antagonist naloxone (0.15 mg/kg bolus + 0.1 mg/kg/h infusion) or saline placebo. Meditation during saline infusion significantly reduced pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings when compared to the control + saline group. However, naloxone infusion failed to reverse Meditation-induced analgesia. There were no significant differences in pain intensity or pain unpleasantness reductions between the Meditation + naloxone and the Meditation + saline groups. Furthermore, Mindfulness Meditation during naloxone produced significantly greater reductions in pain intensity and unpleasantness than the control groups. These findings demonstrate that Mindfulness Meditation does not rely on endogenous opioidergic mechanisms to reduce pain. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Endogenous opioids have been repeatedly shown to be involved in the cognitive inhibition of pain. Mindfulness Meditation, a practice premised on directing nonjudgmental attention to arising sensory events, reduces pain by engaging mechanisms supporting the cognitive control of pain. However, it remains unknown if Mindfulness-Meditation-based analgesia is mediated by opioids, an important consideration for using Meditation to treat chronic pain. To address this question, the present study examined pain reports during Meditation in response to noxious heat and administration of the opioid antagonist naloxone and placebo saline. The results demonstrate that Meditation-based pain relief does not require endogenous opioids. Therefore, the treatment of chronic pain may be more effective with Meditation due to a lack of cross-tolerance with opiate-based medications.
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Mindfulness Meditation based pain relief employs different neural mechanisms than placebo and sham Mindfulness Meditation induced analgesia
The Journal of Neuroscience, 2015Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, John G Mchaffie, Nichole M Emerson, Suzan R Farris, Jenna Ray, Youngkyoo Jung, Robert C CoghillAbstract:Mindfulness Meditation reduces pain in experimental and clinical settings. However, it remains unknown whether Mindfulness Meditation engages pain-relieving mechanisms other than those associated with the placebo effect (e.g., conditioning, psychosocial context, beliefs). To determine whether the analgesic mechanisms of Mindfulness Meditation are different from placebo, we randomly assigned 75 healthy, human volunteers to 4 d of the following: (1) Mindfulness Meditation, (2) placebo conditioning, (3) sham Mindfulness Meditation, or (4) book-listening control intervention. We assessed intervention efficacy using psychophysical evaluation of experimental pain and functional neuroimaging. Importantly, all cognitive manipulations (i.e., Mindfulness Meditation, placebo conditioning, sham Mindfulness Meditation) significantly attenuated pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings when compared to rest and the control condition ( p p = 0.032) and pain unpleasantness ( p p = 0.030) and pain unpleasantness ( p = 0.043) ratings more than sham Mindfulness Meditation. Mindfulness-Meditation-related pain relief was associated with greater activation in brain regions associated with the cognitive modulation of pain, including the orbitofrontal, subgenual anterior cingulate, and anterior insular cortex. In contrast, placebo analgesia was associated with activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and deactivation of sensory processing regions (secondary somatosensory cortex). Sham Mindfulness Meditation-induced analgesia was not correlated with significant neural activity, but rather by greater reductions in respiration rate. This study is the first to demonstrate that Mindfulness-related pain relief is mechanistically distinct from placebo analgesia. The elucidation of this distinction confirms the existence of multiple, cognitively driven, supraspinal mechanisms for pain modulation. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Recent findings have demonstrated that Mindfulness Meditation significantly reduces pain. Given that the “gold standard” for evaluating the efficacy of behavioral interventions is based on appropriate placebo comparisons, it is imperative that we establish whether there is an effect supporting Meditation-related pain relief above and beyond the effects of placebo. Here, we provide novel evidence demonstrating that Mindfulness Meditation produces greater pain relief and employs distinct neural mechanisms than placebo cream and sham Mindfulness Meditation. Specifically, Mindfulness Meditation-induced pain relief activated higher-order brain regions, including the orbitofrontal and cingulate cortices. In contrast, placebo analgesia was associated with decreased pain-related brain activation. These findings demonstrate that Mindfulness Meditation reduces pain through unique mechanisms and may foster greater acceptance of Meditation as an adjunct pain therapy.
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Neural correlates of Mindfulness Meditation-related anxiety relief
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2013Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, Katherine T. Martucci, Robert A. Kraft, John G Mchaffie, Robert C CoghillAbstract:Anxiety is the cognitive state related to the inability to control emotional responses to perceived threats. Anxiety is inversely related to brain activity associated with the cognitive regulation of emotions. Mindfulness Meditation has been found to regulate anxiety. However, the brain mechanisms involved in Meditation-related anxiety relief are largely unknown. We employed pulsed arterial spin labeling MRI to compare the effects of distraction in the form of attending to the breath (ATB; before Meditation training) to Mindfulness Meditation (after Meditation training) on state anxiety across the same subjects. Fifteen healthy subjects, with no prior Meditation experience, participated in 4 d of Mindfulness Meditation training. ATB did not reduce state anxiety, but state anxiety was significantly reduced in every session that subjects meditated. Meditation-related anxiety relief was associated with activation of the anterior cingulate cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and anterior insula. Meditation-related activation in these regions exhibited a strong relationship to anxiety relief when compared to ATB. During Meditation, those who exhibited greater default-related activity (i.e. posterior cingulate cortex) reported greater anxiety, possibly reflecting an inability to control self-referential thoughts. These findings provide evidence that Mindfulness Meditation attenuates anxiety through mechanisms involved in the regulation of self-referential thought processes.
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Mindfulness Meditation related pain relief evidence for unique brain mechanisms in the regulation of pain
Neuroscience Letters, 2012Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, John G Mchaffie, Joshua A Grant, Christopher A Brown, Robert C CoghillAbstract:The cognitive modulation of pain is influenced by a number of factors ranging from attention, beliefs, conditioning, expectations, mood, and the regulation of emotional responses to noxious sensory events. Recently, Mindfulness Meditation has been found attenuate pain through some of these mechanisms including enhanced cognitive and emotional control, as well as altering the contextual evaluation of sensory events. This review discusses the brain mechanisms involved in Mindfulness Meditation-related pain relief across different meditative techniques, expertise and training levels, experimental procedures, and neuroimaging methodologies. Converging lines of neuroimaging evidence reveal that Mindfulness Meditation-related pain relief is associated with unique appraisal cognitive processes depending on expertise level and Meditation tradition. Moreover, it is postulated that Mindfulness Meditation-related pain relief may share a common final pathway with other cognitive techniques in the modulation of pain.
Robert C Coghill - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Mindfulness Meditation based pain relief is not mediated by endogenous opioids
The Journal of Neuroscience, 2016Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, John G Mchaffie, Adrienne L Adlerneal, Rebecca Erwin Wells, Emily Stagnaro, Lisa M May, James C Eisenach, Robert C CoghillAbstract:Mindfulness Meditation, a cognitive practice premised on sustaining nonjudgmental awareness of arising sensory events, reliably attenuates pain. Mindfulness Meditation activates multiple brain regions that contain a high expression of opioid receptors. However, it is unknown whether Mindfulness-Meditation-based analgesia is mediated by endogenous opioids. The present double-blind, randomized study examined behavioral pain responses in healthy human volunteers during Mindfulness Meditation and a nonmanipulation control condition in response to noxious heat and intravenous administration of the opioid antagonist naloxone (0.15 mg/kg bolus + 0.1 mg/kg/h infusion) or saline placebo. Meditation during saline infusion significantly reduced pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings when compared to the control + saline group. However, naloxone infusion failed to reverse Meditation-induced analgesia. There were no significant differences in pain intensity or pain unpleasantness reductions between the Meditation + naloxone and the Meditation + saline groups. Furthermore, Mindfulness Meditation during naloxone produced significantly greater reductions in pain intensity and unpleasantness than the control groups. These findings demonstrate that Mindfulness Meditation does not rely on endogenous opioidergic mechanisms to reduce pain. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Endogenous opioids have been repeatedly shown to be involved in the cognitive inhibition of pain. Mindfulness Meditation, a practice premised on directing nonjudgmental attention to arising sensory events, reduces pain by engaging mechanisms supporting the cognitive control of pain. However, it remains unknown if Mindfulness-Meditation-based analgesia is mediated by opioids, an important consideration for using Meditation to treat chronic pain. To address this question, the present study examined pain reports during Meditation in response to noxious heat and administration of the opioid antagonist naloxone and placebo saline. The results demonstrate that Meditation-based pain relief does not require endogenous opioids. Therefore, the treatment of chronic pain may be more effective with Meditation due to a lack of cross-tolerance with opiate-based medications.
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Mindfulness Meditation based pain relief employs different neural mechanisms than placebo and sham Mindfulness Meditation induced analgesia
The Journal of Neuroscience, 2015Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, John G Mchaffie, Nichole M Emerson, Suzan R Farris, Jenna Ray, Youngkyoo Jung, Robert C CoghillAbstract:Mindfulness Meditation reduces pain in experimental and clinical settings. However, it remains unknown whether Mindfulness Meditation engages pain-relieving mechanisms other than those associated with the placebo effect (e.g., conditioning, psychosocial context, beliefs). To determine whether the analgesic mechanisms of Mindfulness Meditation are different from placebo, we randomly assigned 75 healthy, human volunteers to 4 d of the following: (1) Mindfulness Meditation, (2) placebo conditioning, (3) sham Mindfulness Meditation, or (4) book-listening control intervention. We assessed intervention efficacy using psychophysical evaluation of experimental pain and functional neuroimaging. Importantly, all cognitive manipulations (i.e., Mindfulness Meditation, placebo conditioning, sham Mindfulness Meditation) significantly attenuated pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings when compared to rest and the control condition ( p p = 0.032) and pain unpleasantness ( p p = 0.030) and pain unpleasantness ( p = 0.043) ratings more than sham Mindfulness Meditation. Mindfulness-Meditation-related pain relief was associated with greater activation in brain regions associated with the cognitive modulation of pain, including the orbitofrontal, subgenual anterior cingulate, and anterior insular cortex. In contrast, placebo analgesia was associated with activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and deactivation of sensory processing regions (secondary somatosensory cortex). Sham Mindfulness Meditation-induced analgesia was not correlated with significant neural activity, but rather by greater reductions in respiration rate. This study is the first to demonstrate that Mindfulness-related pain relief is mechanistically distinct from placebo analgesia. The elucidation of this distinction confirms the existence of multiple, cognitively driven, supraspinal mechanisms for pain modulation. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Recent findings have demonstrated that Mindfulness Meditation significantly reduces pain. Given that the “gold standard” for evaluating the efficacy of behavioral interventions is based on appropriate placebo comparisons, it is imperative that we establish whether there is an effect supporting Meditation-related pain relief above and beyond the effects of placebo. Here, we provide novel evidence demonstrating that Mindfulness Meditation produces greater pain relief and employs distinct neural mechanisms than placebo cream and sham Mindfulness Meditation. Specifically, Mindfulness Meditation-induced pain relief activated higher-order brain regions, including the orbitofrontal and cingulate cortices. In contrast, placebo analgesia was associated with decreased pain-related brain activation. These findings demonstrate that Mindfulness Meditation reduces pain through unique mechanisms and may foster greater acceptance of Meditation as an adjunct pain therapy.
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Neural correlates of Mindfulness Meditation-related anxiety relief
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2013Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, Katherine T. Martucci, Robert A. Kraft, John G Mchaffie, Robert C CoghillAbstract:Anxiety is the cognitive state related to the inability to control emotional responses to perceived threats. Anxiety is inversely related to brain activity associated with the cognitive regulation of emotions. Mindfulness Meditation has been found to regulate anxiety. However, the brain mechanisms involved in Meditation-related anxiety relief are largely unknown. We employed pulsed arterial spin labeling MRI to compare the effects of distraction in the form of attending to the breath (ATB; before Meditation training) to Mindfulness Meditation (after Meditation training) on state anxiety across the same subjects. Fifteen healthy subjects, with no prior Meditation experience, participated in 4 d of Mindfulness Meditation training. ATB did not reduce state anxiety, but state anxiety was significantly reduced in every session that subjects meditated. Meditation-related anxiety relief was associated with activation of the anterior cingulate cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and anterior insula. Meditation-related activation in these regions exhibited a strong relationship to anxiety relief when compared to ATB. During Meditation, those who exhibited greater default-related activity (i.e. posterior cingulate cortex) reported greater anxiety, possibly reflecting an inability to control self-referential thoughts. These findings provide evidence that Mindfulness Meditation attenuates anxiety through mechanisms involved in the regulation of self-referential thought processes.
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Mindfulness Meditation related pain relief evidence for unique brain mechanisms in the regulation of pain
Neuroscience Letters, 2012Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, John G Mchaffie, Joshua A Grant, Christopher A Brown, Robert C CoghillAbstract:The cognitive modulation of pain is influenced by a number of factors ranging from attention, beliefs, conditioning, expectations, mood, and the regulation of emotional responses to noxious sensory events. Recently, Mindfulness Meditation has been found attenuate pain through some of these mechanisms including enhanced cognitive and emotional control, as well as altering the contextual evaluation of sensory events. This review discusses the brain mechanisms involved in Mindfulness Meditation-related pain relief across different meditative techniques, expertise and training levels, experimental procedures, and neuroimaging methodologies. Converging lines of neuroimaging evidence reveal that Mindfulness Meditation-related pain relief is associated with unique appraisal cognitive processes depending on expertise level and Meditation tradition. Moreover, it is postulated that Mindfulness Meditation-related pain relief may share a common final pathway with other cognitive techniques in the modulation of pain.
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Brain Mechanisms Supporting the Modulation of Pain by Mindfulness Meditation
Journal of Neuroscience, 2011Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, N. S. Gordon, Katherine T. Martucci, Robert A. Kraft, John G Mchaffie, Robert C CoghillAbstract:The subjective experience of one's environment is constructed by interactions among sensory, cognitive, and affective processes. For centuries, Meditation has been thought to influence such processes by enabling a nonevaluative representation of sensory events. To better understand how Meditation influences the sensory experience, we used arterial spin labeling functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the neural mechanisms by which Mindfulness Meditation influences pain in healthy human participants. After 4 d of Mindfulness Meditation training, meditating in the presence of noxious stimulation significantly reduced pain unpleasantness by 57% and pain intensity ratings by 40% when compared to rest. A two-factor repeated-measures ANOVA was used to identify interactions between Meditation and pain-related brain activation. Meditation reduced pain-related activation of the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify brain regions associated with individual differences in the magnitude of Meditation-related pain reductions. Meditation-induced reductions in pain intensity ratings were associated with increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula, areas involved in the cognitive regulation of nociceptive processing. Reductions in pain unpleasantness ratings were associated with orbitofrontal cortex activation, an area implicated in reframing the contextual evaluation of sensory events. Moreover, reductions in pain unpleasantness also were associated with thalamic deactivation, which may reflect a limbic gating mechanism involved in modifying interactions between afferent input and executive-order brain areas. Together, these data indicate that Meditation engages multiple brain mechanisms that alter the construction of the subjectively available pain experience from afferent information.
Kirk Warren Brown - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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brief Mindfulness Meditation training reduces mind wandering the critical role of acceptance
Emotion, 2017Co-Authors: Hayley Rahl, Emily K Lindsay, Laura E Pacilio, Kirk Warren Brown, David J CreswellAbstract:Mindfulness Meditation programs, which train individuals to monitor their present-moment experience in an open or accepting way, have been shown to reduce mind wandering on standardized tasks in several studies. Here we test 2 competing accounts for how Mindfulness training reduces mind wandering, evaluating whether the attention-monitoring component of Mindfulness training alone reduces mind wandering or whether the acceptance training component is necessary for reducing mind wandering. Healthy young adults (N = 147) were randomized to either a 3-day brief Mindfulness training condition incorporating instruction in both attention monitoring and acceptance, a Mindfulness training condition incorporating attention monitoring instruction only, a relaxation training condition, or an active reading-control condition. Participants completed measures of dispositional Mindfulness and treatment expectancies before the training session on Day 1 and then completed a 6-min Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) measuring mind wandering after the training session on Day 3. Acceptance training was important for reducing mind wandering, such that the attention-monitoring plus acceptance Mindfulness training condition had the lowest mind wandering relative to the other conditions, including significantly lower mind wandering than the attention-monitoring only Mindfulness training condition. In one of the first experimental Mindfulness training dismantling studies to-date, we show that training in acceptance is a critical driver of Mindfulness-training reductions in mind wandering. This effect suggests that acceptance skills may facilitate emotion regulation on boring and frustrating sustained attention tasks that foster mind wandering, such as the SART. (PsycINFO Database Record
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alterations in resting state functional connectivity link Mindfulness Meditation with reduced interleukin 6 a randomized controlled trial
Biological Psychiatry, 2016Co-Authors: David J Creswell, Emily K Lindsay, Kirk Warren Brown, Adrienne A Taren, Peter J Gianaros, Carol M Greco, April Fairgrieve, Anna L Marsland, Baldwin M Way, Rhonda K RosenAbstract:Abstract Background Mindfulness Meditation training interventions have been shown to improve markers of health, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are not known. Building on initial cross-sectional research showing that Mindfulness Meditation may increase default mode network (DMN) resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) with regions important in top-down executive control (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [dlPFC]), here we test whether Mindfulness Meditation training increases DMN-dlPFC rsFC and whether these rsFC alterations prospectively explain improvements in interleukin (IL)-6 in a randomized controlled trial. Methods Stressed job-seeking unemployed community adults ( n = 35) were randomized to either a 3-day intensive residential Mindfulness Meditation or relaxation training program. Participants completed a 5-minute resting-state scan before and after the intervention program. Participants also provided blood samples at preintervention and at 4-month follow-up, which were assayed for circulating IL-6, a biomarker of systemic inflammation. Results We tested for alterations in DMN rsFC using a posterior cingulate cortex seed-based analysis and found that Mindfulness Meditation training, and not relaxation training, increased posterior cingulate cortex rsFC with left dlPFC ( p Conclusions These findings provide the first evidence that Mindfulness Meditation training functionally couples the DMN with a region known to be important in top-down executive control at rest (left dlPFC), which, in turn, is associated with improvements in a marker of inflammatory disease risk.
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Mindfulness Meditation training alters stress related amygdala resting state functional connectivity a randomized controlled trial
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2015Co-Authors: Emily K Lindsay, Kirk Warren Brown, Adrienne A Taren, Peter J Gianaros, Carol M Greco, April Fairgrieve, Rhonda K Rosen, Jennifer L Ferris, Erica JulsonAbstract:Recent studies indicate that Mindfulness Meditation training interventions reduce stress and improve stress-related health outcomes, but the neural pathways for these effects are unknown. The present research evaluates whether Mindfulness Meditation training alters resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the amygdala, a region known to coordinate stress processing and physiological stress responses. We show in an initial discovery study that higher perceived stress over the past month is associated with greater bilateral amygdala-subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) rsFC in a sample of community adults (n ¼ 130). A follow-up, single-blind randomized controlled trial shows that a 3-day intensive Mindfulness Meditation training intervention (relative to a well-matched 3-day relaxation training intervention without a Mindfulness component) reduced right amygdala-sgACC rsFC in a sample of stressed unemployed community adults (n ¼ 35). Although stress may increase amygdala-sgACC rsFC, brief training in Mindfulness Meditation could reverse these effects. This work provides an initial indication that Mindfulness Meditation training promotes functional neuroplastic changes, suggesting an amygdala-sgACC pathway for stress reduction effects.
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brief Mindfulness Meditation training alters psychological and neuroendocrine responses to social evaluative stress
Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2014Co-Authors: David J Creswell, Emily K Lindsay, Laura E Pacilio, Kirk Warren BrownAbstract:Summary Objective: To test whether a brief Mindfulness Meditation training intervention buffers selfreported psychological and neuroendocrine responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in young adult volunteers. A second objective evaluates whether pre-existing levels of dispositional Mindfulness moderate the effects of brief Mindfulness Meditation training on stress reactivity. Methods: Sixty-six (N = 66) participants were randomly assigned to either a brief 3-day (25-min per day) Mindfulness Meditation training or an analytic cognitive training control program. All participants completed a standardized laboratory social-evaluative stress challenge task (the TSST) following the third Mindfulness Meditation or cognitive training session. Measures of psychological (stress perceptions) and biological (salivary cortisol, blood pressure) stress reactivity were collected during the social evaluative stress-challenge session. Results: Brief Mindfulness Meditation training reduced self-reported psychological stress reactivity but increased salivary cortisol reactivity to the TSST, relative to the cognitive training comparison program. Participants who were low in pre-existing levels of dispositional Mindfulness and then received Mindfulness Meditation training had the greatest cortisol reactivity to the TSST. No significant main or interactive effects were observed for systolic or diastolic blood pressure reactivity to the TSST.
David J Creswell - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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brief Mindfulness Meditation training reduces mind wandering the critical role of acceptance
Emotion, 2017Co-Authors: Hayley Rahl, Emily K Lindsay, Laura E Pacilio, Kirk Warren Brown, David J CreswellAbstract:Mindfulness Meditation programs, which train individuals to monitor their present-moment experience in an open or accepting way, have been shown to reduce mind wandering on standardized tasks in several studies. Here we test 2 competing accounts for how Mindfulness training reduces mind wandering, evaluating whether the attention-monitoring component of Mindfulness training alone reduces mind wandering or whether the acceptance training component is necessary for reducing mind wandering. Healthy young adults (N = 147) were randomized to either a 3-day brief Mindfulness training condition incorporating instruction in both attention monitoring and acceptance, a Mindfulness training condition incorporating attention monitoring instruction only, a relaxation training condition, or an active reading-control condition. Participants completed measures of dispositional Mindfulness and treatment expectancies before the training session on Day 1 and then completed a 6-min Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) measuring mind wandering after the training session on Day 3. Acceptance training was important for reducing mind wandering, such that the attention-monitoring plus acceptance Mindfulness training condition had the lowest mind wandering relative to the other conditions, including significantly lower mind wandering than the attention-monitoring only Mindfulness training condition. In one of the first experimental Mindfulness training dismantling studies to-date, we show that training in acceptance is a critical driver of Mindfulness-training reductions in mind wandering. This effect suggests that acceptance skills may facilitate emotion regulation on boring and frustrating sustained attention tasks that foster mind wandering, such as the SART. (PsycINFO Database Record
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alterations in resting state functional connectivity link Mindfulness Meditation with reduced interleukin 6 a randomized controlled trial
Biological Psychiatry, 2016Co-Authors: David J Creswell, Emily K Lindsay, Kirk Warren Brown, Adrienne A Taren, Peter J Gianaros, Carol M Greco, April Fairgrieve, Anna L Marsland, Baldwin M Way, Rhonda K RosenAbstract:Abstract Background Mindfulness Meditation training interventions have been shown to improve markers of health, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are not known. Building on initial cross-sectional research showing that Mindfulness Meditation may increase default mode network (DMN) resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) with regions important in top-down executive control (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [dlPFC]), here we test whether Mindfulness Meditation training increases DMN-dlPFC rsFC and whether these rsFC alterations prospectively explain improvements in interleukin (IL)-6 in a randomized controlled trial. Methods Stressed job-seeking unemployed community adults ( n = 35) were randomized to either a 3-day intensive residential Mindfulness Meditation or relaxation training program. Participants completed a 5-minute resting-state scan before and after the intervention program. Participants also provided blood samples at preintervention and at 4-month follow-up, which were assayed for circulating IL-6, a biomarker of systemic inflammation. Results We tested for alterations in DMN rsFC using a posterior cingulate cortex seed-based analysis and found that Mindfulness Meditation training, and not relaxation training, increased posterior cingulate cortex rsFC with left dlPFC ( p Conclusions These findings provide the first evidence that Mindfulness Meditation training functionally couples the DMN with a region known to be important in top-down executive control at rest (left dlPFC), which, in turn, is associated with improvements in a marker of inflammatory disease risk.
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brief Mindfulness Meditation training alters psychological and neuroendocrine responses to social evaluative stress
Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2014Co-Authors: David J Creswell, Emily K Lindsay, Laura E Pacilio, Kirk Warren BrownAbstract:Summary Objective: To test whether a brief Mindfulness Meditation training intervention buffers selfreported psychological and neuroendocrine responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in young adult volunteers. A second objective evaluates whether pre-existing levels of dispositional Mindfulness moderate the effects of brief Mindfulness Meditation training on stress reactivity. Methods: Sixty-six (N = 66) participants were randomly assigned to either a brief 3-day (25-min per day) Mindfulness Meditation training or an analytic cognitive training control program. All participants completed a standardized laboratory social-evaluative stress challenge task (the TSST) following the third Mindfulness Meditation or cognitive training session. Measures of psychological (stress perceptions) and biological (salivary cortisol, blood pressure) stress reactivity were collected during the social evaluative stress-challenge session. Results: Brief Mindfulness Meditation training reduced self-reported psychological stress reactivity but increased salivary cortisol reactivity to the TSST, relative to the cognitive training comparison program. Participants who were low in pre-existing levels of dispositional Mindfulness and then received Mindfulness Meditation training had the greatest cortisol reactivity to the TSST. No significant main or interactive effects were observed for systolic or diastolic blood pressure reactivity to the TSST.
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Mindfulness Meditation training effects on cd4 t lymphocytes in hiv 1 infected adults a small randomized controlled trial
Brain Behavior and Immunity, 2009Co-Authors: David J Creswell, Hector F Myers, Steven W Cole, Michael R IrwinAbstract:Abstract Mindfulness Meditation training has stress reduction benefits in various patient populations, but its effects on biological markers of HIV-1 progression are unknown. The present study tested the efficacy of an 8-week Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) Meditation program compared to a 1-day control seminar on CD4+ T lymphocyte counts in stressed HIV infected adults. A single-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted with enrollment and follow-up occurring between November 2005 and December 2007. A diverse community sample of 48 HIV-1 infected adults was randomized and entered treatment in either an 8-week MBSR or a 1-day control stress reduction education seminar. The primary outcome was circulating counts of CD4+ T lymphocytes. Participants in the 1-day control seminar showed declines in CD4+ T lymphocyte counts whereas counts among participants in the 8-week MBSR program were unchanged from baseline to post-intervention (time × treatment condition interaction, p = .02). This effect was independent of antiretroviral (ARV) medication use. Additional analyses indicated that treatment adherence to the Mindfulness Meditation program, as measured by class attendance, mediated the effects of Mindfulness Meditation training on buffering CD4+ T lymphocyte declines. These findings provide an initial indication that Mindfulness Meditation training can buffer CD4+ T lymphocyte declines in HIV-1 infected adults. Clinical Trials Registration: clinicaltrials.gov, Identifier: NCT00600561.
Paula Goolkasian - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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effects of brief and sham Mindfulness Meditation on mood and cardiovascular variables
Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2010Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, Susan K Johnson, Nakia S Gordon, Paula GoolkasianAbstract:Abstract Objectives: Although long-term Meditation has been found to reduce negative mood and cardiovascular variables, the effects of a brief Mindfulness Meditation intervention when compared to a sham Mindfulness Meditation intervention are relatively unknown. This experiment examined whether a 3-day (1-hour total) Mindfulness or sham Mindfulness Meditation intervention would improve mood and cardiovascular variables when compared to a control group. Methods: Eighty-two (82) undergraduate students (34 males, 48 females), with no prior Meditation experience, participated in three sessions that involved training in either Mindfulness Meditation, sham Mindfulness Meditation, or a control group. Heart rate, blood pressure, and psychologic variables (Profile of Mood States, State Anxiety Inventory) were assessed before and after the intervention. Results: The Meditation intervention was more effective at reducing negative mood, depression, fatigue, confusion, and heart rate, when compared to the sham and con...
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Mindfulness Meditation improves cognition evidence of brief mental training
Consciousness and Cognition, 2010Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, Susan K Johnson, Bruce J Diamond, Zhanna David, Paula GoolkasianAbstract:Although research has found that long-term Mindfulness Meditation practice promotes executive functioning and the ability to sustain attention, the effects of brief Mindfulness Meditation training have not been fully explored. We examined whether brief Meditation training affects cognition and mood when compared to an active control group. After four sessions of either Meditation training or listening to a recorded book, participants with no prior Meditation experience were assessed with measures of mood, verbal fluency, visual coding, and working memory. Both interventions were effective at improving mood but only brief Meditation training reduced fatigue, anxiety, and increased Mindfulness. Moreover, brief Mindfulness training significantly improved visuo-spatial processing, working memory, and executive functioning. Our findings suggest that 4 days of Meditation training can enhance the ability to sustain attention; benefits that have previously been reported with long-term meditators.
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the effects of brief Mindfulness Meditation training on experimentally induced pain
The Journal of Pain, 2010Co-Authors: Fadel Zeidan, Nakia S Gordon, Junaid S Merchant, Paula GoolkasianAbstract:This study investigated the effects of brief Mindfulness Meditation training on ratings of painful electrical stimulation. In Experiment 1, we used a 3-day (20 min/d) Mindfulness Meditation intervention and measured pain ratings before and after the intervention. Participants' numerical rat- ings of pain to ''low'' and ''high'' electrical stimulation significantly decreased after Meditation train- ing. Pain sensitivity, measured by change in stimulus intensity thresholds, also decreased after training. We investigated, in Experiment 2, how well relaxation and a math distraction task attenu- ated experimental pain. Math distraction but not relaxation reduced high pain ratings. There was no reduction in pain sensitivity in these participants. In Experiment 3, we directly compared the effects of Meditation with math distraction and relaxation conditions. Our findings indicated significant ef- fects of both Meditation and math distraction. Consistent with what was observed in Experiment 1, these participants also demonstrated a decrease in pain sensitivity after Meditation training. Changes in the Mindfulness and anxiety assessments suggest that Meditation's analgesic effects are related to reduced anxiety and the enhanced ability to focus on the present moment. Perspective: Our findings indicate that a brief 3-day Mindfulness Meditation intervention was ef- fective at reducing pain ratings and anxiety scores when compared with baseline testing and other cognitive manipulations. The brief Meditation training was also effective at increasing Mindfulness skills.