This pilot project evaluates the neuropeptide oxytocin as a potentially useful biological indicator of changes in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and well-being in two different randomized clinical studies investigating the effects of mind-body interventions in post-treatment cancer survivors. One study, targeting sleep disturbance, compares 3 sessions (one per week) of Mind-Body Bridging and Mindfulness …
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The effectiveness of MBSR as an intervention among elderly family caregivers of persons with neurocognitive disorders
Providing care for a frail older adult is a stressful experience that may affect psychological and physical health of caregivers. When caregivers are elderly and the care recipient suffers from a neurocognitive disorder such as dementia, the burden and resulting stress is greatly increased. Many interventions involving support groups, counseling, and education have been implemented …
Development of mindfulness-based real-time fMRI neurofeedback for smoking cessation: A preliminary study
We evaluated the effects of mindfulness on impulsivity during smoking cessation. Current methods for self-reporting formal mindfulness practice are inaccurate, so we used accelerometer-based watches to monitor formal mindfulness practice testing. In this study, we attempted to replicate the Yale trial comparing Mindfulness Training (MT) to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for smoking cessation. We randomized …
Mindfulness training for parents and children
This project will examine how mindfulness training affects dispositional mindfulness, parental monitoring, a child’s effortful control of attention, and the quality of the parent-child relationship. In addition to how changes in these variables are related to changes in problem behavior. Forty families (with children ages 10-12) will be recruited from a Northwestern city, and half …
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Effects of short-term mindfulness intervention on depression and immunity
This study aimed to examine the longitudinal effects of a short-term mindfulness intervention on psychological and immune variables in a student sample with moderate depressive symptoms. 64 college females were assigned to a mindfulness intervention group or a contact-control condition. Participants received three separate assessments: (a) before treatment initiation (baseline), (b) following treatment completion (6-week …
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Mindfulness and response inhibition: Behavioral, neural and subjective correlates in smoking cessation
We conducted a study to see how a very short mindfulness training would affect smokers who were trying to quit. We wanted to know whether <20 minutes of instruction would affect peoples’ cigarette cravings and what the brain mechanisms might be. In this study, we invited smokers who were about to participate in a mindfulness-based …
Socially-Engaged Mindfulness Interventions (SEMI) and the Promise of Making Refuge
This Think Tank brings together engaged Buddhist and secular mindfulness practitioners, teachers, scholars, and activists from areas like minority rights and struggles, environmentalism and sustainability, critical pedagogy and liberal arts education. We draw on Buddhist and feminist and posthumanist thinking for inspiration to formulate our working questions: What is refuge? Where or when do we …
Exploring the impact of meditation on stress and psychopathology: Attentional allocation as a potential mechanism of active change following meditation training
Attentional function is one possible mechanism underlying meditation’s impact on stress and psychopathology, but few studies examine this newly discovered factor. Attentional allocation, in the context of cognitive and emotional self-regulation, may underlie changes observed following meditation training and practice. Additionally, meditation’s potential to ameliorate subjective and biochemical reactions to an acute stressor remains unexplored. …
School-based mindfulness training in middle school and college students
The aim of this multi-investigator award was to assess the effects of school-based mindfulness training in two different educational settings: college students and middle schoolers. Because common emotional disturbances are already present in the college sample, and ameliorated with meditation practice, it is feasible that teaching these skills before the onset of emotional disturbance may …
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Identifying the mechanisms of action in MBCT
Randomized clinical trials (e.g., Teasdale, Segal, Williams, Ridgeway, Soulsby, & Lau, 2000; Ma & Teasdale, 2004) support the efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for preventing depressive relapse. Unfortunately, there are scant studies of the treatment’s mechanisms of action. Teasdale and colleagues (2000) have speculated that MBCT is effective because it enhances participants’ ability to disengage …
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