A considerable number of those who suffer from depression develop a chronic course of the disorder in which symptoms remain over prolonged periods of time and risk for suicidality is significantly increased. Once patients have entered such a course, response to established treatments is significantly reduced. The aim of the current study was to test …
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Neural Correlates of PTSD Prevention with MBSR in Iraq Veterans
With recently discharged veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) as our subjects, this study examines the neuroanatomical underpinnings as well as cognitive and perceptual biases associated with the progression of early onset Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We are comparing the efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR; treatment) to Supportive Therapy (ST; control) as early interventions …
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Study of mindfulness meditation on stress reduction and attention regulation in adolescents with mild learning disabilities
This study examines the effects of a contemplative education intervention for Asian Indian adolescents living and going to high school in Singapore. The intervention aims to (a) reduce adolescents’ perceived levels of life stress and (b) enhance their ability to regulate their attention. While relaxation techniques have generally been found effective in dealing with adolescent …
Developing a computational model for meditation using cross cortical synchrony in EEG data
This study uses a rigorous interdisciplinary approach to analyze EEG data collected during two 3-month long intensive meditation retreats in four steps. First, novel tools were developed for preprocessing the EEG data. Second, in order to identify the cortical correlates of meditation, longitudinal changes in the cortical activity were measured using spectral analysis. Three main …
Mindfulness-based interventions for depression: Possible neurophysiological mechanisms
Previous studies have indicated that mindfulness and other forms of meditation training are associated with improvements in sleep quality. However, none of these studies used objective polysomnographic sleep recordings. The aim of this study was to examine whether mindfulness meditation was associated with improvements in objectively measured sleep, according to polysomnography (PSG), and to relate …
Dissociable neural modes of self-reference and emotion regulation
Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an 8 week course that teaches participants to change their patterns of reacting to stress. To accomplish this goal, participants practice meditation to increase their ability to attend to emotions and develop the ability to attend to their patterns of reactivity. In theory, this awareness will eventually enable participants to …
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Establishing mindfulness and mind wandering as mediators of patient benefit in MBCT
Prior studies have focused on the impact of mindfulness-based interventions on alleviating physical or psychological symptoms or difficulties (e.g., Teasdale et al., 2000; Ma & Teasdale, 2004), or on enhancing positive states, including mindfulness itself (E.g., Brown & Ryan, 2003). Relatively little work has focused on cognitive measures that might reflect the presence or absence …
The neurobiology of mindfulness meditation for the control of pain
The effect of meditation on pain perception was investigated. Zen meditators and controls were instructed to attend, in different ways, to painful and non-painful thermal stimuli. Conditions included: a) baseline, b) concentration: attend exclusively to the left calf, c) mindfulness: attend to the left calf and observe, moment to moment, in a non-judgmental manner. Meditators …
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Neural systems supporting interoceptive awareness in experienced and beginning meditators
Most meditation traditions integrate attention to the internal state of the body into the practice of meditation, and teach that a central effect of the meditative practice is increased awareness of the body. To test whether meditators have increased body awareness we examined the performance of two groups of experienced meditators compared to one group …
Feasibility, clinical acceptability, and efficacy of a mindfulness-based group therapy intervention for PTSD
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is seriously debilitating and common, with 5-10% incidence in general population and over 30% in combat veterans. PTSD symptoms include emotional dysregulation, intrusive, distressing trauma memories, nightmares, and ‘flashbacks’. Our laboratory has reported exaggerated a.) first-person emotional b.) psychophysiological and c.) neuroendocrine responses to trauma recall in combat PTSD patients, and …
