Effects of mindful-attention and compassion meditation training on amygdala response to emotional stimuli in an ordinary, non-meditative state
Open Access
- 1 January 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Frontiers Media SA in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
- Vol. 6, 292
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00292
Abstract
The amygdala has been repeatedly implicated in emotional processing of both positive and negative-valence stimuli. Previous studies suggest that the amygdala response to emotional stimuli is lower when the subject is in a meditative state of mindful-attention, both in beginner meditators after an 8-week meditation intervention and in expert meditators. However, the longitudinal effects of meditation training on amygdala responses have not been reported when participants are in an ordinary, non-meditative state. In this study, we investigated how 8 weeks of training in meditation affects amygdala responses to emotional stimuli in subjects when in a non-meditative state. Healthy adults with no prior meditation experience took part in 8 weeks of either Mindful Attention Training (MAT), Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT; a program based on Tibetan Buddhist compassion meditation practices), or an active control intervention. Before and after the intervention, participants underwent an fMRI experiment during which they were presented images with positive, negative, and neutral emotional valences from the IAPS database while remaining in an ordinary, non-meditative state. Using a region-of-interest analysis, we found a longitudinal decrease in right amygdala activation in the Mindful Attention group in response to positive images, and in response to images of all valences overall. In the CBCT group, we found a trend increase in right amygdala response to negative images, which was significantly correlated with a decrease in depression score. No effects or trends were observed in the control group. This finding suggests that the effects of meditation training on emotional processing might transfer to non-meditative states. This is consistent with the hypothesis that meditation training may induce learning that is not stimulus- or task-specific, but process-specific, and thereby may result in enduring changes in mental function.Keywords
This publication has 109 references indexed in Scilit:
- Loving-kindness and compassion meditation: Potential for psychological interventionsClinical Psychology Review, 2011
- Enhanced brain connectivity in long-term meditation practitionersNeuroImage, 2011
- Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter densityPsychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 2011
- Innate immune, neuroendocrine and behavioral responses to psychosocial stress do not predict subsequent compassion meditation practice timePsychoneuroendocrinology, 2010
- BOLD signal in insula is differentially related to cardiac function during compassion meditation in experts vs. novicesNeuroImage, 2009
- Individual Differences in Typical Reappraisal Use Predict Amygdala and Prefrontal ResponsesBiological Psychiatry, 2009
- Effect of compassion meditation on neuroendocrine, innate immune and behavioral responses to psychosocial stressPsychoneuroendocrinology, 2009
- Brain structural and functional abnormalities in mood disorders: implications for neurocircuitry models of depressionBrain Structure and Function, 2008
- Emotional memory function, personality structure and psychopathology: A neural system approach to the identification of vulnerability markersBrain Research Reviews, 2008
- Brain morphometry with multiecho MPRAGENeuroImage, 2008