Does mindfulness change the mind? A novel psychonectome perspective based on Network Analysis

Abstract

If the brain is a complex network of functionally specialized areas, it might be expected that mental representations could also behave in a similar way. We propose the concept of ‘psychonectome’ to formalize the idea of psychological constructs forming a dynamic network of mutually dependent elements. As a proof-of-concept of the psychonectome, networks analysis (NA) was used to explore structural changes in the network of constructs resulting from a psychological intervention. NA was applied to explore the effects of an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program in healthy participants (N = 182). Psychological functioning was measured by questionnaires assessing five key domains related to MBSR: mindfulness, compassion, psychological well-being, psychological distress and emotional-cognitive control. A total of 25 variables, covering the five constructs, were considered as nodes in the NA. Participants significantly improved in most of the psychological questionnaires. More interesting from a network perspective, there were also significant changes in the topological relationships among the elements. Expected influence and strength centrality indexes revealed that mindfulness and well-being measures were the most central nodes in the networks. The nodes with highest topological change after the MBSR were attentional control, compassion measures, depression and thought suppression. Also, cognitive appraisal, an adaptive emotion regulation strategy, was associated to rumination before the MBSR program but became related to mindfulness and well-being measures after the program. Community analysis revealed a strong topological association between mindfulness, compassion, and emotional regulation, which supports the key role of compassion in mindfulness training. These results highlight the importance of exploring psychological changes from a network perspective and support the conceptual advantage of considering the interconnectedness of psychological constructs in terms of a ‘psychonectome’ as it may reveal ways of functioning that cannot be analyzed through conventional analytic methods.

Mindfulness as practice: A network analysis of FMI data

“…Thus the findings from this study may not generalise to networks involving more nodes (i.e., networks using more comprehensive measures; e.g. Roca et al, 2019). Comparable results across different measures (of different scope) are thus required to confirm the results obtained here.…”

“…Interestingly, this finding is broadly consistent with that observed in the only other network study of mindfulness. Roca et al (2019) found that a construct (i.e., set of practices) they termed cognitive re-appraisal shifted its pre-MBSR associations with rumination, thought suppression and non-reactivity to associations with mindfulness and well-being measures post MBSR.…”

“…A search of popular psychology databases (PSYCINFO, Web of Science, Google Scholar) revealed only one application of "Psychological Networks" and/or "Network Psychometrics" to the field of "Mindfulness". Roca, Diez, Castellanos and Vazquez (2019) used network analysis to explore the effects of a standardized mindfulness intervention (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction; MBSR) on the network reorganization of relevant psychological nodes (i.e., mindfulness, compassion, psychological well-being, psychological distress and emotional-cognitive control). They reported several topological changes which they attributed to participation in the MBSR programme.…”

A network approach to the five-facet model of mindfulness

“…With regard to mindfulness, only two studies thus far have applied a network analytic framework to examine the interdependence between the five facets of mindfulness, and these studies specifically focused on the relations of the facets with other clinical psychological constructs 41 , 42 . In one study, Medvedev and colleagues 41 examined the relations between the facets of mindfulness, compassion, positive and negative affect, and psychological distress.…”

“…They found that Non-judging was inversely related to all aspects of psychological distress, whereas Non-reactivity and Acting with Awareness acted as bridges between protective and maladaptive factors. In the other study, Roca and colleagues 42 compared the network structure of the relations between the five facets and 20 other variables embracing compassion, psychological well-being, psychological distress, emotion regulation, and attention control before and after an 8-week MBI. They found that, in the network, the connections of the facets of mindfulness with self-compassion and attention control increased from pre to post-MBI.…”