Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction-related changes in posterior cingulate resting brain connectivity

Abstract

Mindfulness meditation training has been shown to increase resting-state functional connectivity between nodes of the frontoparietal executive control network (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [DLPFC]) and the default mode network (posterior cingulate cortex [PCC]). We investigated whether these effects generalized to a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course and tested for structural and behaviorally relevant consequences of change in connectivity. Healthy, meditation-naïve adults were randomized to either MBSR (N = 48), an active (N = 47) or waitlist (N = 45) control group. Participants completed behavioral testing, resting-state fMRI scans and diffusion tensor scans at pre-randomization (T1), post-intervention (T2) and ~5.5 months later (T3). We found increased T2–T1 PCC–DLPFC resting connectivity for MBSR relative to control groups. Although these effects did not persist through long-term follow-up (T3–T1), MBSR participants showed a significantly stronger relationship between days of practice (T1 to T3) and increased PCC–DLPFC resting connectivity than participants in the active control group. Increased PCC–DLPFC resting connectivity in MBSR participants was associated with increased microstructural connectivity of a white matter tract connecting these regions and increased self-reported attention. These data show that MBSR increases PCC–DLPFC resting connectivity, which is related to increased practice time, attention and structural connectivity.

Mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy on bereavement grief: Alterations of resting‐state network connectivity associate with changes of anxiety and mindfulness

“…Previous neuroimaging studies performing MBI have reported the enhanced connectivity strengths between PCC and DLPFC using the seed‐correlation analysis (King et al, 2016; Kral et al, 2019; Scult et al, 2019); however, adopting the same strategy with different seed locations, the PCC‐DLPFC connectivity strengths after MBCT were insignificantly increased in the bereaved population (Figure S2). Through a literature review, we speculated that the post‐MBI PCC‐DLPFC connectivity change is potentially influenced by the following factors, such as MBI duration, type, age, and so on.…”

“…This findings could be counter-intuitive because a majority of previous findings reported the reduction in emotion-induced brain activity (Huang et al, 2019;Tomasino & Fabbro, 2016) or the altered RSFC DMN (such as reduced intra-DMN and enhanced PCC-DLPFC connectivity) following the mindfulness training (Creswell et al, 2016;King et al, 2016;Zimmerman et al, 2019 (Hensley & Clayton, 2008), sleep disturbance, and neuroendocrine activations (Buckley et al, 2012). In other words, the bereavement grief could have far Previous neuroimaging studies performing MBI have reported the enhanced connectivity strengths between PCC and DLPFC using the seed-correlation analysis (King et al, 2016;Kral et al, 2019;Scult et al, 2019); however, adopting the same strategy with different seed locations, the PCC-DLPFC connectivity strengths after MBCT were insignificantly increased in the bereaved population (- ity (Zhao et al, 2019;Zimmerman et al, 2019). Therefore, the program duration and consistent practices seemed to be crucial on the connectivity enhancement.…”

“…Second, the MBI-induced RSFC changes might be subject to the age of recruited participants. For example, the enhanced PCC-DLPFC connectivity was reported from relatively young population (King et al, 2016;Scult et al, 2019), whereas the small or no effect of connectivity enhancement was reported from the middle-aged population (Kral et al, 2019;Zimmerman et al, 2019). Another plausible factor on the mismatched connectivity findings could be the prescription of seed locations, which could lead to distinct results of intra-DMN connectivity (Yan et al, 2013).…”

Eplerian Philosophy for a New Way of Life for Health, Vitality, and Happiness

“…Brain science has shown many different independent brain regions (Hou et al, 2020;Kral et al, 2019;Le et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019;Leong et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018;Oei et al, 2018) and people can only think from one brain region at a time. Thinking from some regions like the decision-making prefrontal cortex and creative-thinking frontal cortex result in healthy and productive outcomes.…”

Spiritual experiences are related to engagement of a ventral frontotemporal functional brain network: Implications for prevention and treatment of behavioral and substance addictions

“…In behavioral and substance addictions, PCC activation has been linked to reward-related and craving processes (Kosten et al, 2006;Yao et al, 2017). For these reasons, the PCC has been proposed as a neural target for addictions, especially for meditation and mindfulness-based interventions targeting stress reduction (Brewer & Garrison, 2014;Kral et al, 2019). As we have found that measures of spirituality relate inversely to stress-related activations in largely subcortical regions including the striatum and thalamus (McClintock et al, 2019), the findings taken together suggest important roles for both cortical and subcortical processes in the beneficial effects of spirituality as well as potential neural targets in spirituality-related interventions for addictions.…”