Trait Mindfulness Is Associated With Lower Pain Reactivity and Connectivity of the Default Mode Network

Harrison, Richard; Zeidan, Fadel; Kitsaras, George; Ozcelik, Dila; Salomons, Tim V.

doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2018.10.011

Cited by 41 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(70 reference statements)

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“…Some individuals are simply more “mindful” than others, as evinced by higher scores on standardized measures of dispositional/trait mindfulness without any formal training in meditation. 24,52,128,142…”

Section: What Is Mindfulness?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…81,90,100 Two recent studies combined psychophysics, noxious heat stimulation, and distinct functional neuroimaging techniques to identify the neural mechanisms supporting the postulated relationship between trait mindfulness and pain sensitivity 142 and pain threshold. 52 Zeidan et al 142 used perfusion-based arterial spin labeling (ASL) fMRI to determine the significant relationship between higher dispositional mindfulness (as measured by the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory) and lower pain ratings in response to noxious heat (49°C). 142 As hypothesized, higher trait mindfulness was associated with greater deactivation of the posterior, midline nodes of the so-called default mode network.…”

Section: Multiple Neural Mechanisms Supporting Mindfulness-based Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1). 142 In a similar study employing functional connectivity analyses with blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signaling fMRI, Harrison et al 52 found that greater trait mindfulness (measured by the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire) was associated with higher pain threshold values. Higher trait mindfulness was associated with weaker connectivity between the central nodes of the default mode network (ie, medial prefrontal cortex, PCC/precuneus) and stronger connectivity between the precuneus and somatosensory cortices.…”

Section: Multiple Neural Mechanisms Supporting Mindfulness-based Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The neural mechanisms of mindfulness-based pain relief: a functional magnetic resonance imaging-based review and primer

Zeidan

Baumgartner

Coghill

2019

PR9

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The advent of neuroimaging methodologies, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), has significantly advanced our understanding of the neurophysiological processes supporting a wide spectrum of mind–body approaches to treat pain. A promising self-regulatory practice, mindfulness meditation, reliably alleviates experimentally induced and clinical pain. Yet, the neural mechanisms supporting mindfulness-based pain relief remain poorly characterized. The present review delineates evidence from a spectrum of fMRI studies showing that the neural mechanisms supporting mindfulness-induced pain attenuation differ across varying levels of meditative experience. After brief mindfulness-based mental training (ie, less than 10 hours of practice), mindfulness-based pain relief is associated with higher order (orbitofrontal cortex and rostral anterior cingulate cortex) regulation of low-level nociceptive neural targets (thalamus and primary somatosensory cortex), suggesting an engagement of unique, reappraisal mechanisms. By contrast, mindfulness-based pain relief after extensive training (greater than 1000 hours of practice) is associated with deactivation of prefrontal and greater activation of somatosensory cortical regions, demonstrating an ability to reduce appraisals of arising sensory events. We also describe recent findings showing that higher levels of dispositional mindfulness, in meditation-naïve individuals, are associated with lower pain and greater deactivation of the posterior cingulate cortex, a neural mechanism implicated in self-referential processes. A brief fMRI primer is presented describing appropriate steps and considerations to conduct studies combining mindfulness, pain, and fMRI. We postulate that the identification of the active analgesic neural substrates involved in mindfulness can be used to inform the development and optimization of behavioral therapies to specifically target pain, an important consideration for the ongoing opioid and chronic pain epidemic.

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Section: What Is Mindfulness?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Multiple Neural Mechanisms Supporting Mindfulness-based Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Multiple Neural Mechanisms Supporting Mindfulness-based Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The neural mechanisms of mindfulness-based pain relief: a functional magnetic resonance imaging-based review and primer

Zeidan

Baumgartner

Coghill

2019

PR9

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“…Some individuals are more sensitive to predicted threats (Karos et al, 2018), resulting in distorted pain experiences (Boichat et al, 2018) and corresponding to a higher self-report of pain catastrophizing (Elman and Borsook, 2018). In contrast, higher bodily awareness (mindfulness) is said to be useful for reducing the influence of maladaptive thought processes and can relieve persistent pains (Harrison et al, 2019). Although mindfulness and catastrophizing are inversely linked, these two factors may affect pain perception by altering predictive processes in the brain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Threat Prediction from Schemas as a Source of Bias in Pain Perception

et al. 2020

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Oursensoryimpressionsofpainaregenerallythoughttorepresentthenoxiouspropertiesofanagentbutcanbeinfluencedbythepredictedlevel of threat. Predictions can be sourced from higher-order cognitive processes, such as schemas, but the extent to which schemas can influence pain perception relative to bottom-up sensory inputs and the underlying neural underpinnings of such a phenomenon are unclear. Here, we investigate how threat predictions generated from learning a cognitive schema lead to inaccurate sensory impressions of the pain stimulus. Healthy male and female participants first detected a linear association between cue values and stimulus intensity and rated pain to reflect the linear schemawhencomparedwithuncuedheatstimuli.Theeffectofbiasonpainratingswasreducedwhenpredictionerrors(PEs)increased,butpain perception was only partially updated when measured against stepped increases in PEs. Cognitive, striatal, and sensory regions graded their responses to changes in predicted threat despite the PEs (p Ͻ 0.05, corrected). Individuals with more catastrophic thinking about pain and with low mindfulness were significantly more reliant on the schema than on the sensory evidence from the pain stimulus. These behavioral differences mapped to variability in responses of the striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Thus, this study demonstrates a significant role of higher-order schemas in pain perception and indicates that pain perception is biased more toward predictions and less toward nociceptive inputs in individuals who report less mindfulness and more fear of pain.

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“…Prevailing theory posits that mindfulness training may alter such activity via attentional mechanisms, ostensibly re ected in the reorganization of neural circuitry (Hölzel et al, 2011;Tang et al, 2015;Vago & Zeidan, 2016). Accordingly, recent research has begun to investigate resting state neural circuitry as an outcome of mindfulness training (e.g., Kilpatrick et al, 2011;Kral et al, 2019) and as a characteristic of dispositional mindfulness (e.g., Doll et al, 2015;Bilevicius et al, 2018;Harrison et al, 2019;Parkinson et al, 2019). Such studies support the involvement of candidate interacting brain networks-including the default mode network (DMN), salience network (SN), and the frontoparietal control network (FPCN)--through which mindfulness may facilitate the exible allocation of attentional resources between introspective and perceptual processes (Dixon et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disrupting The Resting State: Meta-Analytic Evidence That Mindfulness Training Alters Default Mode Network Connectivity

Rahrig

Vago

Passarelli

et al. 2022

Preprint

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This meta-analysis sought to expand upon neurobiological models of mindfulness through investigation of inherent brain network connectivity outcomes, indexed via resting state functional connectivity (rsFC). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of rsFC as an outcome of mindfulness training (MT) relative to structurally-equivalent programs, with the hypothesis that that MT would increase cross-network connectivity between nodes of the Default Mode Network (DMN), Salience Network (SN), and Frontoparietal Control Network (FPCN) as a mechanism of internally-oriented attentional control. Texts were identified from the databases: MEDLINE/PubMed, ERIC, PSYCINFO, ProQuest, Scopus, and Web of Sciences; and were screened for inclusion based on experimental/quasi-experimental trial design and use of standardized mindfulness-based interventions. RsFC effects were extracted from twelve studies (mindfulness n = 226; control n = 204). Voxel-based meta-analysis revealed significantly greater rsFC (MT > control) between the left middle cingulate (Hedge’s g = .234, p = 0288, I2 = 15.87), located within the SN, and the posterior cingulate cortex, a focal hub of the DMN. Egger’s test for publication bias was nonsignificant, bias = 2.17, p = .162. In support of our hypothesis, results suggest that MT targets internetwork (SN-DMN) connectivity implicated in the flexible control of internally-oriented attention.

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Trait Mindfulness Is Associated With Lower Pain Reactivity and Connectivity of the Default Mode Network

Cited by 41 publications

References 61 publications

The neural mechanisms of mindfulness-based pain relief: a functional magnetic resonance imaging-based review and primer

The neural mechanisms of mindfulness-based pain relief: a functional magnetic resonance imaging-based review and primer

Threat Prediction from Schemas as a Source of Bias in Pain Perception

Disrupting The Resting State: Meta-Analytic Evidence That Mindfulness Training Alters Default Mode Network Connectivity

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