Cited by 326Mindfulness and Compassion InterventionsPsychosomatic Disorders and Their TreatmentsReligion, Spirituality, and Psychology

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 49 of the 49 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 34 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Impact of short- and long-term mindfulness meditation training on amygdala reactivity to emotional stimuli

Open access

Abstract

Meditation training can improve mood and emotion regulation, yet the neural mechanisms of these affective changes have yet to be fully elucidated. We evaluated the impact of long- and short-term mindfulness meditation training on the amygdala response to emotional pictures in a healthy, non-clinical population of adults using blood-oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging. Long-term meditators (N = 30, 16 female) had 9081 h of lifetime practice on average, primarily in mindfulness meditation. Short-term training consisted of an 8-week Mindfulness- Based Stress Reduction course (N = 32, 22 female), which was compared to an active control condition (N = 35, 19 female) in a randomized controlled trial. Meditation training was associated with less amygdala reactivity to positive pictures relative to controls, but there were no group differences in response to negative pictures. Reductions in reactivity to negative stimuli may require more practice experience or concentrated practice, as hours of retreat practice in long-term meditators was associated with lower amygdala reactivity to negative pictures - yet we did not see this relationship for practice time with MBSR. Short-term training, compared to the control intervention, also led to increased functional connectivity between the amygdala and a region implicated in emotion regulation - ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) - during affective pictures. Thus, meditation training may improve affective responding through reduced amygdala reactivity, and heightened amygdala-VMPFC connectivity during affective stimuli may reflect a potential mechanism by which MBSR exerts salutary effects on emotion regulation ability.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.07.013

Cites

49 of 49 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Claims the paper makes

63 Own result · 26 Not checked yet · 22 Own interpretation · 14 Own method

Verify all 34 references — free account
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 39
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 31
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 2
60 of 60
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Automatic emotion regulation occurs without volitional attention and without explicit instructions.

    “Automatic emotion regulation is assumed to be a process that occurs in the absence of volitional attention and without explicit instructions.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    How mindfulness meditation training changes affective processing at the neural level, particularly in studies with active controls and connectivity analyses, remains unclear.

    “Research on the neural mechanisms underlying these affective changes that utilizes active control conditions is sparse, and systematic examination of the impact of mindfulness meditation training on functional connectivity in emotion regulation networks has not been investigated.”
    “Precisely how mindfulness-based meditation impacts the neural circuitry of emotion regulation remains unclear.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Participants' self-reported lifetime meditation hours are accurate measures of their actual practice.

    “Lifetime hours of practice were calculated based on subjects reports of their average hours of formal meditation practice per week and their total years of practice.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The automatic emotion regulation task probes automatic responses to emotional pictures, and individual differences in amygdala response reflect automatic engagement of emotion regulation.

    “The automatic emotion regulation task used in this study was designed to specifically probe participants’ automatic response to emotional pictures, whereby the degree to which emotion regulation processes were automatically engaged would be reflected by individual differences in the amygdala response to affective stimuli.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Retreats differ from daily practice in having longer practice duration, more continual focus with fewer distractions, greater social support or accountability, and release from daily work or family expectations.

    “Retreats tend to differ from daily practice in many ways; the duration of practice is longer, the context promotes a continual focus on the goals of the training with fewer distractions than is typical for daily life, there is usually greater social support or accountability, and there is a release from daily work or family expectations.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Mindfulness meditation trains attention to thoughts and emotions as they arise and pass, without avoiding discomfort or grasping at pleasant experiences.

    “Mindfulness meditation provides training in paying attention to thoughts and emotions as they unfold naturally and allowing them to pass without trying to avoid discomfort or to grasp onto pleasant experiences.”
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Metadata

Authors
Kral, T. R. A., Schuyler, B. S., Mumford, J. A., Rosenkranz, M. A., Lutz, A., & Davidson, R. J.
Affiliations
University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
Corresponding author
Davidson, Richard J.
Venue
NeuroImage
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2018-11
Volume
181
Pages
301-313
ISSN
1053-8119 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2857478301
Cited by
326
References
48
Citations by year
2026: 28 · 2025: 55 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 42 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 4
FWCI
28.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • NeuroImage (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (P01AT004952)
  • National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P30 HD003352-449015)
  • John Templeton Foundation (21337)
  • Fetzer Institute (2407)
  • Engineering Research Centers (617739 – BRAIN, T32GM007507)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32MH018931)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (P50- MH084051, R01-MH43454)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
  • Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
Keywords
mindfulness meditation, amygdala reactivity, emotional stimuli, mindfulness-based stress reduction, long-term meditators, emotion regulation, practice time
MeSH terms
Adult, Amygdala, Emotions, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Time Factors, Prefrontal Cortex, Meditation, Functional Neuroimaging, Connectome, Mindfulness

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