The DOI matches its Crossref record; 61 of the 61 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Cognitive-Affective Neural Plasticity following Active-Controlled Mindfulness Intervention
Open accessAbstract
Mindfulness meditation is a set of attention-based, regulatory, and self-inquiry training regimes. Although the impact of mindfulness training (MT) on self-regulation is well established, the neural mechanisms supporting such plasticity are poorly understood. MT is thought to act through interoceptive salience and attentional control mechanisms, but until now conflicting evidence from behavioral and neural measures renders difficult distinguishing their respective roles. To resolve this question we conducted a fully randomized 6 week longitudinal trial of MT, explicitly controlling for cognitive and treatment effects with an active-control group. We measured behavioral metacognition and whole-brain blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals using functional MRI during an affective Stroop task before and after intervention in healthy human subjects. Although both groups improved significantly on a response-inhibition task, only the MT group showed reduced affective Stroop conflict. Moreover, the MT group displayed greater dorsolateral prefrontal cortex responses during executive processing, consistent with increased recruitment of top-down mechanisms to resolve conflict. In contrast, we did not observe overall group-by-time interactions on negative affect-related reaction times or BOLD responses. However, only participants with the greatest amount of MT practice showed improvements in response inhibition and increased recruitment of dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, and right anterior insula during negative valence processing. Our findings highlight the importance of active control in MT research, indicate unique neural mechanisms for progressive stages of mindfulness training, and suggest that optimal application of MT may differ depending on context, contrary to a one-size-fits-all approach.
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“As reviewed by Britton et al. [25], similar findings of increased activation in neural areas related to tonic alertness have been observed in additional studies on Vipassana (e.g., [107, 108]), Mindfulness (e.g., [109]), and Zen meditation (e.g., [110, 111]).”
From The Influence of Buddhist Meditation Traditions on the Autonomic System and Attention (2015) · cites this paper as [107]
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In the citing paper
“Compared to non-meditators, healthy volunteers who had followed a meditation training course for 6–8 weeks performed better on a Stroop task (Allen et al 2012, Moore & Malinowski 2009, Teper & Inzlicht 2013), the Hayling task (Heeren et al 2009), and response inhibition tasks (Sahdra et al 2011).”
From Prefrontal cortex executive processes affected by stress in health and disease (2018) · cites this paper as Allen et al 2012
In the citing paper
“Buddhist meditation practices have been found to be associated with increased activity in the DLPFC, both during meditation45,65,76–79 and during tasks,67,70,80,81 as well as larger frontal gray matter volumes.66,82,83”
From Awakening is not a metaphor: the effects of Buddhist meditation practices on basic wakefulness (2014) · cites this paper as [80]
In the citing paper
“Buddhist meditation practices have been found to be associated with increases in activation in the dACC both during meditation45,65,76,78,86 and during tasks.70,80,81,87–89”
From Awakening is not a metaphor: the effects of Buddhist meditation practices on basic wakefulness (2014) · cites this paper as [80]
In the citing paper
“There are other interventions that have been shown to regulate DLPFC activity, such as mindfulness meditation1.”
From The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in acute and chronic pain (2017) · cites this paper as [1]
In the citing paper
“In a longitudinal mindfulness training versus active control, greater dorsolateral PFC activation during emotional Stroop executive processing was detected [22].”
From A translational neuroscience perspective on mindfulness meditation as a prevention strategy (2016) · cites this paper as [22]
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“Nevertheless, the greater amount of mindfulness practice predicted increased activation of bilateral dACC, right AI, and MPFC during implicit negative emotional processing”
From Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation: Insights from Neurobiological, Psychological, and Clinical Studies (2017) · cites this paper as Allen et al., 2012
In the citing paper
“Despite both groups improving significantly in a response inhibition task, only the MBI group showed reduced emotional interference under an affective Stroop conflict resolution paradigm (a task known to activate implicit emotion regulation processes).”
From Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation: Insights from Neurobiological, Psychological, and Clinical Studies (2017) · cites this paper as Allen et al., 2012
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Citations
Cites
The Brain's Default Network: Anatomy, Function, and Relevance to Disease
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Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003) · Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice · doi:10.1093/clipsy.bpg016 · Cited by 8,615 · cited 1×
“Focused attention involves repeated attention fixation, for example, on the sensation of breath entering the nostril, whereas open monitoring trains nonjudgmental awareness of moment-to-moment experience (Kabat-Zinn, 2003).”
BackgroundMindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003) · Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice · doi:10.1093/clipsy/bpg016 · Cited by 8,612
Dissociable intrinsic connectivity networks for salience processing and executive control
Seeley, W. W., Menon, V., Schatzberg, A. F., Keller, J., Glover, G. H., Kenna, H., Reiss, A. L., & Greicius, M. D. (2007) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.5587-06.2007 · Cited by 7,426
Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex
Bush, G., Luu, P., & Posner, M. I. (2000) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(00)01483-2 · Cited by 6,259
The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience
Varela, F. J., Rosch, E. H., & Thompson, E. T. (2017) · Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) · Cited by 5,910
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Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits
Grossman, P., Niemann, L., Schmidt, S., & Walach, H. (2004) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/s0022-3999(03)00573-7 · Cited by 3,958
Spatial registration and normalization of images
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Research works printed but not linked: 1
- 10.1037//0033-2909.122.3.203 · DOI · Paper page
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation
Tang, Y.-Y., Hölzel, B. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015) · Nature reviews. Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn3916 · Cited by 2,889
Mechanisms of mindfulness training: Monitor and Acceptance Theory (MAT
Lindsay, E. K., & Creswell, J. D. (2017) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2016.10.011 · Cited by 919
“…of short-term mindfulness training programs (i.e., 5- to 15-minute inductions; 3-4 sessions of training or longer) have been investigated (e.g., Allen et al., 2012; Creswell, Pacilio, Lindsay, & Brown, 2014; Zeidan, Johnson, Diamond, David, & RUNNING HEAD: MONITOR AND ACCEPTANCE…”
Contemplating Mindfulness at Work: An Integrative Review
Good, D. J., Lyddy, C. J., Glomb, T. M., Bono, J. E., Brown, K. W., Duffy, M. K., Baer, R. A., Brewer, J. A., & Lazar, S. W. (2016) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/0149206315617003 · Cited by 1,043
“Studies have found meditators to be less distractible (Tang et al., 2007), even when distractions are emotional in nature (Allen et al., 2012).”
BackgroundLutz, A., Jha, A. P., Dunne, J. D., & Saron, C. D. (2015) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/a0039585 · Cited by 697
“, using negative images like a snake) to explore this possibility in a well-matched randomized longitudinal study pre/post a 6-week meditation intervention (Allen et al., 2012).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialGuendelman, S., Medeiros, S., & Rampes, H. (2017) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00220 · Cited by 577
“…the greater amount of mindfulness practice predicted increased activation of bilateral dACC, right AI, and MPFC during implicit negative emotional processing, suggesting both implicit and explicit emotion regulation plasticity as mechanisms underlying mindfulness training (Allen et al., 2012).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Allen, M., Dietz, M., Blair, K. S., van Beek, M., Rees, G., Vestergaard-Poulsen, P., Lutz, A., & Roepstorff, A.
- Affiliations
- Aarhus University (DK)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- University College London (GB)
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2012-10-31
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 44
- Pages
- 15601-15610
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC4569704
- OpenAlex
- W2087111889
- Cited by
- 380
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 41 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 39 · 2018: 33 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 26.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (091593, 082334)
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (P01AT004952)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Keywords
- mindfulness meditation, neuroplasticity, active control, response inhibition, attentional control, metacognition, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, self-regulation
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Affect, Attention, Awareness, Cognition, Emotions, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Neuronal Plasticity, Oxygen, Patient Compliance, Photic Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance, Relaxation Therapy, Meditation, Young Adult, Stroop Test
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