Altered Neural Activity Associated with Mindfulness during Nociception: a Systematic Review of Functional MRI.
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: To assess the neural activity associated with mindfulness-based alterations of pain perception. METHODS: The Cochrane Central, EMBASE, Ovid Medline, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched on 2 February 2016. Titles, abstracts, and full-text articles were independently screened by two reviewers. Data were independently extracted from records that included topics of functional neuroimaging, pain, and mindfulness interventions. RESULTS: The literature search produced 946 total records, of which five met the inclusion criteria. Records reported pain in terms of anticipation (n = 2), unpleasantness (n = 5), and intensity (n = 5), and how mindfulness conditions altered the neural activity during noxious stimulation accordingly. CONCLUSIONS: Although the studies were inconsistent in relating pain components to neural activity, in general, mindfulness was able to reduce pain anticipation and unpleasantness ratings, as well as alter the corresponding neural activity. The major neural underpinnings of mindfulness-based pain reduction consisted of altered activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
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Cingulate cortex, insula, and dlPFC are major neural underpinnings of mindfulness-based intervention.
“Among those regions, the cingulate cortex, insula, and dlPFC were major neural underpinnings of mindfulness-based intervention (Bilevicius et al., 2016).”
From Enhanced Resting-State Functional Connectivity With Decreased Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations of the Salience Network in Mindfulness Novices (2022) · cites this paper as Bilevicius et al., 2016
The Results (§3.4.2) report altered insula and ACC activity and dlPFC deactivation in mindfulness practitioners during noxious stimulation. The Discussion (§4) treats these regions as part of a possible mechanism of pain attenuation, but the review does not establish them as major neural underpinnings of mindfulness-based interventions generally, beyond the nociception context. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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- Authors
- Bilevicius, E., Kolesar, T., & Kornelsen, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Manitoba (CA)
- St. Boniface Hospital (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Kornelsen, Jennifer
- Venue
- Brain Sciences
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2016-04-19
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 14
- ISSN
- 2076-3425 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4931491
- OpenAlex
- W2339328656
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 5
- FWCI
- 0.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Brain Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
- Keywords
- mindfulness, nociception, pain perception, pain anticipation, pain unpleasantness, pain intensity, neuronal activity, anterior cingulate cortex, insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
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