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Meditation leads to reduced default mode network activity beyond an active task
Open accessAbstract
Meditation has been associated with relatively reduced activity in the default mode network, a brain network implicated in self-related thinking and mind wandering. However, previous imaging studies have typically compared meditation to rest, despite other studies having reported differences in brain activation patterns between meditators and controls at rest. Moreover, rest is associated with a range of brain activation patterns across individuals that has only recently begun to be better characterized. Therefore, in this study we compared meditation to another active cognitive task, both to replicate the findings that meditation is associated with relatively reduced default mode network activity and to extend these findings by testing whether default mode activity was reduced during meditation, beyond the typical reductions observed during effortful tasks. In addition, prior studies had used small groups, whereas in the present study we tested these hypotheses in a larger group. The results indicated that meditation is associated with reduced activations in the default mode network, relative to an active task, for meditators as compared to controls. Regions of the default mode network showing a Group × Task interaction included the posterior cingulate/precuneus and anterior cingulate cortex. These findings replicate and extend prior work indicating that the suppression of default mode processing may represent a central neural process in long-term meditation, and they suggest that meditation leads to relatively reduced default mode processing beyond that observed during another active cognitive task.
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“Neuroimaging studies revealed reduced default mode network (DMN) activation and enhanced DMN-central executive network (CEN) connectivity in experienced meditators, suggesting that CEN negatively regulates the DMN (Bauer et al., 2019; Brewer et al., 2011; Garrison et al., 2015).”
From Online Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for People with Parkinson’s Disease and Their Caregivers: a Pilot Study (2022) · cites this paper as Garrison et al., 2015
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In the citing paper
“According to the findings, functional connectivity in the DMN is negatively correlated with that of the salience network (Doll et al., 2015), other brain neural networks (Josipovic et al., 2011), and the mindfulness scores of mindful breathing practitioners (Garrison et al., 2015).”
From Frontal Electroencephalography Asymmetry and Desynchronized Functional Connectivity Associated with Long-Term and Short-Term Breathing Training (2026) · cites this paper as Garrison et al., 2015
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“Furthermore, meditation also attenuates activity of the default mode network (DMN),14 with dysfunction of the DMN subsystem in the anterior (medial prefrontal cortex) and posterior (cingulate cortex) following a larger number of long-term meditations.15 16”
From Biological mechanism study of meditation and its application in mental disorders (2020) · cites this paper as [15]
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Citations
Cites
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Psychedelics, meditation, and self-consciousness
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“Mindfulness meditation training has been shown to down-regulate activity of the DMN (Brewer et al., 2011; Garrison et al., 2015).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Garrison, K. A., Zeffiro, T. A., Scheinost, D., Constable, R. T., & Brewer, J. A.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (US)
- Corresponding author
- Brewer, Judson A.
- Venue
- Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience
- Published
- 2015-04-23
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 712-720
- ISSN
- 1530-7026 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-135X
- PMC
- PMC4529365
- OpenAlex
- W2093668364
- Cited by
- 295
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 5
- FWCI
- 14.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network (American Medical Association) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- American Heart Association (14CRP18200010)
- Yale University
- National Institutes of Health (14CRP18200010)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (K12 DA00167, K12DA000167, T32DA022975)
- NIH Clinical Center
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (R01AT007922)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Mind wandering and attention
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Keywords
- meditation, default mode network, resting-state brain activity, posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, anterior cingulate cortex, mind wandering
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Neural Pathways, Neuropsychological Tests, Rest, Meditation
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