Rajesh P. G (India)
Cognitive and behavioural neurology, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology NeurologyAuthor Of 1 Presentation
NEURAL CORRELATES OF A MINDFULNESS PRACTICE- A CASE-CONTROL STUDY
- Radhika S. Lotlikar (India)
Abstract
Background and Aims:
Mindfulness meditation practice in relation to the resting-state of the brain remain under-explored in terms of its neural correlates. Potential of task positive and task negative functional MRI(fMRI) to delineate the cortical correlates coupled with mindfulness meditation can help to demonstrate its utility in improving cognition and introspective awareness.
Methods:
Our study included 24 healthy participants(12 mindfulness meditation practitioners and 12 meditation-naive controls) on whom resting-state and task based fMRI studies were conducted using 3T MRI. Seed-based connectivity network analysis was carried out with known resting-state fMRI(rs-fMRI) network nodes as regions of interest (ROI). Analysis of Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activation coupled with mindfulness meditation based fMRI task featured ‘normal resting’, ‘mindful body awareness’ and ‘mindful breath awareness’ tasks. Differences in resting-state connectivity networks and neural correlates on meditation task-based fMRI (t-fMRI) were evaluated between practitioners and controls.
Results:
rs-fMRI revealed note-worthy differences between meditation practitioners and control group in the connectivity of medial prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula for p < 0.05, FDR corrected at cluster level and p < 0.001, uncorrected at voxel level with seed based ROI to ROI networks. The t-fMRI revealed increased BOLD activation for practitioners compared to controls (p < 0.05) over bilateral insula, anterior cingulate gyri, thalami and left putamen during mindful breath awareness task; right insula and right inferior parietal lobule showed maximal activation during mindful body awareness task.
Conclusions:
Mindfulness meditation has the potential to activate neural correlates coupled with cognition, attention and introspection, thus mediating interoceptive awareness and focused attention.