Transcript Brain changes associated with mindfulness

Cognitive Neuroscience of
Mindful emotion regulation
Dusana Dorjee, Ph.D.
What is mindfulness?
 “the awareness that emerges through paying
attention on purpose, in the present moment, and
nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience
moment by moment” (Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p. 145).
 Mechanisms of mindfulness (Shapiro et al., 2006)
– Intention
– Attentional control
– Specific attitude towards experience marked by
acceptance and friendliness
Mindfulness and the brain
BRAIN → MIND
-
Changes in the brain cause us
to feel happy, sad etc.
Physical changes to the brain
induced by medication or
surgery change the way we
feel
MIND → BRAIN
-
-
Neuroplasticity - what we do
with our mind influences the
way our brain works and looks
Neurons that fire together wire
together (Hebb)
Voluntary mental practice as a
source of well-being
From well-being to the brain
ATTENTION
LANGUAGE
THOUGHTS
EMOTIONS
REACTIVITY
AWARENESS
INTENTIONS
Investigating changes in attention and
emotion regulation as a result of mindfulness
Attention
Executive Function
Emotion Regulation
Language
Autonomous Nervous
System
Brain structure vs electrophysiology
 Brain structure
– Tangible effects on the size
of the brain
– Changes relevant to slowdown in aging
BUT
– Difficult to relate to specific
behavior
– Delayed or detached from
immediate cognitive
processing and behavior
– Sources of the changes in
brain structure not clear
 Electrophysiology
– Electrophysiology - an trace
changes in neuronal firing
with millisecond accuracy
– Are functionally specific
(easier to relate to cognitive
function)
BUT
– Specific neural sources are
not entirely clear
– More difficult to translate into
non-specialist language
EEG measures
 Oscillatory electrical activity of the brain
measured in microvolts
 Oscillation frequency distinguishes EEG
frequency bands linked to changes in
consciousness
Alterations in Brain and Immune Function
Produced by Mindfulness Meditation
(Davidson et al., 2003)
 Participants
– 25 participants tested before and after 8-week MBSR training
– 16 controls
– Average age 36 (range 23-56)
 Task
– Measures of EEG prefrontal α-asymmetry
 Left prefrontal activation – approach-oriented behaviour,
positive emotions
 Right prefrontal activation – avoidance-oriented behaviour,
negative emotions
Alterations in Brain and Immune Function
Produced by Mindfulness Meditation
(Davidson et al., 2003)
 Baseline EEG prefrontal αasymmetry at Time 1 and
Time 3
 Higher numbers indicate leftsided activation
 EEG prefrontal αasymmetry in response
to negative emotion
induction
Alterations in Brain and Immune Function
Produced by Mindfulness Meditation
(Davidson et al., 2003)
 Antibody rise from the 3to 5-week to the 8- to 9week
 Correlation between change in
EEG prefrontal α-asymmetry
from Time 1 to Time 2 and rise
in antibody titers
Emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness
(Chambers, Gullone, & Allen, 2009)
 Basic emotion regulation strategies
– Cognitive reappraisal
 Reinterpretation of the cognitive stimulus to modify its
emotional impact
– Suppression
 conscious inhibition of emotional expression
 Mindfulness and emotion regulation
– Less suppression and some cognitive reappraisal
– Novel emotion regulation techniques marked by
exposure and decrease in rumination
Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness
During Affect Labeling
(Creswell et al., 2007)
 Participants
– 27 right-handed undergraduates
 Task - Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)
Affect-labeling
Gender-labeling
Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness
During Affect Labeling
(Creswell et al., 2007)
 Affect labeling >
gender labeling
contrast
 Amygdala was
negatively
correlated with
self-reported
mindfulness
during affectlabeling
Minding One’s Emotions: Mindfulness Training Alters the
Neural Expression of Sadness
(Farb et al., 2010)
 Participants
– 20 participants scanned after 8-week MBSR course
– 16 waiting list controls
 Task
– Watching a set of sad or neutral clips, 45s long
– Only 8 sad clips and 8 neutral clips!
Minding One’s Emotions: Mindfulness Training Alters the
Neural Expression of Sadness
(Farb et al., 2010)
 Red – MT > Control, Blue – Control > MT
 Increased activation in somatosensory cortex in the
MBSR group
Effects of MBSR on Emotion Regulation in Social
Anxiety Disorder
(Goldin & Gross)
 Participants
– 14 participants with social anxiety disorder (SAD)
 Intense fear of evaluation in social and performance situations
 Task
– 18 anxiety-related
self-beliefs
– E.g. ‘People always
judge me’
– Responded to with
breath or distraction
focused attention (A)
– Counting control task
(B)
Effects of MBSR on Emotion Regulation in Social
Anxiety Disorder
(Goldin & Gross)
 Improvement in anxiety and depression symptoms
 Reduced amygdala activity and stronger recruitment with attentionrelated regions
Mindfulness practice results in an immediate
cortisol drop
(Dorjee et al.)
14
12
10
8
musicians
mindfulness practitioners
6
4
2
0
1
2
Effects on N400 as a marker of
emotion regulation (Dorjee et al)
Related-Pre
Unrelated-Pre
Related-Post
Unrelated-Post
P6
3.0
N400
2.3
1.5
0.8
µV 0.0
-0.8
-1.5
-2.3
-3.0
-100.0
150.0
400.0
650.0
ms
900.0
Dispositional Mindfulness effects on
semantic processing (Dorjee et al)
 Correlating mindfulness with semantic
congruency effect (N=20, r=-0.49, p<0.05)
80
70
60
MAAS score
50
40
30
20
10
0
-3
-2
-1
0
1
N400 congruency effect in µV
2
3
4
Overall Summary
 Mindfulness practice improves the intricate
balance between systems of attention, emotion
and language
 Specifically
– It improves the ability to direct attention at will and in this
way supports emotion regulation
– It teaches new emotion regulation strategies that are
very fast and effective in coping with challenging stimuli
as they enter our field of attention
– Mindfulness results in long-term changes in trait positive
affect
– Long term practice of mindfulness leads to the ability to
decrease the reactivity of the autonomous nervous
system with immediate effects on stress-related
hormone production (cortisol)
Thanks to collaborators
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Guillaume Thierry
Emeka Enwesor
Shantha Perera
Jesslyn Becker
Aaron Jolly
John Parkinson
Jon Darrall-Rew
Niall Lally
And all research participants!
THANK YOU