title: Neural correlates of mindfulness meditation-related anxiety relief.
abstract: Anxiety is the cognitive state related to the inability to control emotional responses to perceived threats. Anxiety is inversely related to brain activity associated with the cognitive regulation of emotions. Mindfulness meditation has been found to regulate anxiety. However, the brain mechanisms involved in meditation-related anxiety relief are largely unknown. We employed pulsed arterial spin labeling MRI to compare the effects of distraction in the form of attending to the breath (ATB; before meditation training) to mindfulness meditation (after meditation training) on state anxiety across the same subjects. Fifteen healthy subjects, with no prior meditation experience, participated in 4 d of mindfulness meditation training. ATB did not reduce state anxiety, but state anxiety was significantly reduced in every session that subjects meditated. Meditation-related anxiety relief was associated with activation of the anterior cingulate cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and anterior insula. Meditation-related activation in these regions exhibited a strong relationship to anxiety relief when compared to ATB. During meditation, those who exhibited greater default-related activity (i.e. posterior cingulate cortex) reported greater anxiety, possibly reflecting an inability to control self-referential thoughts. These findings provide evidence that mindfulness meditation attenuates anxiety through mechanisms involved in the regulation of self-referential thought processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA and Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA fzeidan@wakehealth.edu.
authors.forename: Fadel
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zeidan
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA and Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA.
authors.forename: Katherine T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Martucci
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA and Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA.
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Kraft
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA and Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA.
authors.forename: John G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: McHaffie
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA and Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Coghill
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D019122:Meditation / Q000379:methods; D064866:Mindfulness; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012119:Respiration; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: anxiety; arterial spin labeling; fMRI; mindfulness meditation