title: The effect of body-mind relaxation meditation induction on major depressive disorder: A resting-state fMRI study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Meditation has been increasingly evaluated as an important complementary therapeutic tool for the treatment of depression. The present study employed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to examine the effect of body-mind relaxation meditation induction (BMRMI) on the brain activity of depressed patients and to investigate possible mechanisms of action for this complex intervention.
  
  
  METHODS
  21 major depressive disorder patients (MDDs) and 24 age and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs) received rs-fMRI scans at baseline and after listening to a selection of audio designed to induce body-mind relaxation meditation. The rs-fMRI data were analyzed using Matlab toolbox to obtain the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) of the BOLD signal for the whole brain. A mixed-design repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the whole brain to find which brain regions were affected by the BMRMI. An additional functional connectivity analysis was used to identify any atypical connection patterns after the BMRMI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After the BMRMI experience, both the MDDs and HCs showed decreased ALFF values in the bilateral frontal pole (BA10). Additionally, increased functional connectivity from the right dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) to the left dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) was identified only in the MDDs after the BMRMI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In order to exclude the impact of other events on the participants׳ brain activity, the Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression (HDRS) was not measured after the body-mind relaxation induction.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings support the hypothesis that body-mind relaxation meditation induction may regulate the activities of the prefrontal cortex and thus may have the potential to help patients construct reappraisal strategies that can modulate the brain activity in multiple emotion-processing systems.
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics and Computational Science, Sun Yat-Sen University of China, Guangzhou 510275, China; School of Mathematics and Computational Science, Shenzhen University of China, Shenzhen 518060, China.
authors.forename: Fangfang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department of Guang׳anMen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China.
authors.forename: Xueyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Radiology Department of Guang׳anMen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China.
authors.forename: Jiliang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sui
authors.affiliation: Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Lingzhong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department of Guang׳anMen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Radiology Department of Guang׳anMen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Radiology Department of Guang׳anMen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China.
authors.forename: XiaoLing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department of Guang׳anMen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China. Electronic address: prof_wwd@126.com.
authors.forename: Weidong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. Electronic address: jiangtz@nlpr.ia.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Tianzi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D019122:Meditation / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D012146:Rest / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Body–mind relaxation meditation; Cognitive reappraisal; Major depressive disorder; Medial frontal cortex; Orbitofrontal cortex; fMRI