title: Alterations in Resting-State Functional Connectivity Link Mindfulness Meditation With Reduced Interleukin-6: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
abstract: Mindfulness meditation training interventions have been shown to improve markers of health, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are not known. Building on initial cross-sectional research showing that mindfulness meditation may increase default mode network (DMN) resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) with regions important in top-down executive control (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [dlPFC]), here we test whether mindfulness meditation training increases DMN-dlPFC rsFC and whether these rsFC alterations prospectively explain improvements in interleukin (IL)-6 in a randomized controlled trial.
  
  
  
  Stressed job-seeking unemployed community adults (n = 35) were randomized to either a 3-day intensive residential mindfulness meditation or relaxation training program. Participants completed a 5-minute resting-state scan before and after the intervention program. Participants also provided blood samples at preintervention and at 4-month follow-up, which were assayed for circulating IL-6, a biomarker of systemic inflammation.
  
  
  
  We tested for alterations in DMN rsFC using a posterior cingulate cortex seed-based analysis and found that mindfulness meditation training, and not relaxation training, increased posterior cingulate cortex rsFC with left dlPFC (p < .05, corrected). These pretraining to posttraining alterations in posterior cingulate cortex-dlPFC rsFC statistically mediated mindfulness meditation training improvements in IL-6 at 4-month follow-up. Specifically, these alterations in rsFC statistically explained 30% of the overall mindfulness meditation training effects on IL-6 at follow-up.
  
  
  
  These findings provide the first evidence that mindfulness meditation training functionally couples the DMN with a region known to be important in top-down executive control at rest (left dlPFC), which, in turn, is associated with improvements in a marker of inflammatory disease risk.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Electronic address: creswell@cmu.edu.
authors.forename: J David
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Creswell
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Adrienne A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Taren
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Emily K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Lindsay
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Carol M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Greco
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Gianaros
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: April
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fairgrieve
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Anna L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Marsland
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.
authors.forename: Kirk Warren
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
authors.forename: Baldwin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Way
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Rhonda K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Rosen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Ferris
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D063132:Connectome / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000097:blood / Q000628:therapy*; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D019122:Meditation / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D064866:Mindfulness / Q000379:methods*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012064:Relaxation Therapy / Q000379:methods; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000097:blood / Q000628:therapy*; D014478:Unemployment / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: C508600:IL6 protein, human; D015850:Interleukin-6
keywords: Functional connectivity; IL-6; Mindfulness meditation; Stress; Unemployment; fMRI