Open AccessMindfulness and emotion regulation—an fMRI study
Author(s) -
J. Gary Lutz,
Uwe Herwig,
Sarah Opialla,
Anna Hittmeyer,
Lutz Jäncke,
Michael Rufer,
Martin Grosse Holtforth,
Annette Beatrix Brühl
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
social cognitive and affective neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.229
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1749-5024
pISSN - 1749-5016
DOI - 10.1093/scan/nst043
Subject(s) - mindfulness , psychology , parahippocampal gyrus , functional magnetic resonance imaging , amygdala , prefrontal cortex , arousal , cognitive reappraisal , cued speech , perception , expressive suppression , inferior frontal gyrus , intervention (counseling) , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , neuroscience , clinical psychology , cognition , temporal lobe , psychiatry , epilepsy
Mindfulness--an attentive non-judgmental focus on present experiences--is increasingly incorporated in psychotherapeutic treatments as a skill fostering emotion regulation. Neurobiological mechanisms of actively induced emotion regulation are associated with prefrontally mediated down-regulation of, for instance, the amygdala. We were interested in neurobiological correlates of a short mindfulness instruction during emotional arousal. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated effects of a short mindfulness intervention during the cued expectation and perception of negative and potentially negative pictures (50% probability) in 24 healthy individuals compared to 22 controls. The mindfulness intervention was associated with increased activations in prefrontal regions during the expectation of negative and potentially negative pictures compared to controls. During the perception of negative stimuli, reduced activation was identified in regions involved in emotion processing (amygdala, parahippocampal gyrus). Prefrontal and right insular activations when expecting negative pictures correlated negatively with trait mindfulness, suggesting that more mindful individuals required less regulatory resources to attenuate emotional arousal. Our findings suggest emotion regulatory effects of a short mindfulness intervention on a neurobiological level.