Cargando…

BOLD signal and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation

Loving kindness is a form of meditation involving directed well-wishing, typically supported by the silent repetition of phrases such as “may all beings be happy,” to foster a feeling of selfless love. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the neural substrate of loving kindne...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Garrison, Kathleen A, Scheinost, Dustin, Constable, R Todd, Brewer, Judson A
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BlackWell Publishing Ltd 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4055184/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24944863
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.219
_version_ 1782320616682029056
author Garrison, Kathleen A
Scheinost, Dustin
Constable, R Todd
Brewer, Judson A
author_facet Garrison, Kathleen A
Scheinost, Dustin
Constable, R Todd
Brewer, Judson A
author_sort Garrison, Kathleen A
collection PubMed
description Loving kindness is a form of meditation involving directed well-wishing, typically supported by the silent repetition of phrases such as “may all beings be happy,” to foster a feeling of selfless love. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the neural substrate of loving kindness meditation in experienced meditators and novices. We first assessed group differences in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal during loving kindness meditation. We next used a relatively novel approach, the intrinsic connectivity distribution of functional connectivity, to identify regions that differ in intrinsic connectivity between groups, and then used a data-driven approach to seed-based connectivity analysis to identify which connections differ between groups. Our findings suggest group differences in brain regions involved in self-related processing and mind wandering, emotional processing, inner speech, and memory. Meditators showed overall reduced BOLD signal and intrinsic connectivity during loving kindness as compared to novices, more specifically in the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus (PCC/PCu), a finding that is consistent with our prior work and other recent neuroimaging studies of meditation. Furthermore, meditators showed greater functional connectivity during loving kindness between the PCC/PCu and the left inferior frontal gyrus, whereas novices showed greater functional connectivity during loving kindness between the PCC/PCu and other cortical midline regions of the default mode network, the bilateral posterior insula lobe, and the bilateral parahippocampus/hippocampus. These novel findings suggest that loving kindness meditation involves a present-centered, selfless focus for meditators as compared to novices.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4055184
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2014
publisher BlackWell Publishing Ltd
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-40551842014-06-18 BOLD signal and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation Garrison, Kathleen A Scheinost, Dustin Constable, R Todd Brewer, Judson A Brain Behav Original Research Loving kindness is a form of meditation involving directed well-wishing, typically supported by the silent repetition of phrases such as “may all beings be happy,” to foster a feeling of selfless love. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the neural substrate of loving kindness meditation in experienced meditators and novices. We first assessed group differences in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal during loving kindness meditation. We next used a relatively novel approach, the intrinsic connectivity distribution of functional connectivity, to identify regions that differ in intrinsic connectivity between groups, and then used a data-driven approach to seed-based connectivity analysis to identify which connections differ between groups. Our findings suggest group differences in brain regions involved in self-related processing and mind wandering, emotional processing, inner speech, and memory. Meditators showed overall reduced BOLD signal and intrinsic connectivity during loving kindness as compared to novices, more specifically in the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus (PCC/PCu), a finding that is consistent with our prior work and other recent neuroimaging studies of meditation. Furthermore, meditators showed greater functional connectivity during loving kindness between the PCC/PCu and the left inferior frontal gyrus, whereas novices showed greater functional connectivity during loving kindness between the PCC/PCu and other cortical midline regions of the default mode network, the bilateral posterior insula lobe, and the bilateral parahippocampus/hippocampus. These novel findings suggest that loving kindness meditation involves a present-centered, selfless focus for meditators as compared to novices. BlackWell Publishing Ltd 2014-05 2014-02-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4055184/ /pubmed/24944863 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.219 Text en © 2014 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Garrison, Kathleen A
Scheinost, Dustin
Constable, R Todd
Brewer, Judson A
BOLD signal and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation
title BOLD signal and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation
title_full BOLD signal and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation
title_fullStr BOLD signal and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation
title_full_unstemmed BOLD signal and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation
title_short BOLD signal and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation
title_sort bold signal and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4055184/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24944863
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.219
work_keys_str_mv AT garrisonkathleena boldsignalandfunctionalconnectivityassociatedwithlovingkindnessmeditation
AT scheinostdustin boldsignalandfunctionalconnectivityassociatedwithlovingkindnessmeditation
AT constablertodd boldsignalandfunctionalconnectivityassociatedwithlovingkindnessmeditation
AT brewerjudsona boldsignalandfunctionalconnectivityassociatedwithlovingkindnessmeditation