Mindfulness Brain Research

We have all heard the term “mindfulness” but what does it mean in terms of the brain and terms of neuroscience?

Being present in the moment is very empowering. It means focusing your awareness on the here and now. It’s about embracing each moment of the day and not worrying about what tomorrow may bring.

Living in the present moment can be transformative, but what does it do to the brain?

The human brain contains hundreds of trillions of synapses that help the brain cells communicate with each other. The brain contains anywhere from 80 to 100 billion neurons, which help form these connections.

Despite all of this, scientists still don’t have a full understanding of what happens in the brain when we practice mindfulness or meditate.

Our knowledge of the brain is the tip of the iceberg because there is still so much more we need to learn.

In this article, we will take a look at the field of mindfulness research, examine certain studies, and look at how mindfulness affects and changes the brain.

Researchers are even looking into how mindfulness can help with things like ADHD and autism, which is very exciting.

A Look at the Field of Mindfulness Research

There are many studies, which have been done on mindfulness. Some of the most widely recognized include Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).

• Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center developed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program.
• The Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy program was developed by Segal, Williams, and, Teasdale.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a mindfulness-based program designed to assist people with pain and a range of conditions and life issues. These issues may also be issues that are difficult to treat in a hospital setting.

The MBSR course has been proven to help alleviate stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. It combines meditation techniques with cognitive behavioral skills and mindful movement and is taught in a way that is practical and relevant for everyday living.

The MBSR course is a wonderful example of how being mindful can help with many things beyond merely relaxing the mind and body and being present in the moment.

The goal of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is to help people change unproductive thoughts. This might include patterns of thought that aren’t serving you well or other types of behaviors and emotional responses.

MBCT uses psychological techniques that help patients better understand the correlation between various modes of the mind and mood disorders. When you recognize the connection, you can then work toward an appropriate answer.

You can use the strong connection between the mind and pain to change the way that you think. The therapy is also thought to be helpful in the recovery from the stress and depression associated with pain.

MBCT draws on the structure of MBSR integrating some approaches from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and it is typically taught in an eight-week format for up to twelve participants.

An MCBT program typically contains:

• The cultivation of awareness through mindfulness practice.
• A framework characterized by non-striving, acceptance, and a genuine interest in the experience, which is incorporated into the teaching process.
• A process of linking the learning to an understanding of working with the idea of vulnerability.

Personal experiential learning is integrated into a wider framework of understanding. This understanding relates both to the nature of general human vulnerability and suffering and to the particular nature of vulnerability and depressive relapse.

Typically the MBCT sessions are facilitated through dialogue, reflection, group exercises, and teaching.

Although the term mindfulness-based cognitive therapy may be somewhat imposing, its meaning is very straightforward.

• M stands for Mindfulness or bringing your awareness to the present moment without judgment or expectation.
• B stands for Based, as in derived from or connected to.
• C stands for Cognitive, which refers to the thinking, planning, and measuring parts of the brain.
• T stands for Therapy or the treatment of illnesses and diseases.

Cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT is one of the most highly recommended and well-respected talk therapies of the 21st century.

CBT is defined as an active, directive, time-limited, structured approach that is used to treat a variety of mental problems like anxiety, phobias, depression, stress, and even pain. It is a client-driven therapy where you choose your own goals.

CBT focuses on the here and now much like MBCT.

In the academic community, there are also many good mindfulness researchers to be aware of including Judson Brewer, MD, Ph.D., David Creswell, Ph.D., Larissa Duncan, Ph.D., and Elissa Epel, Ph.D.

Judson Brewer MD, Ph.D. – Psychiatrist and Chief, Division of Mindfulness

Judson Brewer is a psychiatrist and an associate professor at the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry as well as a research director at the Center for Mindfulness, UMASS Medical School.

Brewer is known for his work with mindfulness and addictions. In his work with neuroimaging technologies, he is developing mindfulness techniques that help people stop smoking, and overcome food cravings as well as examining how mindfulness affects the brain.

Brewer is also looking into the future and researching the effects of mindfulness delivered digitally.

According to Brewer, this is the future of mindfulness and it’s important to study it. Brewer’s team is also developing an app, “Unwinding Anxiety,” which they plan to study in future clinical trials.

David Creswell, Ph.D. – Associate professor of psychology, Carnegie Mellon University

David Creswell, an associate professor of psychology, is researching stress and resiliency. His work is examining what makes people resilient when they come upon stressful situations in life. His work combines health psychology and neuroscience.

Creswell has also begun clinical trials examining how Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction may help improve social relationships as well as promote healthy aging for older adults.

Larissa Duncan, Ph.D.

Larissa Duncan is currently the Elizabeth C. Davies Chair in Child & Family Well-Being. She is also an associate professor of human development and family studies at the School of Human Ecology and the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Duncan is currently working on finding ways to explore mindful parenting and helping to bring mindfulness training to pregnant women, as well as children, adolescents, and family members.

Duncan is looking toward the future and studying how Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting might affect a mother’s mental health, stress physiology, and well-being.

As part of this research, she is also examining infants’ behavioral and neurological development.

Elissa Epel, Ph.D.

Elissa Epel is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.

Epel is known for her work which links severe stress with shortened telomeres, which are cellular structures that play a key role in both disease and aging. Epel’s mindfulness research has also focused on examining the benefits of meditation as a tool for people who are under severe stress or experiencing ongoing stress.

Epel’s work is focused on helping those who have no previous meditation experience.

For the future, Epel is looking at how a practice like meditation might affect people who have suffered adversity in childhood. According to Epel, these types of individuals tend to have certain patterns of thought that are ideal targets for meditation training.

Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on the Brain

Mindfulness meditation has received the most attention in neuroscience research over the past two decades. Behavioral studies suggest that mindfulness meditation provides beneficial effects on several cognitive domains, including attention, memory, executive function, and cognitive flexibility. Additionally, these effects have been found in multiple brain regions, including the cerebral cortex, subcortical grey and white matter, brain stem, and cerebellum. This finding is unsurprising because mindfulness practices do involve multiple aspects of mental function.

Fox et al. (2014) performed a meta-analysis on 21 neuroimaging studies (with a total of 300 subjects) that examined changes in brain structures related to mindfulness meditation. They found several brain regions that show the consistent differences between meditators and non-meditators, including areas key to meta-awareness (prefrontal cortex), exteroceptive and interoceptive body awareness (sensory cortices and insula), memory (hippocampus), and emotional regulation (anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal cortex).

The following bullet points provide a more detailed description of their findings:

• The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is an important area for higher-order thinking, processing of complex, abstract information, and metacognition. Results in this area across meditation styles are consistent with the idea that meditation engages, and possibly trains, metacognitive awareness.
• The Somatomotor cortex is the region that processes somatosensory information and motor information. It has been shown that long-term meditators have higher pain tolerance (which is equivalent to lower pain sensitivity) and they also have less perceived unpleasantness of painful stimuli than non-meditators.
• Insula differences involved practitioners with an intensive, explicit focus on interoceptive body awareness, including attention to body posture, respiration, and temperature sensations.
• Hippocampus appears to be critical for memory and contextualized emotional learning.    This also relates to meditation’s effects on stress reduction. In animal studies, it has been shown that a supportive rearing environment can lead to structural changes in the hippocampus (e.g., increased density of glucocorticoid receptors) that have a protective effect against stress.
• The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is crucial for self-control,  focused problem-solving, and adaptive behavioral responses. Indeed, these processes are considered goals of the utmost importance in many meditation traditions. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies show enhanced activation of regions of the ACC in experienced meditators.
• The Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is richly connected to primary sensory regions as well as the limbic system, including the amygdala, striatum, and hypothalamus. Enhanced emotional regulation is consistent with reports on reducing stress and anxiety after meditation.

Mindfulness meditation influences our ability to concentrate, strengthens our emotion regulation skills, and enhances our self-awareness. In a meta-analysis study, Tang and colleagues (2015) propose a tentative model that explains the mechanisms and stages of how mindfulness meditation impacts self-regulation.

7 Studies You Need to Know About

Mindfulness changes the brain, according to one study.

Lutz, Dunne & Davidson (2008) examined how mindfulness impacts the amygdala, which is a region of the brain that is primarily associated with emotional processes.

In the study, it was determined that this area of the brain tended to be less active and have less gray matter density following mindfulness sessions.

The hippocampus also plays a role in mindfulness. The hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with memory, helps regulate the amygdala. Following mindfulness training, this part of the brain was also found to be more active according to Goldin & Gross (2010).

Mindfulness can help us nurture healthier relationships as well, according to a study done at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Carson, J. et al. (2004).

The study demonstrated a correlation between the practice of mindfulness and improved relationships. The couples in the study reported more closeness and more relationship satisfaction among other things.

Other studies examined the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with both impulse control and maturity. This part of the brain tended to become more active following mindfulness training. (Chiesa & Serretti, 2010).

In a study published in NeuroReport in 2005, results showed thicker cortical regions related to attention and sensory processing in long-term meditation practitioners, when compared with those who did not meditate.

These findings also suggest that simple meditation practice may offset cortical thinning brought about by aging. (Lazar et al. 2005)

A study of the 8-week MBSR course for nurses showed that their mindfulness practice facilitated empathetic attitudes while decreasing their tendency to take on other people’s negative emotions. (Beddoe & Murphy, 2004)

9 Benefits Research has Shown

Results of the research indicate that mindfulness can help you in more ways than you think, especially in the workplace.

Christopher Liddy, an organizational behavior doctoral candidate at Case Western Reserve’s Weatherhead School of Management conducted research with Darren Good, an assistant professor at Pepperdine University.

The research examined over 4,000 scientific papers on varying degrees of mindfulness. The researchers looked at the impact of mindfulness in terms of how people think, feel, and perform at work as well as how they relate.

The results of the study, Contemplating Mindfulness at Work, were then published in the Journal of Management.

The study suggests that:

1. Mindfulness positively impacts human functioning.
2. Mindfulness can help improve the quality of attention.
3. Mindfulness, even though it is an internal quality, can impact interpersonal behavior.
4. Mindfulness can help provide greater empathy and compassion.

In the research, it was discovered that mindfulness cannot only positively impact attention, but can also help improve cognition, emotions, physiology, and even behavior.

The researchers also found that mindfulness can help keep attention stable and help one remain focused on the present. Those who completed mindfulness training were better able to remain vigilant and focused, especially on visual and listening tasks.

Mindfulness has also been shown to help improve 3 unique qualities of attention, stability, control, and efficacy.

In terms of relationships, mindfulness can also give us a boost, helping to provide us with greater empathy and compassion.

According to Sara Davin, PsyD, MPH, mindfulness is not only a powerful tool for patients but also doctors and medical care providers.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, there is ample evidence in support of the many benefits of mindfulness.

Some of these benefits include:

1. Optimization of mental health.
2. Positive impact on the brain and immune system.
3. Help with chronic pain.
4. Help overcome insomnia.
5. Help with caregiver burnout healthcare providers may face.

In a review of more than 20 randomized controlled trials in 2011, it was shown that mindfulness can help improve overall mental health.

Mindfulness can also help reduce the risk of relapse from depression, while also helping with anxiety disorders like PTSD.

Mindfulness not only helps boost the immune system, but it can also help improve our neural processing in as little as a 10 to 15-minute session.

Mindfulness can also help with chronic pain. With chronic pain being an epidemic, it’s important to find alternative tools that are drug-free.

Mindfulness is one of those tools. In the study, those who meditated showed a decrease in pain and pain-related limitations. The benefits were comparable with cognitive behavioral therapy.

Insomnia and poor sleeping patterns can also lead to many other health problems. In randomized controlled trials, it was shown that mindfulness could help reduce insomnia, according to the Insomnia Severity Index.

Mindfulness can also be very beneficial to healthcare providers as well. Burnout is a big problem in the healthcare industry, and trials indicate that mindfulness can help boost resilience and create positive changes while reducing stress, anxiety, and burnout amongst healthcare workers.

The Neuroscience of Mindfulness: A Look Inside

We have seen that mindfulness can be very beneficial. It not only helps us cope better it also helps our brain function better.

Neuroplasticity allows the brain to reorganize itself. It does this by forming new neural connections throughout our life.

Evidence shows us that mindfulness can help increase our resilience, which allows us to cope better and roll with the punches.

By applying neuroplasticity, you can essentially “re-wire” and “hardwire” the brain helping you achieve greater levels of peace, health, happiness, and joy.

Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, actually uses MRI technology to look at the brain. In her research, she looks at the detailed structures of the brain to see what might be going on during certain tasks like meditation or yoga.

Lazar herself used to be a skeptic until she attended some yoga classes.

After attending a few classes, she felt the difference. She felt calmer, happier, and much more compassionate. As a result of this experience, she decided to refocus her research on the particular changes that occur in the brain’s physical structure as a result of meditation practice.

In Lazar’s first study she looked at individuals with extensive meditation experience. The study involved focused attention on those internal experiences.

The data showed that meditation might serve to slow down or even prevent age-related thinning of the frontal cortex. This area of the brain otherwise contributes to the formation of memories.

We assume that we become forgetful as we age. However, Lazar and her team discovered that those who meditated in their 40s and 50s had the same amount of grey matter as those in their 20s and 30s.

In Lazar’s second study, she used people who had never meditated before. These people attended a Mindfulness-based stress reduction training program, where they took a weekly class.

They also participated in various mindfulness exercises, including sitting meditation, mindful yoga, and a body scan practice. Sessions lasted for 30 -40 minutes every day.

In this study, Lazar tested the recipients for the positive effects that mindfulness meditation would have on psychological well-being.

Lazar was also interested in helping people alleviate symptoms of chronic pain, insomnia, depression, and anxiety, amongst other things.

After 8 weeks, brain volume had increased in 4 regions of the brain. The most relevant of these regions included:

• The Hippocampus
• The Temporoparietal junction

Areas of the brain that decreased from the study included the amygdala.

The hippocampus is a structure of the brain shaped like a seahorse. It is responsible for the regulation of emotions, spatial orientation, learning, and the storage of memories.

The temporoparietal junction is the area of the brain where the parietal lobes meet the temporal area. This area of the brain is responsible for empathy and compassion.

The study results also showed that the amygdala decreased, which meant the fight-or-flight response, and the reaction to threats, also decreased.

The smaller the amygdala becomes, the better people react to stress. The decrease in the brain’s grey matter correlates with the changes in the levels of stress as well, according to the study.

All of this research is promising because it means that the change in people’s reactions occurs within themselves, and not in the environment itself.

In the end, mindfulness can help you change how you react to stressful situations, helping you feel calmer and much more in control.

How Mindfulness Affects and Changes The Brain

Over the past 10 years, studies in neuroimaging have investigated certain changes in brain morphology as it pertains to mindfulness meditation.

One meta-analysis taken from 21 neuroimaging studies examined the brains of 300 experienced practitioners of meditation. The study revealed that 8 unique regions of the brain were consistently changed in those who experienced meditation.

These 8 regions of the brain included:

1. Rostrolateral prefrontal cortex
2. Sensory cortices
3. Insular cortex
4. Hippocampus
5. Anterior cingulate cortex
6. Mid-cingulate cortex
7. Superior longitudinal fasciculus
8. Corpus callosum

The exact ways in which these different brain regions changed did vary from study to study since different studies use different neuroimaging measurements. However, consistent changes were seen across the board including:

• Changes in brain density
• Changes in thickness of brain tissue
• An increase in the number of neurons, fibers, and glia in a given region
• Changes in cortical surface area
• Changes in white matter fiber density

In looking at this research, we can certainly see a positive trend, among those who meditate and practice mindfulness.

What do all of these unique regions of the brain do?

The rostrolateral prefrontal cortex is a region of the brain that is linked with a greater awareness of the thinking process (meta-awareness), the processing of complex, abstract information, and introspection.

The sensory cortices and insular cortex are the parts of the brain that are the main cortical hubs when it comes to tactile information, like touch, pain, body awareness, and conscious proprioception.

The hippocampus is a pair of subcortical structures that are involved with the formation of memory as well as facilitating emotional responses.

The anterior cingulate cortex and mid-cingulate cortex are those areas in the brain connected with self-control, the regulation of emotions, as well as attention.

The superior longitudinal fasciculus and corpus callosum are what are called white matter tracts. These areas communicate between and within the hemispheres of the brain.

Researchers suggest that the effect of meditation on these brain structures appears to be medium in magnitude. This outcome is comparable to the effects of other interventions such as psychological interventions, education, and behavioral interventions.

Because this study involved so many different regions of the brain, researchers suggest that the effects of meditation might involve multiple aspects of brain functioning on a large scale, which is very promising.

As a result of this work, Tang, Holzel, and Posner suggest that engaging in mindfulness practice is indeed promising in terms of the treatment of clinical disorders, helping to encourage a healthy mind and enhanced well-being.

Research on mindfulness and meditation is still in its infancy. Even with that, several studies have investigated changes in brain activation both at rest and during very specific tasks that are associated with the practice of mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness Versus Medication: What Can We Prove?

There have been some promising studies when it comes to comparing mindfulness therapies to medication.

In one recent trial, Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was compared with anti-depressant medication.

The results of the study showed that with participants who had an unstable remission that 73% of them had a reduction in the risk of relapse in both the MBCT and the antidepressant group compared with a placebo.

There were no differences between the MBCT group and the depressant group. These results are encouraging because it suggests that MBCT is a reasonable alternative therapy to standard medication.

Those who used MBCT worked to develop capacities and coping strategies so they could then view their thoughts differently, seeing them in a bigger, wider way.

As a result, they developed more self-compassion, which helps to mediate the efficacy of MBCT.

Mathew Brensilver, Ph.D., also has an opinion on the effectiveness of mindfulness versus psychiatric medication like antidepressants.

According to Brensilver’s research, antidepressant use has expanded significantly over the years.

In 2000, only 6.5% of the population used antidepressants. Compare that to 2010, and you’ll see that the number has increased to 10.4%.

Both medication and meditation and mindfulness have similar goals – to reduce the amount of distress.

There are different schools of thought when comparing these two interventions. For some, going on antidepressants allows them to feel much more stabilized, which then allows them to focus better on a practice like mindfulness.

It has also been shown that combining medication and psychotherapy often results in better outcomes than one of those alone.

The same thing might be said for combining mindfulness and meditation with antidepressants, resulting in a better outcome.

According to Brensilver, psychiatric medication is not generally designed to help someone thrive and flourish.

Brensilver suggests that mindfulness offers something “distinctive and precious.”

Mindfulness, in his opinion, cannot only help alleviate distress, but it can also lead one into a state of mind where they are flourishing, which can help them develop deep completeness of the moment.

Benefits

• It is proposed that the mechanism through which mindfulness meditation exerts its effects is a process of enhanced self-regulation, including attention control, emotion regulation, and self-awareness.
• Research on mindfulness meditation faces several important challenges in study design that limit the interpretation of existing studies.
• Several changes in brain structure have been related to mindfulness meditation.
• Mindfulness practice enhances attention. The anterior cingulate cortex is the region associated with attention in which changes in activity and/or structure in response to mindfulness meditation are most consistently reported.
• Mindfulness practice improves emotion regulation and reduces stress. Fronto-limbic networks involved in these processes show various patterns of engagement in mindfulness meditation.
• Meditation practice has the potential to affect self-referential processing and improve present-moment awareness. The default mode networks — including the midline prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex, which support self-awareness — could be altered following mindfulness training.
• Mindfulness meditation has the potential for the treatment of clinical disorders and might facilitate the cultivation of a healthy mind and increased well-being.
• Future research into mindfulness meditation should use randomized and actively controlled longitudinal studies with large sample sizes to validate previous findings.
• The effects of mindfulness practice on neural structure and function need to be linked to behavioral performance, such as cognitive, affective, and social functioning, in future research.
• The complex mental state of mindfulness is likely to be supported by large-scale brain networks; future work should take this into account rather than being restricted to activations in single brain areas.

The Research On Autism and Mindfulness

The use of mindfulness interventions for those with autism is a fairly new thing. Research has shown that mindfulness is a beneficial practice that can lead to less parenting stress, less anxiety, lower levels of depression, and improvements in sleep and life satisfaction. (Conner & White 2014)

There has been some research done with something called Mindful Parenting that proves to be hopeful.

Mindful parenting involves applying the skills of mindfulness to child-parent interaction. This includes listening with full attention, having a non-judgmental acceptance of the self and the child as well as self-regulation in the parenting relationship.

One reason mindfulness may be effective for those with autism has to do with the part of the brain known as the amygdala.

From the perspective of the brain the stress response invokes two unique systems:

1. A “hot” system, which is largely automatic involves sensory and emotional processing (the amygdala).
2. And a “cold” system that involves cognitive processing (the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex).

During acute or chronic stress, the hot system tends to be overly responsive when compared to the cold system. To lower levels of stress, it’s important to find a balance between these systems.

This can be done by increasing cognitive control and regulation and lowering sensory and emotional processing.

Mindfulness meditation appears to help some people strike that precious balance. Focusing on and observing what one is sensing and feeling, in terms of the hot system, allows one to respond in a much calmer manner.

According to Singh et al. (2011), mindfulness may also help those with Asperger syndrome, which is a form of Autism.

Evolving research has found that the behavioral manifestations of Asperger syndrome can differ significantly between different people, and particularly between men and women (Simone, 2010). Likewise, the challenges those with the condition face will differ, so interventions and support must be tailored to an individual’s needs.

Studies have found that mindfulness-based interventions can help minimize several struggles that those with Asperger syndrome may experience related to behaviors and mood regulation.

Often, those with Asperger syndrome exhibit differences in the way they regulate emotions compared to neuro-typical populations (Samson, Huber, & Gross, 2012), using strategies such as physical stimulation (i.e., stimming) and time spent engaging with preferred activities.

While aggressive behavior is not always a feature of the syndrome (and it is not known how the prevalence of aggression in Asperger populations compares to neuro-typical populations), it may manifest as one of many possible emotional responses to a challenging, stressful, or overwhelming environment.

Therefore, one study by Singh et al. (2011) employed a multiple baseline design across subjects in which three adolescents with Asperger syndrome utilized a mindfulness-based technique known as Meditation on the Soles of the Feet as a strategy for reducing aggression at home and in school.

Subjects were taught to shift the focus of their attention away from negative things that may have previously triggered aggressive behavior to something neutral, like the soles of their feet.

Before the mindfulness instruction, the adolescents displayed moderate rates of aggression.

During the mindfulness practice, the mean rate of aggression every week decreased. The study lasted between 17-24 weeks. The aggression levels decreased from 2.7, 2.5, and 3.2 to 0.9, 1.1, and 0.9, respectively.

No aggressive instances were observed during the last three weeks of the mindfulness practice.

No episodes of physical aggression occurred during a 4-year follow-up, which was even more promising, and suggested that mindfulness may help young adults with Asperger syndrome regulate emotions in more productive ways.

Another study, pointing to the finding that 50-70% of adults on the autism spectrum experience anxiety or depression, employed an MBSR intervention involving thirteen 90-minute sessions (Sizoo & Kuiper, 2017). In the sessions, participants practiced various mindfulness techniques, including meditations and body scans, and explored strategies to embed mindfulness practice into their daily lives.

The study found that after the 13-week program (and at the 3-month follow-up), participants reported a more positive global mood and substantially reduced anxiety. These effects were found to be of similar magnitude to those stemming from a CBT intervention.

Therefore, research suggests that mindfulness may support those living with Asperger syndrome to effectively manage moods and employ healthier strategies for managing anger and frustration.

Can Mindfulness Help ADHD?

According to a National Institute of Health study, meditation or medication, mindfulness might also be useful in the treatment of ADHD.

In one randomized controlled trial researchers compared the affectedness of mindfulness instruction to the effectiveness of methylphenidate amongst children with ADHD. The study is currently focused on measures of attention and hyperactivity as well as impulsivity.

While medication is typically the first sought-after treatment for ADHD, its effects are often short-term. The medication also has side effects and adherence is often low.

Mindfulness training is emerging as a good choice for young people with ADHD.

The outcomes of the study will be presented at conferences and in scientific and peer-reviewed journals. The results will help not only families of those with ADHD but also general practitioners and mental health providers.

This study will also help inform health insurance companies as to which treatment is more cost-effective in the long term. Data collection for this study is ongoing, but it offers hope to those who are seeking alternative treatments for ADHD.

The Science of Mindfulness

11 research-backed ways mindfulness meditation may improve your health and well-being.

1) Anxiety and depression may decrease after meditation training.

Stress-related health problems like anxiety and depression might be treatable with meditation according to a meta-analysis of 47 studies. Researchers found that going through mindfulness meditation programs (including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, and other mindfulness meditations) effectively reduces the negative components of psychological stress, with effects comparable to what would be expected from the use of an antidepressant. And a review of nine clinical trials published in JAMA Psychiatry found that when comparing routine treatments for depression, including antidepressants, MBCT reduced rates of relapse for up to 60 weeks. Willem Kuyken and colleagues found MBCT was particularly effective for patients with high levels of depressive symptoms, to begin with. Further, this reduction in relapse risk was observed regardless of sex, age, education, or relationship status.

2) Immune function may improve after meditation training.

Meditators who went through an eight-week mindfulness training program had significantly more flu antibodies than their non-meditating peers after they received a flu vaccine, according to a randomized controlled study by Richard A. Davidson and Jon Kabat-Zinn published in Psychosomatic Medicine. After measuring the brain activity of both meditators and non-meditators they found increases in both positive feelings and antibody responses to immune system challenges. At the University of California, Los Angeles, David Cresswell, and his colleagues have found that MBSR improves immune function even in those with HIV. Improved immune system function may help explain the increase in healing found in the psoriasis treatment studies with mindful reflection during treatment.

3) Your brain may be protected from declines due to aging and stress after meditation training.

Muscle control and sensory perception are controlled by regions of the brain known as brain matter, believed to decrease in volume with age. A study by Dr. Eileen Luders at the UCLA School of Medicine, and Nicholas Cherubin at the Centre for Research and Ageing in Australia, showed that the brains of long-term mindfulness practitioners are protected from gray matter atrophy more than non-practitioners. A 2017 study looking at brain function in healthy, older adults suggests meditation may increase attention. In this study, people 55 to 75 years old spent eight weeks practicing either focused breathing meditation or control activity. Then, they were given the Stroop test—a test that measures attention and emotional control—while having their brains monitored by electroencephalography. Those undergoing breath training had significantly better attention on the Stroop test and more activation in an area of the brain associated with attention than those in the active control group. A systematic review of research to date suggests that mindfulness may mitigate the cognitive decline, perhaps due to its effects on memory, attention, processing, and executive functioning. And new research finds that mindfulness instruction may lessen cognitive decline due to mental and emotional stress. 

4) Mental clarity and focus improve after meditation training

A recent meta-analysis of 18 studies of eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) found that mindfulness-based programs may support components of cognition. These include short-term and autobiographical memory, cognitive flexibility, and meta-awareness (e.g. self-awareness) — key skill sets that allow individuals to develop an awareness of negative thought patterns to develop new ways of thinking and responding to experiences. Other research (from Alan Wallace, Richie Davidson, and Amishii Jha) has found significant improvements in attentional regulation in those who have had mindfulness meditation training, such as enhanced focus as revealed in the reduction of the “attentional blink,” or times when new information is not seen because of prolonged attention on the prior stimulus.

5) Your mind may wander less after meditation training

The brain’s default mode network (DMN) is associated with mind-wandering and self-referential processing, and it becomes highly active when we’re not focused on a single task. A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the DMN of advanced meditators was not as active, suggesting seasoned practitioners may experience less mind wandering and a resting state closer to a meditative one: able to shift out of ruminative thoughts with more ease and carry out tasks with less distraction.

6) Your heart health may improve after meditation training

In one study, people with pre-hypertension were randomly assigned to augment their drug treatment with either a course in mindfulness meditation or a program that taught progressive muscle relaxation. Those who learned mindfulness had significantly greater reductions in their systolic and diastolic blood pressure than those who learned progressive muscle relaxation, suggesting that mindfulness could help people at risk for heart disease by bringing blood pressure down. In another study, people with heart disease were randomly assigned to either an online program to help them practice meditation or to a waitlist for the program while undergoing normal treatment for heart disease. Those who took the mindfulness program showed significant improvements on the six-minute walking test (a measure of cardiovascular capacity) and slower heart rates than those in the waitlist group. Mindfulness may also be good for hearts that are already relatively healthy. Research suggests that meditating can increase respiratory sinus arrhythmia, the natural variations in heart rate that happen when we breathe that indicate better heart health and an increased chance of surviving a heart attack.

7) Treatment for mental health is enhanced by mediation training.

Researchers in a wide array of mental health situations have found that adding mindfulness as a fundamental part of their treatment strategies has proven to be essential in treating conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, borderline personality disorder, and drug addiction, and is also helpful in the prevention of chronically relapsing depression. Some insight into the possible core mechanisms that enable the application to the treatment of a wide range of mental disorders was offered in a study by Norman Farb and colleagues in Toronto. After just the eight-week MBSR program, subjects were able to alter their brain function in a way that confirmed they could distinguish the “narrative chatter” of their baseline states from the ongoing sensory flow of the here-and-now experience. This ability to develop discernment—to differentiate our unique streams of awareness—may be a crucial step toward disentangling our minds from ruminative thoughts, repetitive destructive emotions, and impulsive and addictive behaviors.

8) Cellular aging may be slowed down with meditation training

Cell aging occurs naturally as cells repeatedly divide over the lifespan and can also be increased by disease or stress. Proteins called telomeres, which are found at the end of chromosomes and serve to protect them from aging, seem to be impacted by mindfulness meditation. Studies suggest that long-time meditators may have greater telomere lengths. In one experimental study, researchers found that breast cancer survivors who went through MBSR preserved the length of their telomeres better than those who were on a waitlist. However, this study also found that general supportive therapies impacted telomere length; so, there may not be something special about MBSR that impacts cell aging. On the other hand, another study with breast cancer survivors found no differences in telomere length after taking an MBSR course; but they did find differences in telomere activity, which is also related to cell aging. A 2018 review of research ties mindfulness training to increased telomere activity, suggesting it indirectly affects the integrity of the telomeres in our cells. Another study linked loving-kindness meditation with slower biological aging. Perhaps that’s why scientists are at least optimistic about the positive effects of meditation on aging.

9) Self-confidence and leadership may improve after meditation training

A.D. Amar and colleagues at the University of Westminster measured the self-perception of leadership skills among a sample of senior managers in the London area—and then put them through a 12-week secular meditation-training program. Their results, published in the Academy of Management Proceedings, revealed that training significantly enhanced their overall self-confidence, as well as individual skills like inspiring a shared vision and demonstrating moral intelligence. “However,” conclude the authors, “meditation did not statistically significantly enhance participants’ skills as a role model and enabling others to act”—areas that will need more study in the future.

10) Your mood can be improved with meditation training

Focusing on the timing and pace of breath may help direct attention and boost mood, says a new study in the Journal of Neurophysiology. Scientists at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research studied the brain’s responses to breathing exercises. Six adults already undergoing EEG monitoring (in which electrodes placed directly onto the brain record electrical activity) performed three tasks: They followed a pattern of normally paced, then faster-paced breathing, cycling between paces eight times. Next, they counted inhales and exhales for short intervals, then reported how many breaths they’d taken. Lastly, they did a focusing task while their breath cycle was monitored. The different breathing styles activated not just the brain stem, or “breathing center,” but also brain regions linked to emotion, attention, and body awareness. Quick breathing stimulated the amygdala, suggesting that rapid breathing may trigger anxiety, anger, or fear. This raises the possibility that targeted breathing strategies may help people to manage thoughts, moods, and experiences.

11) Sleep may improve after meditation training

In a small, NCCIH-funded study, 54 adults with chronic insomnia learned mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a form of MBSR specially adapted to deal with insomnia (mindfulness-based therapy for insomnia, or MBTI), or a self-monitoring program. Both meditation-based programs aided sleep, with MBTI providing a significantly greater reduction in insomnia severity compared with MBSR

8 Science-Backed Ways Mindfulness Helps us Heal and Thrive

1. Burnout: A review of 23 studies looking at the effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on employee burnout found that 8 weeks of mindfulness training reduced stress, psychological distress, depression, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, and occupational stress, and increased self-compassion, relaxation, sleep quality, and a feeling of personal accomplishment.
2. Addiction: Mindfulness-based interventions may help decrease craving and substance misuse according to a review of several meta-analyses of 34 randomized controlled trials. Researchers suggest that mindfulness may be particularly effective in increasing a person’s awareness of stress, despair, anger, loneliness, and the cravings that can often trigger a relapse.
3. Suicide: An examination of a handful of available studies on the impacts of mindfulness-based interventions on suicidal behavior found that mindfulness instruction may be particularly useful for helping individuals cope with stress and difficulties with problem-solving. It can also improve focused attention, and decrease suicidal thoughts; all known risk factors for suicide attempts.
4. Bias/harassment: A study of 72 college students revealed that mindfulness training can increase awareness of one’s underlying thoughts, and subsequently reduce negative attitudes and biases. In another study, students reported their levels of mindfulness, self-esteem, and fear of being rejected in social situations. Those with low self-esteem were more afraid of rejection, however, being more mindful decreased those effects.
5. Team dynamics: A study of 311 employees working at three Chinese companies looked at how individual and team mindfulness affected work engagement. Both individual and team mindfulness were linked to better employee recovery from work-related stress, and higher engagement with work tasks. What’s more, being immersed in work also positively impacted employee performance.
6. Worker and personal productivity: A review of 23 studies examining the benefits of mindfulness-based programs in the workplace found that following training, employees felt less stress, anxiety, and psychological distress, and experienced greater overall well-being and sleep quality. Links between mindfulness training and other dimensions of work life, such as employee performance, leadership skills, and good decision-making were inconclusive.
7. Focus/attention: Scientists at Ohio State University reviewed 56 studies of the long-term effects of mindfulness instruction on attentional control. Training approaches ranged from retreats and feasibility studies to randomized controlled trials. Retreat and feasibility studies showed increased goal-directed focus and attention to bodily sensations following a mindfulness program. Results from randomized controlled trials with an active control group; where participants received another form of instruction, were indecisive. (Not sure if this is satisfying in such a short form, but don’t want to give the impressions that RCTs align with the other findings).
8. Creativity/innovation: Mindfulness and creativity are significantly related according to researchers who reanalyzed 33 published articles with 1,549 participants. They concluded that mindfulness-based interventions focusing on open monitoring may boost creative abilities. Exactly why and how mindfulness contributes to the creative process remains a mystery.

The Research on Mindfulness for Chronic Pain

Over the past decade, there has been strong interest in learning how some of the benefits of mindfulness might help people better deal with pain. Dozens of studies have put mindfulness to the test against pain, particularly for two key markers: how mindfulness impacts pain intensity and how it impacts a person’s perception of pain. The results are encouraging.

The challenge in treating pain, says researcher Fadel Zeidan, whose lab at the University of California, San Diego, studies the brain mechanisms involved with pain is that “Everyone’s pain is different.”

The experience of pain results from the interactions of many influences, including psychological, cognitive, and contextual factors, such as mood or gender—even the weather can affect it.

“Mindfulness practice is alleviating the processing of pain, from the site of injury up the spinal cord to the brain,” Zeidan says. It also does something that most other pain therapies don’t, by mitigating the emotional components of pain—the thoughts and feelings associated with pain, or what researchers call “pain unpleasantness.”

“Mindfulness is teaching someone to change their relationship to pain, their reaction to it,” he says. That may be the most important piece, he adds. We may not be able to cure pain, but mindfulness may help how someone feels about their pain and their experience in life.

From a practical standpoint, mindfulness for pain relief could be a needed cost-effective option that doesn’t rely on potentially harmful or addictive drugs and doesn’t appear to have a plateau point. Just like a muscle, mindfulness gets stronger the more you use it.

Mindfulness also empowers people in pain to do something to help themselves feel better, to find agency amid powerlessness—and that just may be the best news of all.

Here, in chronological order, are some of the most important studies in this exciting area of research, and there will be much more to come since this field of investigation is at a very early stage:

The Research on Mindfulness for Pain

1) Mindfulness meditation may improve self-regulation of chronic pain.

In this first groundbreaking investigation into the potential for mindfulness to help people in pain, 90 people were enrolled in a 10-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. During the program, they experienced significant decreases in their experience of pain, including present-moment pain, pain symptoms, inhibition of activity because of pain, mood disturbance, and negative body image. They also experienced less anxiety and depression, and their use of pain-relieving drugs decreased. Most of these pain-relieving benefits lasted up to 15 months later.

2) Mindfulness meditation may decrease pain sensitivity.

This study at the University of Montreal examined whether people who meditate experience less pain than people who don’t. For the study, 13 longtime Zen meditation practitioners and 13 non-meditators were exposed to a heat stimulation tool, with temperatures ranging intermittently from 109.4 to 127.4 degrees Fahrenheit, pressed against their calves. The meditators had much less pain sensitivity than the non-meditators during regular testing. And when the test was repeated, while the meditators were actively practicing mindfulness meditation, their pain decreased even more.

3) Mindfulness meditation may change the way the brain experiences pain.

This study explored how mindfulness alters the way the brain experiences and processes pain. In it, 15 people were exposed to a series of heat stimulations while an MRI scanner documented activity in their brains. For the first phase of the study, there were two tests: One where participants were instructed to close their eyes and rest while being touched on the calf with heat stimulation, and another where they were told to just focus on the changing sensations of their breath while receiving the heat stimulation. For the second phase of the study, all participants went through four 20-minute mindfulness meditation training sessions and then did the same tests. In the tests done following the meditation training, participants experienced significant reductions in pain intensity (11-70%) and pain unpleasantness (20-93%), which correlated to greater activity in the areas of the brain related to emotional regulation and cognitive control and how the brain evaluates sensory events. An exciting new finding from this study was in discovering that the pain-reducing benefits of mindfulness are gained after just four training.

4) Mindfulness meditation may reduce the experience of pain.

This study built on the existing evidence that meditation reduces the experience and impact of pain, by testing another potential benefit: reduction in anxiety associated with pain. For the testing, 17 people who practiced mindfulness meditation and 17 people who had never meditated were subjected to six blocks of random electrical stimulation described as being like a sharp needle prick to the lower arm, either while in a resting state or when paying attention to the area under the electric node on their skin, and to the sensations there related to the stimulation. Their brain activity was measured during each block, and participants also rated the intensity and unpleasantness of the pain, and their anticipatory anxiety after each block. Both mindfulness practitioners and non-meditators showed brain activation in the regions typically associated with pain during the tests, but the meditators, while in a state of mindfulness, experienced unchanged pain intensity and decreased pain unpleasantness. In addition, they reported significantly less anxiety while in a state of mindfulness compared to the non-meditators.

5) Mindfulness meditation may reduce chronic low-back pain.

This study looked at how mindfulness might help chronic back pain among older people. In it, 282 people over age 65 with lower back pain were recruited and split into two groups: One group went through 8 weeks of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training and the other group did an 8-week education program in healthy aging. Compared to the health-education group, the MBSR group experienced significantly reduced pain (both current pain and pain felt in the past week) immediately following the training, and maintained this improvement six months later. In the short term, they also experienced greater physical function. Both the mindfulness and the health-education group experienced increases in self-efficacy.

In another study, researchers compared three approaches to managing chronic low-back pain: mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy, and usual care. They randomized 342 adults, ages 20-70, into one of the three approach groups. For the MBSR and CBT interventions, each group went through two-hour weekly training for 8 weeks. The usual care group continued to do whatever they had been doing. Both the MBSR and CBT groups showed greater improvement in both back pain and functional limitation due to back pain than the usual care group, with results lasting up to a year later.

6) Mindfulness meditation may reduce pain sensitivity.

Researchers sought to determine whether mindful people feel less pain, and also, what brain processes are involved with that experience. In this study, 76 people with no prior meditation experience completed a survey to determine their level of trait mindfulness, or “day-to-day ability to experience sensations and emotions without reaction.” They then were exposed to two rounds of heat stimulation to the calf. Participants rated their pain intensity and pain unpleasantness, and brain activity was inferred through changes in cerebral blood flow as documented in an MRI brain scan. Higher trait mindfulness was associated with less pain sensitivity. It also indicated greater deactivation of an area of the brain’s default mode network, which goes quiet when we’re attending to a task.

Conclusion

The brain is made up of billions of neurons. These neurons need to communicate with one another and with other parts of the body. All of these systems work together cohesively.

The brain is plastic, meaning it has plasticity, the ability to learn and grow and change over time. Meditation affects the brain’s functionality, structure, and thought patterns.

The more you meditate and practice mindfulness, the more the brain’s synapses strengthen, which can help improve your life.

Every time you indulge in those negative thoughts and feelings, you are strengthening their effect on you.

However, every time you engage in positive thoughts and behaviors and let go of the negative ones, you are retraining your brain to think a little differently.

As Aristotle once said:

“We are what we repeatedly do.”

We think what we repeatedly think as well. Thanks to the study of neuroscience, the scientific community has become much more aware of how the brain works.

Joining together neuroscience and mindfulness, you can begin to bridge the gap and connect all of the dots between how the brain works and how those daily practices can impact your life.

By practicing mindfulness and meditation, you can then begin to more fully understand how your emotions, thoughts, and feelings impact your life.