Patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) show reduced brain activity in midline regions (anterior and posterior cingulate cortex) during self-referential thinking tasks compared to healthy individuals. The degree of signal reduction in the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex predicts their level of consciousness. These same midline regions also display abnormal resting-state functional connectivity and low-frequency fluctuations. The findings link self-referential processing, resting-state brain activity, and consciousness, suggesting that neural abnormalities in these areas contribute to DOC.
Mindfulness meditation training alters functional connectivity in the somatomotor network (SMN) in both healthy and depressed populations. In 51 healthy and 35 depressed participants, common changes involved SMN-attentional network connections, suggesting that training modulates attention through somatic awareness. Population-specific changes also emerged: healthy individuals showed SMN-subcortical network shifts, indicating more pervasive effects on automatic processes, while depressed individuals showed SMN-default mode network interactions, which may explain why mindfulness is effective for depression. These altered connectivity patterns significantly predicted insomnia improvements after training in both groups, highlighting shared and distinct neural mechanisms underlying mindfulness-related mental health benefits.