Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
January 1, 2003
Kirk Warren Brown, Richard M. Ryan
13,338 citations
Mindfulness, an attribute of consciousness, is linked to well-being. The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) was developed and validated to measure dispositional mindfulness. Studies show the MAAS captures a unique quality of consciousness related to well-being, distinguishes mindfulness practitioners, and is associated with enhanced self-awareness. An experience-sampling study found that both dispositional and state mindfulness predict self-regulated behavior and positive emotional states. In a clinical intervention with cancer patients, increases in mindfulness over time corresponded with declines in mood disturbance and stress.
Psychological Inquiry
October 19, 2007
Kirk Warren Brown, Richard M. Ryan, J. David Creswell
3,622 citations
Mindfulness involves paying attention to present-moment experience with an open and non-judgmental attitude. This article examines how mindfulness relates to established theories of attention and awareness in everyday life. It reviews evidence that mindfulness reduces negative functioning and enhances positive outcomes across mental health, physical health, behavioral regulation, and interpersonal relationships. The authors discuss proposed mechanisms for these benefits and suggest future directions for theoretical development and empirical research.
Training and Education in Professional Psychology
May 1, 2007
Shauna L. Shapiro, Kirk Warren Brown, Gina M. Biegel
1,134 citations
Therapists in training who completed an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program reported significant declines in stress, negative affect, rumination, and both state and trait anxiety, along with significant increases in positive affect and self-compassion. The enhancement of mindfulness was linked to several of these benefits. The findings suggest that MBSR can be a useful complement to professional training for addressing the mental health needs of future therapists.
Journal of Clinical Psychology
December 22, 2010
Shauna L. Shapiro, Kirk Warren Brown, Carl Thoresen et al.
448 citations
A randomized controlled trial with 30 participants tested whether people who already have higher levels of trait mindfulness benefit more from mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Compared to a control group, MBSR led to increases in trait mindfulness, subjective well-being, and empathy that lasted up to 12 months. Participants who began with higher mindfulness showed larger gains in those areas plus hope, and larger reductions in perceived stress over the same period.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
June 5, 2015
Adrienne A. Taren, Peter J. Gianaros, Carol M. Greco et al.
232 citations
Higher perceived stress over the past month is associated with greater functional connectivity between the amygdala and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) in a sample of 130 community adults. A subsequent randomized controlled trial with 35 stressed unemployed adults showed that a 3-day intensive mindfulness meditation training, compared to a relaxation training without mindfulness, reduced right amygdala-sgACC connectivity. The findings suggest that mindfulness meditation training may reverse stress-related increases in amygdala-sgACC connectivity, indicating a neural pathway for stress reduction.
Psychosomatic Medicine
March 22, 2017
Adrienne A. Taren, Peter J. Gianaros, Carol M. Greco et al.
212 citations
Three days of intensive mindfulness meditation training, compared with relaxation training, strengthened functional connections between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and brain regions involved in executive control. In adults with high psychological distress, resting-state functional connectivity increased between left dlPFC and the right inferior frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, right supplementary eye field, right parietal cortex, and left middle temporal gyrus, and between right dlPFC and right middle frontal gyrus. These results suggest that even brief mindfulness training can enhance neural circuit connectivity underlying executive function, extending prior work on active meditation by identifying specific resting-state networks affected in distressed individuals.
International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHP
January 1, 2023
Fabio Giommi, Prisca R Bauer, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana et al.
70 citations
Rigidity, or inflexibility, is a core feature of transdiagnostic processes underlying many mental health disorders. The pattern theory of self (PTS) defines the self as a dynamic, nonlinear pattern of multiple interacting processes. Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) can reduce rigid, habitual self-patterns, thereby improving mental health. MBIs alter psychological and behavioral aspects of the self-pattern and can shift the entire self-pattern as a gestalt. Neuroscientific evidence shows that the phenomenology of the self is reflected in cortical networks, and meditation alters these networks. Combining PTS and neuroscientific findings may deepen understanding of psychopathology and improve diagnosis and treatment.
Mindfulness
August 1, 2024
Aviva Berkovich‐ohana, Kirk Warren Brown, Shaun Gallagher et al.
22 citations
A selfless state of consciousness, reported for centuries in wisdom traditions, involves both temporary and lasting conditions. In psychology, the healthy self is typically emphasized, and the idea of selfless modes is sometimes dismissed, hindering empirical progress. This paper offers an interdisciplinary conceptual discussion grounded in the pattern theory of self (PTS), which views the self as a complex pattern of dynamically related processes. It proposes that meditative practices induce a reorganization of the self-pattern, enabling temporary or persistent selfless experience. The authors present a heuristic model, the pattern theory of selflessness (PTSL), with six nonlinear transformations: consolidating and integrating the self-pattern; cultivating concentration and present-moment awareness; cultivating mindful awareness; self-deconstruction states; self-flexibility; and self-liberation as a trait. This integrative view advances understanding of non-self experience and guides empirical research.
Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
April 1, 2025
Saampras Ganesan, Fernando A Barrios, Ishaan Batta et al.
6 citations
Meditation practices, which have shown therapeutic benefits for conditions like depression, pain, addiction, and anxiety, have been studied with neuroimaging over the past decade. However, existing neuroscientific models are based on small, heterogeneous datasets, limiting generalizability and replicability. The ENIGMA-Meditation consortium is the first worldwide collaborative effort to conduct systematic meta- and mega-analyses of globally distributed neuroimaging data using standardized methods. This framework aims to improve statistical power and address multidomain heterogeneity in meditation practice types, experience, and experimental design. The consortium will generate rigorous neuroscientific insights into the mechanisms underlying meditation's therapeutic effects on psychological and cognitive attributes.
Oxford Handbooks Online
October 5, 2016
Mark R. Leary, Kirk Warren Brown, Kate J. Diebels
3 citations
People with a hypo-egoic mindset are more focused on the present moment, process experiences with minimal internal commentary, and have a less individuated identity. They balance their own interests with others' needs, care less about how others evaluate them, and show greater emotional equanimity. Interpersonally, they tend to be agreeable, attentive, and caring. These characteristics likely make them more prone to experiences such as flow, awe, compassion, and mystical states.
April 8, 2024
Saampras Ganesan, Aki Tsuchiyagaito, Greg J. Siegle et al.
2 citations
preprint
Meditation practices, which have been adapted into manualized interventions for conditions like depression, pain, addiction, and anxiety, show therapeutic promise, but their neuroscientific basis remains unclear. Current neuroimaging studies rely on small, heterogeneous datasets that vary in practice types, participant experience, clinical targets, and imaging methods, limiting generalizability and replicability. To address this, the ENIGMA-Meditation consortium was formed as a global collaboration to conduct systematic meta- and mega-analyses of distributed neuroimaging data using standardized methods. This framework aims to improve statistical power and rigorously characterize the neural mechanisms underlying meditation's effects on psychological and cognitive attributes, advancing the field of contemplative neuroscience.
October 18, 2023
Hadley Rahrig, Liangsuo Ma, Kirk Warren Brown et al.
preprint
A brief mindfulness induction altered functional brain networks in intimate partner dyads, reducing coherence within the Default Mode Network and increasing connectivity within the Frontoparietal Control and Salience Networks, while decoupling primary visual and attention-linked networks. However, these neural changes did not translate into reduced intimate partner aggression, and aggression was broadly unassociated with any network indices. The findings suggest that minimal doses of focused attention meditation can produce transient changes in large-scale brain networks, but their implications for aggressive behavior remain uncertain.