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.
Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)
January 1, 2024
Paulina Clara Dagnino, Javier A Galadí, Estela Càmara et al.
4 citations
Meditation produces distinct whole-brain dynamics compared to rest. Using fMRI data from expert meditators and controls, the authors defined probabilistic metastable substates (PMS) for each condition, capturing different probabilities of dynamic brain patterns. They then fit a whole-brain model to these substates and performed in silico perturbations to simulate transitions between resting-state and meditation. The results show that localized artificial perturbations can induce such transitions, and the sensitivity of different brain areas to perturbation varies. This mechanistic framework clarifies how meditation alters brain dynamics and suggests potential applications for health and therapy.
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.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
June 16, 2026
Paulina Clara Dagnino, Irene Acero-Pousa, Gorka Zamora‐lópez et al.
1 citation
Psilocybin and the conventional antidepressant escitalopram produce opposite changes in the brain's hierarchical non-equilibrium dynamics when treating major depressive disorder. Using resting-state fMRI before and after treatment, researchers built whole-brain models and measured how much each patient's brain activity deviated from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Baseline measures distinguished treatment responders from non-responders within each group. The deviation from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem may serve as a marker to differentiate the brain effects of psilocybin and escitalopram, contributing to understanding how these treatments work for depression.
bioRxiv Preprint Server
July 27, 2023
Paulina Clara Dagnino, Javier A. Galadí, Estela Càmara et al.
1 citation
preprint
Meditation produces distinct whole-brain dynamics compared to rest, particularly in the triple-network model (executive control, salience, and default-mode networks). Using a causal mechanistic framework, researchers defined probabilistic metastable substates from dynamic brain patterns and adjusted a whole-brain model of the resting state to simulate transitions to meditation. They successfully induced the meditative state through localized artificial perturbations, primarily shifting areas in the somatomotor and dorsal attention networks. The work suggests meditation can be studied as a practice for health and as a potential therapy for brain disorders.
medRxiv
July 8, 2026
Paulina Clara Dagnino, Anne Maj van der Velden, Yonatan Sanz Perl et al.
In people with major depressive disorder, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) plus treatment as usual, compared to treatment as usual alone, alters whole-brain dynamics in ways that may reduce rumination. Using a novel method called complex harmonics decomposition on fMRI data from 80 patients, the study identified low-dimensional spatiotemporal manifolds that capture both local and long-range brain interactions. After MBCT, during rumination, brain regions involved in bodily and interoceptive processing became more consistently integrated across these manifolds. The latent configurations shifted with clinical and behavioral improvements, and the brain showed greater flexibility within the reduced space. These changes may reflect reduced 'stickiness' of ruminative thinking patterns following mindfulness training.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
June 26, 2026
Paulina Clara Dagnino, Irene Acero-Pousa, Robin Carhart‐Harris et al.
A central challenge in neuroscience is understanding how the human brain is organised to support optimal functioning and adaptability. One approach to characterise complex brain dynamics is by artificially perturbing whole-brain models. Here, we asked whether whole-brain organisation under perturbation in major depressive disorder (MDD) changes after intervention with psilocybin and escitalopram. First, we built whole-brain models of pre- and post-treatment resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and obtained an initial generative effective connectivity (GEC) matrix for each individual.
medRxiv
June 23, 2026
Paulina Clara Dagnino, Anne Maj van der Velden, Henricus G. Ruhé et al.
In people with major depressive disorder, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) plus treatment as usual, compared to treatment as usual alone, increased the hierarchical organization of brain activity during rumination but not at rest. Greater hierarchy—meaning more directional information flow and less recurrent looping—was linked to improvements in clinical and behavioral outcomes. This shift away from self-reinforcing negative mental loops toward more differentiated cognitive and bodily cycles may help explain how MBCT interrupts ruminative thought patterns. Hierarchical brain dynamics could serve as a treatment-sensitive marker and potential mechanism of therapeutic change in MBCT for depression.