Clinical Psychology Science and Practice
January 1, 2004
Scott R. Bishop, Mark A. Lau, Shauna L. Shapiro et al.
6,266 citations
Mindfulness has attracted considerable interest as a way to reduce cognitive vulnerability to stress and emotional distress, but it has not been defined operationally. Recent consensus meetings produced a two-component model of mindfulness, specifying each component in terms of specific behaviors, experiential manifestations, and psychological processes. The paper addresses temporal stability and situational specificity, speculates on the conceptual and operational distinctiveness of mindfulness, and discusses implications for instrument development and measurement.
Journal of Clinical Psychology
January 1, 2006
Mark A. Lau, Scott R. Bishop, Zindel V. Segal et al.
1,462 citations
A new self-report questionnaire, the Toronto Mindfulness Scale (TMS), measures the state of mindfulness. In two studies, the scale showed good internal consistency and two factors: Curiosity and Decentering. TMS scores increased with more mindfulness meditation experience. In a second study, participants in an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program showed increased TMS scores after treatment, and Decentering scores predicted improvements in clinical outcomes. The TMS is a promising measure with good psychometric properties and predictive validity for treatment outcome.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
August 13, 2007
Norman A. S. Farb, Zindel V. Segal, Helen Mayberg et al.
1,305 citations
Two distinct forms of self-awareness—one linking experiences across time (narrative focus) and one centered on the present moment (experiential focus)—rely on different brain networks and can be dissociated through mindfulness training. In novice participants, focusing on the present reduced activity in cortical midline regions (medial prefrontal cortex) associated with narrative self-reference. In participants who completed an 8-week mindfulness course, present-moment focus produced more extensive reductions in the medial prefrontal cortex and increased engagement of a right-lateralized network including the lateral prefrontal cortex, insula, and somatosensory areas. Functional connectivity showed strong coupling between the right insula and medial prefrontal cortex in novices that was absent in the mindfulness group, indicating attentional training can uncouple these normally integrated forms of self-awareness.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
June 11, 2012
Norman A. S. Farb, Zindel V. Segal, Adam K. Anderson
566 citations
Graduates of an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course, compared to a waitlisted control group, showed changes in brain activity during a task requiring attention to breathing sensations. Functional MRI revealed that mindfulness training predicted greater activity in the anterior insula, a brain region that integrates internal body sensations with external context. The training also predicted reduced activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and altered connectivity between that region and the posterior insula, the primary interoceptive cortex. Greater meditation practice was linked to more posterior insula activity and less reliance on visual brain regions during the task. These results suggest that mindfulness training produces plasticity in brain networks involved in sensing the body's internal state, similar to training-related changes seen in the external senses.
SLEEP
August 29, 2014
Jason C. Ong, Rachel Manber, Zindel V. Segal et al.
338 citations
Mindfulness meditation reduces chronic insomnia symptoms. In a three-arm trial, 54 adults with chronic insomnia were randomly assigned to mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), mindfulness-based therapy for insomnia (MBTI), or self-monitoring (SM). Those receiving either meditation intervention showed significantly greater reductions in total wake time (43.75 vs 1.09 minutes), pre-sleep arousal (7.13 vs 0.16 points), and insomnia severity (4.56 vs 0.06 points) from baseline to post-treatment compared to SM. At 6-month follow-up, MBTI produced greater insomnia severity reductions than MBSR, with 50% remission and 78.6% response rates. Mindfulness meditation offers a viable treatment alternative for chronic insomnia.
Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy
November 1, 2007
Nicole D. Anderson, Mark A. Lau, Zindel V. Segal et al.
326 citations
Healthy adults who completed an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course reported greater improvements in emotional well-being and mindfulness compared to a wait-list control group, but showed no improvements in attentional control. Improvements in mindfulness after MBSR were correlated with better detection of objects in visual scenes, suggesting a link between mindfulness and non-directed attention.
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
June 12, 2026
Thorsten Barnhofer, Maria Niemi, Johannes Michalak et al.
1 citation
For adults with difficult-to-treat depression—those who have not responded to prior treatments, have treatment-resistant depression, or have a chronic course—mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is likely superior to usual care, reducing depressive symptoms by a standardized mean difference of -0.40 at post-treatment and -0.41 at medium-term follow-up. There was a 92% and 85% probability, respectively, that these benefits exceeded a minimal important difference. However, MBCT did not show clear superiority over other active psychosocial interventions, and no robust moderators of outcome were identified across baseline severity, chronicity, or comorbidity.