Pain
June 4, 2007
Natalia E. Morone, Carol M. Greco, Debra K. Weiner
544 citations
An eight-week mindfulness meditation program is feasible for older adults aged 65 and older with chronic low back pain. In this pilot randomized trial, 37 participants were assigned to either the meditation program or a wait-list control. At the end of the intervention, 81% completed assessments, average class attendance was 6.7 out of 8 sessions, and participants meditated about 4.3 days per week for an average of 31.6 minutes per day. Compared to the control group, the meditation group showed significant improvements in pain acceptance (specifically the total score and activities engagement subscale) and physical function. The program may lead to better pain acceptance and physical function.
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.