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.
Annual Review of Psychology
September 30, 2016
J. David Creswell
1,669 citations
A review of randomized controlled trials over the past two decades finds that mindfulness interventions—practices that train attention to present-moment experience—improve outcomes across several domains, including chronic pain, depression relapse, and addiction. The article evaluates evidence for effects on health, cognitive, affective, and interpersonal outcomes; applications in new settings such as the workplace, military, and schools; psychological and neurobiological mechanisms; dosing considerations; and potential risks. Methodologically rigorous trials demonstrate these benefits, and discussion highlights opportunities and challenges for future research and community applications.
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.
American Psychologist
August 7, 2025
J. David Creswell, Simon B. Goldberg
14 citations
Meditation apps have rapidly spread worldwide, changing how millions learn and practice meditation, but research has not kept pace with public adoption. Recent randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses show that app-based meditation interventions produce modest but consistent reductions in depression and anxiety. Initial mechanistic studies suggest improvements in worry, repetitive negative thinking, and self-reported mindfulness skills may underlie these effects, alongside early findings on blood pressure reduction and pro-inflammatory gene expression. Compared to traditional in-person programs, meditation apps typically lack interpersonal support, offer briefer practice sessions, have lower sustained engagement, but provide greater opportunities for personalization and large-scale data capture. Hybrid models combining app content with human support and just-in-time interventions are promising directions.
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.