Does Meditation Alter Brain Responses to Negative Stimuli? A Systematic Review
Background: Despite several attempts to review and explain how meditation alters the brain and facilitates emotion regulation, the extent to which meditation and emotion regulation strategies share the same neural mechanisms remains unclear.Objective: We aim to understand the influence of meditation...
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2018-11-01
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doaj-73ca039e1f724b7eb6743086f39202ef2020-11-25T03:32:29ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612018-11-011210.3389/fnhum.2018.00448405903Does Meditation Alter Brain Responses to Negative Stimuli? A Systematic ReviewAndressa A. Magalhaes0Leticia Oliveira1Mirtes G. Pereira2Carolina B. Menezes3Laboratório de Neurofisiologia do Comportamento, Instituto Biomédico, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, BrazilLaboratório de Neurofisiologia do Comportamento, Instituto Biomédico, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, BrazilLaboratório de Neurofisiologia do Comportamento, Instituto Biomédico, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, BrazilDepartamento de Psicologia, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, BrazilBackground: Despite several attempts to review and explain how meditation alters the brain and facilitates emotion regulation, the extent to which meditation and emotion regulation strategies share the same neural mechanisms remains unclear.Objective: We aim to understand the influence of meditation on the neural processing of negative emotional stimuli in participants who underwent meditation interventions (naive meditators) and long-term meditators.Methodology: A systematic review was conducted using standardized search operators that included the presence of terms related to emotion, meditation and neuro-imaging techniques in PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases.Results: Searches identified 882 papers, of which 11 were eligible for inclusion. Results showed a predominance of greater prefrontal/frontal activity related to meditation, which might indicate the increased recruitment of cognitive/attentional control resources in naïve and long-term meditators. This increased frontal activity was also observed when participants were asked to simply react to negative stimuli. Findings from emotion-related areas were scarce but suggested increased insular activity in meditators, potentially indicating that meditation might be associated with greater bodily awareness.Conclusions: Meditation practice prompts regulatory mechanisms when participants face aversive stimuli, even without an explicit request. Moreover, some studies reported increased insular activity in meditators, consistent with the hypothesis that meditation helps foster an interoceptive awareness of bodily and emotional states.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00448/fullemotion regulationemotional reactivityfMRIsitting and silent meditationaversive stimulimindfulness |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Andressa A. Magalhaes Leticia Oliveira Mirtes G. Pereira Carolina B. Menezes |
spellingShingle |
Andressa A. Magalhaes Leticia Oliveira Mirtes G. Pereira Carolina B. Menezes Does Meditation Alter Brain Responses to Negative Stimuli? A Systematic Review Frontiers in Human Neuroscience emotion regulation emotional reactivity fMRI sitting and silent meditation aversive stimuli mindfulness |
author_facet |
Andressa A. Magalhaes Leticia Oliveira Mirtes G. Pereira Carolina B. Menezes |
author_sort |
Andressa A. Magalhaes |
title |
Does Meditation Alter Brain Responses to Negative Stimuli? A Systematic Review |
title_short |
Does Meditation Alter Brain Responses to Negative Stimuli? A Systematic Review |
title_full |
Does Meditation Alter Brain Responses to Negative Stimuli? A Systematic Review |
title_fullStr |
Does Meditation Alter Brain Responses to Negative Stimuli? A Systematic Review |
title_full_unstemmed |
Does Meditation Alter Brain Responses to Negative Stimuli? A Systematic Review |
title_sort |
does meditation alter brain responses to negative stimuli? a systematic review |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
issn |
1662-5161 |
publishDate |
2018-11-01 |
description |
Background: Despite several attempts to review and explain how meditation alters the brain and facilitates emotion regulation, the extent to which meditation and emotion regulation strategies share the same neural mechanisms remains unclear.Objective: We aim to understand the influence of meditation on the neural processing of negative emotional stimuli in participants who underwent meditation interventions (naive meditators) and long-term meditators.Methodology: A systematic review was conducted using standardized search operators that included the presence of terms related to emotion, meditation and neuro-imaging techniques in PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases.Results: Searches identified 882 papers, of which 11 were eligible for inclusion. Results showed a predominance of greater prefrontal/frontal activity related to meditation, which might indicate the increased recruitment of cognitive/attentional control resources in naïve and long-term meditators. This increased frontal activity was also observed when participants were asked to simply react to negative stimuli. Findings from emotion-related areas were scarce but suggested increased insular activity in meditators, potentially indicating that meditation might be associated with greater bodily awareness.Conclusions: Meditation practice prompts regulatory mechanisms when participants face aversive stimuli, even without an explicit request. Moreover, some studies reported increased insular activity in meditators, consistent with the hypothesis that meditation helps foster an interoceptive awareness of bodily and emotional states. |
topic |
emotion regulation emotional reactivity fMRI sitting and silent meditation aversive stimuli mindfulness |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00448/full |
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