Meditation and brain physiology: any togetherness?

Mindfulness is typically defined as nonjudgmental attention to experiences in the present moment suggest a two-component model of mindfulness, where the first component is the regulation of attention in order to maintain it on the immediate experience, and the second component involves approaching one’s experiences with an orientation of curiosity, openness, and acceptance, regardless of their valence and desirability. Mindfulness is typically cultivated in formal meditation practices, such as sitting meditation, walking meditation, or mindful movements.

Behavioral findings affirm that it has been proved from various approaches that mindfulness training program did show reduction in emotional interference compared to a relaxation meditation. Physiological studies also support the proposition that meditation training leads to decreased emotional reactivity and facilitates a return to emotional baseline after reactivity.

Neural mechanisms:

During emotion regulation, prefrontal control systems modulate emotion generative systems, such as the amygdala, which is responsible for the detection of affectively arousing stimuli (Ochsner & Gross, 2005). More specifically, these prefrontal structures include dorsal regions of the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) that have been implicated in selective attention and working

memory; ventral parts of the PFC implicated in response inhibition; the ACC, which is involved in monitoring control processes; and the dorso-medial PFC implicated in monitoring one’s affective state (Modinos, Ormel, & Aleman, 2010; Ochsner & Gross, 2008). A typical pattern detected when individuals deliberately regulate affective responses is increased activation within the PFC and decreased activation in the amygdala (Beauregard, Levesque, & Bourgouin, 2001; Harenski & Hamann, 2006; Schaefer et al., 2002), suggesting that PFC projections to the amygdala exert an inhibitory top-down influence (Banks, Eddy, Angstadt, Nathan, & Phan, 2007).

Evidence:

Perspectives on Psychological Science 6(6) 537– 559