Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 1, 2026
10:51
Real-time fMRI Biofeedback Targeting the Orbitofrontal Cortex for Contamination Anxiety
Published on: January 20, 2012
20.8K
Mindfulness-based training attenuates insula response to an aversive interoceptive challenge
Lori Haase1, Nate J Thom2, Akanksha Shukla1
1Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
|April 10, 2014
Summary
Mindfulness training (MT) reduced brain responses to distress in marines. This neuroimaging study shows MT helps process aversive stimuli, potentially improving resilience for military personnel.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Military Medicine
Background:
- Military personnel face high stress, increasing risk for cognitive and emotional compromise.
- Mindfulness training (MT) is known to modulate brain regions involved in emotional regulation and attention.
- Interoception, the sense of the body's internal state, is crucial for emotional processing and can be disrupted by stress.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if MT modulates neural processing of interoceptive distress in marines.
- To examine the effects of mindfulness-based mind fitness training (MMFT) on brain activity during an aversive stimulus.
- To assess MT's potential to enhance resilience in military personnel undergoing pre-deployment training.
Main Methods:
- A cohort of infantry marines was divided into a control group (training as usual) and an intervention group (20-h MMFT).
- Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing an inspiratory breathing load (IBL) task at baseline and post-intervention.
- Brain activation patterns in response to the aversive IBL task were compared between the MMFT and control groups.
Main Results:
- Marines who completed MMFT showed significantly reduced activation in the right anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during loaded breathing compared to controls.
- These brain regions are critical for processing interoceptive and emotional stimuli.
- The findings suggest MT alters neural responses to aversive interoceptive challenges.
Conclusions:
- Mindfulness training effectively modulates neural processing of interoceptive distress.
- MT may serve as a valuable technique to enhance emotional regulation and resilience in high-stress populations like military personnel.
- Neuroimaging provides evidence for MT's impact on brain mechanisms underlying stress response and adaptation.
Related Concept Videos
01:22Behavior Therapy
1.1K
Behavior therapy incorporates diverse techniques rooted in classical conditioning principles to address maladaptive behaviors and anxiety disorders. These methods aim to reduce avoidance behaviors, foster adaptive coping mechanisms, and alter associations between stimuli and responses, making them effective in a wide range of therapeutic contexts.
Exposure therapy is a cornerstone of behavioral treatment for anxiety disorders. It involves systematic exposure to feared stimuli, either in real...
Exposure therapy is a cornerstone of behavioral treatment for anxiety disorders. It involves systematic exposure to feared stimuli, either in real...
1.1K
01:14Conditioned Taste Aversion
2.0K
Conditioned taste aversion, also known as sauce béarnaise syndrome, is a phenomenon in which an individual develops an aversion to a certain food taste following a negative experience, typically illness. This form of aversion is a type of classical conditioning in which the taste of the food (conditioned stimulus, CS) is associated with the experience of illness (unconditioned stimulus, UCS).
A notable characteristic of conditioned taste aversion is that it often requires only a single...
A notable characteristic of conditioned taste aversion is that it often requires only a single...
2.0K
01:14Avoidance Learning and Learned Helplessness
4.2K
Avoidance learning and learned helplessness are critical concepts in understanding behavioral responses to negative stimuli.
Avoidance learning occurs when an organism learns that a specific behavior can prevent an unpleasant outcome. For example, a student who receives a bad grade may start studying harder to avoid future poor grades. This behavior persists even when the negative outcome is no longer present. Avoidance learning is powerful because it maintains behavior in the absence of the...
Avoidance learning occurs when an organism learns that a specific behavior can prevent an unpleasant outcome. For example, a student who receives a bad grade may start studying harder to avoid future poor grades. This behavior persists even when the negative outcome is no longer present. Avoidance learning is powerful because it maintains behavior in the absence of the...
4.2K
01:24Operant Conditioning Intervention
738
Operant conditioning serves as a foundational principle in therapeutic interventions aimed at modifying maladaptive behaviors. Central to this approach is the notion that behaviors, both adaptive and maladaptive, are learned through reinforcement. By analyzing the environmental factors that reinforce problematic behaviors, clinicians can design interventions to weaken these reinforcements and replace maladaptive behaviors with healthier alternatives.
In operant conditioning, behaviors that are...
In operant conditioning, behaviors that are...
738