Mindfulness meditation increases default mode, salience, and central executive network connectivity

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Psychology

Background:

• Mindfulness meditation training (MMT) shows benefits for health and cognition.
• Neural mechanisms of MMT are being identified.
• Effects of MMT on large-scale brain networks (LSNs) remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate MMT's impact on functional connectivity (FC) within and between LSNs.
• Examine changes in brain network interplay after 31 days of MMT.
• Identify potential neural mechanisms of MMT's benefits.

Main Methods:

• Healthy, meditation-naïve adults (N=46) participated.
• Resting-state fMRI was used before and after a 31-day intervention (MMT or active control).
• Independent component analysis, sliding time window, and seed-based correlation analyses were performed.

Main Results:

• MMT increased functional connectivity (FC) between the default mode network (DMN) and salience network (SN).
• Connectivity increased between the SN and central executive network (CEN) regions.
• MMT enhanced interconnectivity within the triple network model (DMN, SN, CEN).

Conclusions:

• One month of MMT effectively increases interconnectivity between key brain networks.
• This enhanced interconnectivity may be a mechanistic basis for MMT's health and cognitive benefits.
• Findings highlight MMT's influence on the global interplay of LSNs.