Alterations in Resting-State Functional Connectivity Link Mindfulness Meditation With Reduced Interleukin-6: A Randomized Controlled Trial

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2016.01.008

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 80, Issue 1, 1 July 2016, Pages 53-61

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2016.01.008 Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

Mindfulness meditation training interventions have been shown to improve markers of health, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are not known. Building on initial cross-sectional research showing that mindfulness meditation may increase default mode network (DMN) resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) with regions important in top-down executive control (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [dlPFC]), here we test whether mindfulness meditation training increases DMN-dlPFC rsFC and whether these rsFC alterations prospectively explain improvements in interleukin (IL)-6 in a randomized controlled trial.

Methods

Stressed job-seeking unemployed community adults (n = 35) were randomized to either a 3-day intensive residential mindfulness meditation or relaxation training program. Participants completed a 5-minute resting-state scan before and after the intervention program. Participants also provided blood samples at preintervention and at 4-month follow-up, which were assayed for circulating IL-6, a biomarker of systemic inflammation.

Results

We tested for alterations in DMN rsFC using a posterior cingulate cortex seed-based analysis and found that mindfulness meditation training, and not relaxation training, increased posterior cingulate cortex rsFC with left dlPFC (p < .05, corrected). These pretraining to posttraining alterations in posterior cingulate cortex-dlPFC rsFC statistically mediated mindfulness meditation training improvements in IL-6 at 4-month follow-up. Specifically, these alterations in rsFC statistically explained 30% of the overall mindfulness meditation training effects on IL-6 at follow-up.

Conclusions

These findings provide the first evidence that mindfulness meditation training functionally couples the DMN with a region known to be important in top-down executive control at rest (left dlPFC), which, in turn, is associated with improvements in a marker of inflammatory disease risk.

Section snippets

Participants

Thirty-five right-handed unemployed job-seeking community adults participated (see Supplemental Table S1 for inclusion/exclusion study criteria) (see Supplemental Figure S1 for CONSORT flowchart). Participants had moderate to high levels of job-seeking stress over the past month, scoring >5 on an adapted 4-item Perceived Stress Scale (34) (mean [M] = 9.60, SD = 2.35; for job-seeking stress measure see Supplemental Table S1). After complete description of the study to the participants, written

Preliminary Analyses—Success of Randomization and Treatment Program Measures

There were no significant differences between the mindfulness (HEM) and relaxation (HER) groups on study baseline characteristics, indicating successful randomization (Table 1). There were no significant group differences in fast head motion during the resting-state scan period (F_1,35 = 0.002, p = .97) and no differential fast head motion changes from baseline to the posttreatment fMRI resting-state scan between groups (time × condition, F_1,34 = 0.001, p = .98). The relaxation training program

Discussion

There has been considerable recent interest in characterizing resting-state neural networks, such as the DMN, and understanding their role in health and disease (23). We report that mindfulness meditation training (compared with relaxation training without a mindfulness component) increased rsFC between the DMN (PCC) and left dlPFC. These findings corroborate and experimentally extend cross-sectional findings in advanced mindfulness meditation practitioners (17), suggesting that mindfulness

Acknowledgments and Disclosures

This research was supported by funding from the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse Opportunity Fund, who played no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

J.D. Creswell and A.A. Taren had full access to the data and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

We thank the

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Archival ReportAlterations in Resting-State Functional Connectivity Link Mindfulness Meditation With Reduced Interleukin-6: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Participants

Preliminary Analyses—Success of Randomization and Treatment Program Measures

Discussion

Acknowledgments and Disclosures

Brain Behav Immun

Brain Behav Immun

Brain Behav Immun

Brain Behav Immun

Biol Psychiatry

Trends Cogn Sci

Neurosci Lett

Brain Behav Immun

Am J Med

Soc Sci Med

J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry

Neuroimage

Life Sci

Neuroimage

Biol Psychiatry

Biol Psychiatry

Neuron

Neurosci Lett

Mindfulness in medicine

JAMA

Mindfulness: Theoretical foundations and evidence for its salutary effects

Psychol Inq

Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis

JAMA Intern Med

Antidepressant monotherapy vs sequential pharmacotherapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, or placebo, for relapse prophylaxis in recurrent depression

Arch Gen Psychiatry

Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy

J Consult Clin Psychol

Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on emotion regulation in social anxiety disorder

Emotion

A pilot study evaluating the effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction on psychological status, physical status, salivary cortisol, and interleukin-6 among advanced-stage cancer patients and their caregivers

J Holist Nurs

How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective

Perspect Psychol Sci

The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation

Nat Rev Neurosci

How does mindfulness training affect health? A mindfulness stress buffering account

Curr Dir Psychol Sci

Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs

Emotion

Archival Report
Alterations in Resting-State Functional Connectivity Link Mindfulness Meditation With Reduced Interleukin-6: A Randomized Controlled Trial