Social influences on neuroplasticity: Stress and interventions to promote well-being

By Richard J. Davidson, Bruce S. McEwen. Nature Neuroscience, 2012

815 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Experiential factors shape the neural circuits underlying social and emotional behavior from the prenatal period to the end of life. These factors include both incidental influences, such as early adversity, and intentional influences that can be produced in humans through specific interventions designed to promote prosocial behavior and well-being. Here we review important extant evidence in animal models and humans. Although the precise mechanisms of plasticity are still not fully understood, moderate to severe stress appears to increase the growth of several sectors of the amygdala, whereas the effects in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex tend to be opposite. Structural and functional changes in the brain have been observed with cognitive therapy and certain forms of meditation and lead to the suggestion that well-being and other prosocial characteristics might be enhanced through training.

Subfields: Behavioral Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/10cefaacae6505eecac10c5021daf2ed3280befa

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Citations in the corpus

Pulling back the curtain on heritability studies: biosocial criminology in the postgenomic era (2014, background): “Furthermore, this view asserts that repeated experiences, activities, and thoughts alter gene expression, which influences the wiring of the brain (Adolphs, 2010; Davidson and McEwen, 2012).”
The Varieties of Self-Transcendent Experience (2017, background): “Such MBIs are associated with a number of psychological benefits, including improved well-being and selfregulation (Baer, 2003; Davidson & McEwen, 2012; Goyal et al., 2014).”
Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Research on Mindfulness and Meditation (2015, background): “The failure to utilize rigorous control or comparison conditions is a key reason why recent reviews have failed to find much convincing evidence for the clinical efficacy of mindfulnessrelated interventions (e.g., Goyal et al., 2014).”
Borderline Personality Disorder (2016, positive): “Of note, studies have shown that anatomical “abnormalities” found in patients with a history of childhood adversity are reversible upon psychotherapy, suggesting that functional or structural brain variation is not necessarily impervious to modification [106].”
Mindfulness and sustainability (2014, background): “Although more research remains to be done, they argue that the available evidence points to the possibility that “social and emotional characteristics can be educated in ways that are not dissimilar from certain forms of cognitive learning”, and that mental training techniques similar to the ones di”
Cultivating Positive Teacher–Student Relationships: Preliminary Evaluation of the Establish–Maintain–Restore (EMR) Method (2018, background): “There is a substantial body of research that shows belonging to be a fundamental human need and a key requisite of healthy development (Davidson & McEwen, 2012; Klem & Connell, 2004; Osterman, 2000).”
Action video game training for cognitive enhancement (2015, background): “Over the past decade though, instances of much broader training effects, often engendered by ‘real-life activities’ such as aerobic activity, participation in sports, meditation, music training, or, the focus of this review, playing certain types of video games, have begun to permeate the literature”
Understanding resilience (2013, background): “Childhood abuse can lead to a reduction of hippocampal volume, which is frequently seen in patients with mood disorders (Janssen et al., 2007; Davidson and McEwen, 2012).”
Mindfulness for teachers: A pilot study to assess effects on stress, burnout and teaching efficacy (2013, background): “Emotions, attention, and introspection are ongoing and labile processes that may be understood and studied as skills that can be trained, similar to others human skills like music, mathematics, or sports (Davidson & McEwen, 2012).”
Self-Compassion When Coping With Venture Obstacles: Loving-Kindness Meditation and Entrepreneurial Fear of Failure (2019, background): “…and expert meditators suggests that years of daily meditation practice can be linked to physical change in brain circuitries (e.g., accommodating greater activation of the insula, which was implicated in previous studies of compassion), a phenomenon called neuroplasticity (Davidson & McEwen, 2012).”