Attending to the present: mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference.

By N. Farb, Z. Segal, Helen S. Mayberg, Jim Bean, Deborah McKeon, Zainab Fatima, Adam A. K. Anderson. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2007

1,283 citations recorded by the source corpus.

It has long been theorised that there are two temporally distinct forms of self-reference: extended self-reference linking experiences across time, and momentary self-reference centred on the present. To characterise these two aspects of awareness, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine monitoring of enduring traits ('narrative' focus, NF) or momentary experience ('experiential' focus, EF) in both novice participants and those having attended an 8 week course in mindfulness meditation, a program that trains individuals to develop focused attention on the present. In novices, EF yielded focal reductions in self-referential cortical midline regions (medial prefrontal cortex, mPFC) associated with NF. In trained participants, EF resulted in more marked and pervasive reductions in the mPFC, and increased engagement of a right lateralised network, comprising the lateral PFC and viscerosomatic areas such as the insula, secondary somatosensory cortex and inferior parietal lobule. Functional connectivity analyses further demonstrated a strong coupling between the right insula and the mPFC in novices that was uncoupled in the mindfulness group. These results suggest a fundamental neural dissociation between two distinct forms of self-awareness that are habitually integrated but can be dissociated through attentional training: the self across time and in the present moment.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1456c7ab9db5111b69847c55b11389336ef48264

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Citations in the corpus

Mindfulness as a Context for the Cultivation of Compassion (2010, background): “The narrative mode of self-reference has been found to be correlated with the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which is involved in maintaining a sense of self across time, comparing one’s traits to those of others, and the maintenance of self-knowledge (Farb et al., 2007).”
The Potential Benefits of Mindfulness Training in Early Childhood: A Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective (2012, methodology): “Following an 8-week MBSR course, participants showed increased activation in right dorsolateral and ventrolateral PFC when attending to present experiences (Farb et al., 2007).”
Body Awareness: Construct and Self-Report Measures (2009, background): “These distinct modes of attention or self-reference can be dissociated through attentional training and identified by their distinct neural activation and connectivity in the brain [44].”
Having a word with yourself: Neural correlates of self-criticism and self-reassurance (2010, background): “For example, Farb et al. (2007) reported an fMRI study examining different types of self-referencing where half the volunteers, prior to being scanned, took part in a mindfulness meditation course, which involved learning to focus attention on the present moment.”
Mentalizing in the Development and Treatment of Attachment Trauma (2013, background): “In the first study (Farb et al., 2007), participants who had completed eight-week mindfulness training were compared with a control group as they engaged in two different kinds of mental activity in response to hearing adjectives pertaining to personality traits (e.”
The Neuropsychological Connection Between Creativity and Meditation (2009, background): “This may be due to increased suppression of narrative self-focus along the anterior cortical midline (Farb et al., 2007) coupled with enhanced responsiveness to novel stimuli in the association areas.”
Impact of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Training on Intrinsic Brain Connectivity (2011, background): “…are not completely consistent they do suggest mindfulness meditation leads to increased activations in frontal brain regions involved in attention (Farb et al., 2007; Goldin and Gross, 2010; Holzel et al., 2007) and increased activations in temporal regions during processing of sounds (Lutz et…”
Examining the protective effects of mindfulness training on working memory capacity and affective experience. (2010, background): “…reactivity to affective images (Ortner, Kilner, & Zelazo, 2007) are consistent with MT-related decreases in neural activity elicited by affective distractors within the amygdala and other brain regions involved in emotional processing (Brefczynski-Lewis et al., 2007; see also Farb et al., 2007).”
Mind The Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation (2017, neutral): “…activity in the inferior parietal cortex, a common outcome of mindfulness training (Brefczynski-Lewis, Lutz, Schaefer, Levinson, & Davidson, 2007; Farb et al., 2007; Goldin & Gross, 2010; Hasenkamp, Wilson-Mendenhall, Duncan, & Barsalou, 2012), might relate to deperson-alization (disembodiment,…”
Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density (2010, background): “Further inclusion criteria were as follows: no meditation classes in the past 6 months, no more than four classes in the past 5 years, or 10 classes in their lifetime; 25 to 55 years old; no contraindications for MRI scanning (i.e., metallic implants, claustrophobia); commitment to attend all eight ”
Exploring the Relationship Between Mindfulness and Cardiac Perception (2013, background): “This may result in a shift towards seeing emotions as sensory, embodied phenomena rather than as a reflection of reality (Farb et al. 2007; Farb et al. 2010).”
Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity (2011, background): “These outcomes have been associated with changes in basic psychological processes, such as improved attentional focus (20, 21), improved cognitive flexibility (22), reduced affective reactivity (23, 24), and modification or shifts away from a distorted or exaggerated view of oneself (18, 25).”
Evolving Conceptions of Mindfulness in Clinical Settings (2009, background): “These terms allude to the experiential limitations of narrative self-focus as contrasted to experiential self-focus, also called present-centered self-awareness (Farb et al., 2007).”
Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on Emotion Regulation in Social Anxiety Disorder (2010, background): “Recent functional neuroimaging studies of MBSR have provided evidence of reduced narrative and conceptual and increased experiential and sensory self-focus at post-MBSR (Farb et al., 2007) and decreased conceptual–linguistic self-referential processing from pre- to post-MBSR (Goldin, Ramel, et al.”