Brain Mechanisms Supporting Modulation of Pain by Mindfulness Meditation

By F. Zeidan, Katherine T. Martucci, Robert A. Kraft, Nakia S. Gordon, J. Mchaffie, Robert C. Coghill. Journal of Neuroscience, 2011

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The subjective experience of one's environment is constructed by interactions among sensory, cognitive, and affective processes. For centuries, meditation has been thought to influence such processes by enabling a nonevaluative representation of sensory events. To better understand how meditation influences the sensory experience, we used arterial spin labeling functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the neural mechanisms by which mindfulness meditation influences pain in healthy human participants. After 4 d of mindfulness meditation training, meditating in the presence of noxious stimulation significantly reduced pain unpleasantness by 57% and pain intensity ratings by 40% when compared to rest. A two-factor repeated-measures ANOVA was used to identify interactions between meditation and pain-related brain activation. Meditation reduced pain-related activation of the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify brain regions associated with individual differences in the magnitude of meditation-related pain reductions. Meditation-induced reductions in pain intensity ratings were associated with increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula, areas involved in the cognitive regulation of nociceptive processing. Reductions in pain unpleasantness ratings were associated with orbitofrontal cortex activation, an area implicated in reframing the contextual evaluation of sensory events. Moreover, reductions in pain unpleasantness also were associated with thalamic deactivation, which may reflect a limbic gating mechanism involved in modifying interactions between afferent input and executive-order brain areas. Together, these data indicate that meditation engages multiple brain mechanisms that alter the construction of the subjectively available pain experience from afferent information.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental health, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/383786ac13ec502cabd2f92ed0d83a8544b9f05b

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Citations in the corpus

Effects of Brief Mindfulness-Based Interventions on Health-Related Outcomes: a Systematic Review (2019, methodology): “…et al. n.d.; Scherpiet et al. 2015; Szasz et al. 2016, 2012; Tincher et al. 2016; Troy et al. 2018; Wilson et al. 2014; Wolgast et al. 2011; Zeidan et al. 2011) and the remaining (n = 10) used a mix of modes (e.g., verbal and video) (Atkinson and Wade 2012; Bowen and Marlatt 2009; Díaz et…”
Mindfulness Interventions. (2017, positive): “Some initial evidence suggests that mindfulness interventions can modulate both neural sensory and emotional reactivity pain pathways (Zeidan et al. 2011).”
Ten weeks of physical-cognitive-mindfulness training reduces fear-avoidance beliefs about work-related activity (2016, positive): “For example, Zeidan and colleagues found that meditation alters brain activation patterns by reframing the contextual processing of painful sensory inputs and ultimately leads to a decrease in the nociceptive interpretation of afferent signals in the pain neuromatrix.([50]) In another study, Zeidan ”
Contemplative Education: A Systematic, Evidence-Based Review of the effect of Meditation Interventions in Schools (2015, background): “Neuroscience suggests that one way in which meditation assists people in developing emotional regulation is through its effect on increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Cahn and Polich 2006; Lutz et al. 2008b; Zeidan et al. 2011).”
Mind The Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation (2017, neutral): “Physical artifacts involving head movements and cardiorespiratory effects are especially notable (Holmes, Solomon, Cappo, & Greenberg, 1983; Lutz et al., 2009; Reuter et al., 2015; Van Dijk, Sabuncu, & Buckner, 2012; R. K. Wallace, 1970; R. K. Wallace, Benson, & Wilson, 1971; cf. Lazar et al., 2000”
Acceptance- and mindfulness-based interventions for the treatment of chronic pain: a meta-analytic review (2016, background): “Pain control and reduction are not the primary aims of acceptance- and mindfulness-based interventions, but some impact on pain intensity may be reached because mindfulness skills have been found to influence brain mechanisms that may alter the pain experience (Zeidan et al., 2011).”
Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness (2012, background): “negatively correlated with pain intensity, while OFC activity negatively correlated with pain unpleasantness (Zeidan et al., 2011).”
Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Anxiety and Depression (2017, neutral): “61 These significant effects after only a few days of mindfulness training are exciting, and future research should explore whether such brief interventions can have similar effects on symptoms of anxiety or depression.”