Mindfulness meditation targets transdiagnostic symptoms implicated in stress-related disorders: Understanding relationships between changes in mindfulness, sleep quality, and physical symptoms

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an 8-week meditation program known to improve anxiety, depression, and psychological well-being. Other health-related effects, such as sleep quality, are less well established, as are the psychological processes associated with therapeutic change. This prospective, observational study (n=213) aimed to determine whether perseverative cognition, indicated by rumination and intrusive thoughts, and emotion regulation, measured by avoidance, thought suppression, emotion suppression, and cognitive reappraisal, partly accounted for the hypothesized relationship between changes in mindfulness and two health-related outcomes: sleep quality and stress-related physical symptoms. As expected, increased mindfulness following the MBSR program was directly correlated with decreased sleep disturbance (r=-0.21, p=0.004) and decreased stress-related physical symptoms (r=-0.38, p<0.001). Partial correlations revealed that pre-post changes in rumination, unwanted intrusive thoughts, thought suppression, experiential avoidance, emotion suppression, and cognitive reappraisal each uniquely accounted for up to 32% of the correlation between the change in mindfulness and change in sleep disturbance and up to 30% of the correlation between the change in mindfulness and change in stress-related physical symptoms. Results suggest that the stress-reducing effects of MBSR are due, in part, to improvements in perseverative cognition and emotion regulation, two “transdiagnostic” mental processes that cut across stress-related disorders

Peculiar behavior of the electrical resistivity of MnSi at the ferromagnetic phase transition

The electrical resistivity of a single crystal of MnSi was measured across its ferromagnetic phase transition line at ambient and high pressures. Sharp peaks of the temperature coefficient of resistivity characterize the transition line. Analysis of these data shows that at pressures to ~0.35 GPa these peaks have fine structure, revealing a shoulder at ~ 0.5 K above the peak. It is symptomatic that this structure disappears at pressures higher than ~0.35 GPa, which was identified earlier as a tricritical poin

Loss of Sustained Activity in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Response to Repeated Stress in Individuals with Early-Life Emotional Abuse: Implications for Depression Vulnerability

Repeated psychosocial stress in early-life has significant impact on both behavior and neural function which, together, increase vulnerability to depression. However, neural mechanisms related to repeated stress remain unclear. We hypothesize that early-life stress may result in a reduced capacity for cognitive control in response to a repeated stressor, particularly in individuals who developed maladaptive emotional processing strategies, namely trait rumination. Individuals who encountered early-life stress but have adaptive emotional processing, namely trait mindfulness, may demonstrate an opposite pattern. Using a mental arithmetic task to induce mild stress and a mindful breathing task to induce a mindful state, we tested this hypothesis by examining blood perfusion changes over time in healthy young men. We found that subjects with early-life stress, particularly emotional abuse, failed to sustain neural activation in the orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) over time. Given that the vmPFC is known to regulate amygdala activity during emotional processing, we subsequently compared the perfusion in the vmPFC and the amygdala in depression-vulnerable (having early-life stress and high in rumination) and resilient (having early-life stress and high in mindfulness) subjects. We found that depression-vulnerable subjects had increased amygdala perfusion and reduced vmPFC perfusion during the later runs than that during the earlier stressful task runs. In contrast, depression-resilient individuals showed the reverse pattern. Our results indicate that the vmPFC of depression-vulnerable subjects may have a limited capacity to inhibit amygdala activation to repeated stress over time, whereas the vmPFC in resilient individuals may adapt to stress quickly. This pilot study warrants future investigation to clarify the stress-related neural activity pattern dynamically to identify depression vulnerability at an individual level

Loss of Sustained Activity in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Response to Repeated Stress in Individuals with Early-Life Emotional Abuse: Implications for Depression Vulnerability

Repeated psychosocial stress in early-life has significant impact on both behavior and neural function which, together, increase vulnerability to depression. However, neural mechanisms related to repeated stress remain unclear. We hypothesize that early-life stress may result in a reduced capacity for cognitive control in response to a repeated stressor, particularly in individuals who developed maladaptive emotional processing strategies, namely trait rumination. Individuals who encountered early-life stress but have adaptive emotional processing, namely trait mindfulness, may demonstrate an opposite pattern. Using a mental arithmetic task to induce mild stress and a mindful breathing task to induce a mindful state, we tested this hypothesis by examining blood perfusion changes over time in healthy young men. We found that subjects with early-life stress, particularly emotional abuse, failed to sustain neural activation in the orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) over time. Given that the vmPFC is known to regulate amygdala activity during emotional processing, we subsequently compared the perfusion in the vmPFC and the amygdala in depression-vulnerable (having early-life stress and high in rumination) and resilient (having early-life stress and high in mindfulness) subjects. We found that depression-vulnerable subjects had increased amygdala perfusion and reduced vmPFC perfusion during the later runs than that during the earlier stressful task runs. In contrast, depression-resilient individuals showed the reverse pattern. Our results indicate that the vmPFC of depression-vulnerable subjects may have a limited capacity to inhibit amygdala activation to repeated stress over time, whereas the vmPFC in resilient individuals may adapt to stress quickly. This pilot study warrants future investigation to clarify the stress-related neural activity pattern dynamically to identify depression vulnerability at an individual level

Psychological and neural mechanisms of trait mindfulness in reducing depression vulnerability

Mindfulness-based interventions are effective for reducing depressive symptoms. However, the psychological and neural mechanisms are unclear. This study examined which facets of trait mindfulness offer protection against negative bias and rumination, which are key risk factors for depression. Nineteen male volunteers completed a 2-day functional magnetic resonance imaging study. One day utilized a stress-induction task and the other day utilized a mindful breathing task. An emotional inhibition task was used to measure neural and behavioral changes related to state negative bias, defined by poorer performance in inhibiting negative relative to neutral stimuli. Associations among trait mindfulness [measured by the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)], trait rumination, and negative bias were examined. Non-reactivity scores on the FFMQ correlated negatively with rumination and negative bias following the stress induction. Non-reactivity was inversely correlated with insula activation during inhibition to negative stimuli after the mindful breathing task. Our results suggest non-reactivity to inner experience is the key facet of mindfulness that protects individuals from psychological risk for depression. Based on these results, mindfulness could reduce vulnerability to depression in at least two ways: (i) by buffering against trait rumination and negative bias and (ii) by reducing automatic emotional responding via the insula

Decreased symptoms of depression after mindfulness-based stress reduction: potential moderating effects of religiosity, spirituality, trait mindfulness, sex, and age

Objective: mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a secular meditation training program that reduces depressive symptoms. Little is known, however, about the degree to which a participant's spiritual and religious background, or other demographic characteristics associated with risk for depression, may affect the effectiveness of MBSR. Therefore, this study tested whether individual differences in religiosity, spirituality, motivation for spiritual growth, trait mindfulness, sex, and age affect MBSR effectiveness.Methods: as part of an open trial, multiple regression was used to analyze variation in depressive symptom outcomes among 322 adults who enrolled in an 8-week, community-based MBSR program.Results: as hypothesized, depressive symptom severity decreased significantly in the full study sample (d=0.57; p&lt;0.01). After adjustment for baseline symptom severity, moderation analyses revealed no significant differences in the change in depressive symptoms following MBSR as a function of spirituality, religiosity, trait mindfulness, or demographic variables. Paired t tests found consistent, statistically significant (p&lt;0.01) reductions in depressive symptoms across all subgroups by religious affiliation, intention for spiritual growth, sex, and baseline symptom severity. After adjustment for baseline symptom scores, age, sex, and religious affiliation, a significant proportion of variance in post-MBSR depressive symptoms was uniquely explained by changes in both spirituality (?=?0.15; p=0.006) and mindfulness (?=?0.17; p&lt;0.001).Conclusions: these findings suggest that MBSR, a secular meditation training program, is associated with improved depressive symptoms regardless of affiliation with a religion, sense of spirituality, trait level of mindfulness before MBSR training, sex, or age. Increases in both mindfulness and daily spiritual experiences uniquely explained improvement in depressive symptom

Interaction of the Psychiatric Risk Gene Cacna1c With Post-weaning Social Isolation or Environmental Enrichment Does Not Affect Brain Mitochondrial Bioenergetics in Rats

The pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders involves complex interactions between genetic and environmental risk factors. Confirmed by several genome-wide association studies, Cacna1c represents one of the most robustly replicated psychiatric risk genes. Besides genetic predispositions, environmental stress such as childhood maltreatment also contributes to enhanced disease vulnerability. Both, Cacna1c gene variants and stressful life events are associated with morphological alterations in the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. Emerging evidence suggests impaired mitochondrial bioenergetics as a possible underlying mechanism of these regional brain abnormalities. In the present study, we simulated the interaction of psychiatric disease-relevant genetic and environmental factors in rodents to investigate their potential effect on brain mitochondrial function using a constitutive heterozygous Cacna1c rat model in combination with a four-week exposure to either post-weaning social isolation, standard housing, or social and physical environmental enrichment. Mitochondria were isolated from the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus to evaluate their bioenergetics, membrane potential, reactive oxygen species production, and respiratory chain complex protein levels. None of these parameters were considerably affected in this particular gene-environment setting. These negative results were very robust in all tested conditions demonstrating that Cacna1c depletion did not significantly translate into altered bioenergetic characteristics. Thus, further investigations are required to determine the disease-related effects on brain mitochondria

Recruitment Strategies and Lessons Learned from the Children's Healthy Living Program Prevalence Survey

The US Affiliated Pacific region's childhood obesity prevalence has reached epidemic proportions. To guide program and policy development, a multi-site study was initiated, in collaboration with partners from across the region, to gather comprehensive information on the regional childhood obesity prevalence. The environmental and cultural diversity of the region presented challenges to recruiting for and implementing a shared community-based, public health research program. This paper presents the strategies used to recruit families with young children (n = 5775 for children 2 - 8 years old) for obesity-related measurement across eleven jurisdictions in the US Affiliated Pacific Region. Data were generated by site teams that provided summaries of their recruitment strategies and lessons learned. Conducting this large multi-site prevalence study required considerable coordination, time and flexibility. In every location, local staff knowledgeable of the community was hired to lead recruitment, and participant compensation reflected jurisdictional appropriateness (e.g., gift cards, vouchers, or cash). Although recruitment approaches were site-specific, they were predominantly school-based or a combination of school- and community-based. Lessons learned included the importance of organization buy-in; communication, and advance planning; local travel and site peculiarities; and flexibility. Future monitoring of childhood obesity prevalence in the region should consider ways to integrate measurement activities into existing organizational infrastructures for sustainability and cost-effectiveness, while meeting programmatic (e.g. study) goals