Abstract
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has been proven to improve mental health and quality of life. This study examined how mindfulness training and various types of mindfulness practices altered brain activity. Specifically, the spectral powers of scalp electroencephalography (EEG) of the MBSR group who underwent an 8-week mindfulness training—including mindful breathing and body-scan—were evaluated and compared with those of the waitlist controls. Empirical results indicated that the long-term mindfulness intervention effect significantly elevated the resting-state beta powers and reduced resting-state delta powers in both practices; such changes were not observed in the waitlist control. Compared with mindful breathing, body-scanning resulted in an overall decline in EEG spectral powers at both delta and gamma bands among trained participants. Together with our preliminary data of expert mediators, the aforementioned spectral changes were salient after intervention, but mitigated along with expertise. Additionally, after receiving training, the MBSR group’s mindfulness and emotion regulation levels improved significantly, which were correlated with the EEG spectral changes in the theta, alpha, and low-beta bands. This study elaborated the neurophysiological correlates of mindfulness practices, suggesting that MBSR might function as a unique internal processing that involves increased vigilant capability and induces alterations similar to other cognitive training.
- Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)
- Mindful breathing
- Body-scan
- Electroencephalograms (EEG)
- Spectral power
- Five facet mindfulness questionnaire (FFMQ)
- Difficulties in emotion regulation scale (DERS)
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Data availability Following the regulations of Taiwan authority and the institutional review board, the data collected for this study are available only for the intended research topic by the corresponding personnel.
Funding statement This work was supported by the Center for Intelligent Drug Systems and Smart Bio-devices (IDS2B) from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE), and by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (project numbers: MOST 108-2321-B-038-005-MY2 and MOST 109-2636-E-007-022). No funding source had involved in any of the research procedures.
Conflict of interest disclosure Declarations of interest conflict: none
Ethics approval statement This study was reviewed and approved by the Taipei Medical University Joint Institute Review Board (TMU-JIRB, project number N201905049).
Patient consent statement All of the participants provided written informed consent prior to participation.