Alterations in Brain Structure and Amplitude of Low-frequency after 8 weeks of Mindfulness Meditation Training in Meditation-Na\xefve Subjects

Chuan-Chih Yang,Meng Li,Alfonso Barrós-Loscertales,Martin Walter,Daniel Pinazo,Viola Borchardt,César Ávila

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-47470-4

Chuan-Chih Yang, Meng Li + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47470-4

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Abstract

Increasing neuroimaging evidence suggests that mindfulness meditation expertise is related to different functional and structural configurations of the default mode network (DMN), the salience network (SN) and the executive network at rest. However, longitudinal studies observing resting network plasticity effects in brains of novices who started to practice meditation are scarce and generally related to one dimension, such as structural or functional effects. The purpose of this study was to investigate structural and functional brain network changes (e.g. DMN) after 40 days of mindfulness meditation training in novices and set these in the context of potentially altered depression symptomatology and anxiety. We found overlapping structural and functional effects in precuneus, a posterior DMN region, where cortical thickness increased and low-frequency amplitudes (ALFF) decreased, while decreased ALFF in left precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex correlates with the reduction of (CES-D) depression scores. In conclusion, regional overlapping of structural and functional changes in precuneus may capture different components of the complex changes of mindfulness meditation training.

Highlights

Brain changes at either structural or functional levels[9,10,11,12,13,14,15]
In the present longitudinal study, we investigated both the structural and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) changes following 40-day short-term mindfulness meditation training and their relationship with the mood effects of the practice
The results centred on the parietal cortex with a relative increase in cortical thickness in the left precuneus, which significantly showed decreased ALFF

Summary

Introduction

Brain changes at either structural or functional levels[9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. To track functional changes, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) has been proposed to analyse differential spontaneous modulations in the blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal during resting conditions[16]. The quantitative measurement of low-frequency oscillations, such as ALFF, provides promising tools to observe spontaneous BOLD signal alterations in regional activity As such, it may offer insight into the direct local consequences of the previously reported structural changes. The recent work by Engen et al investigated structural brain networks changes of long-term mental training effects on socio-affective skills[19] These authors conducted both functional and structural analyses and found that ALFF increases in several prefrontal and insular areas during meditation relative to resting, and they observed cortical changes. In this longitudinal study, we investigated cortical thickness changes at the whole-brain level as well as ALFF changes at the baseline and following 40-day short-term mindfulness meditation training. The current study used the data collected in our previous work[15]

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