Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53705, USA.
Emotion. 2010 Feb;10(1):65-71. doi: 10.1037/a0018440.
Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience that can be regulated by many different cognitive mechanisms. We compared the regulatory qualities of two different meditation practices during noxious thermal stimuli: Focused Attention, directed at a fixation cross away from the stimulation, which could regulate negative affect through a sensory gating mechanism; and Open Monitoring, which could regulate negative affect through a mechanism of nonjudgmental, nonreactive awareness of sensory experience. Here, we report behavioral data from a comparison between novice and long-term meditation practitioners (long-term meditators, LTMs) using these techniques. LTMs, compared to novices, had a significant reduction of self-reported unpleasantness, but not intensity, of painful stimuli while practicing Open Monitoring. No significant effects were found for FA. This finding illuminates the possible regulatory mechanism of meditation-based clinical interventions like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Implications are discussed in the broader context of training-induced changes in trait emotion regulation.
疼痛是一种不愉快的感觉和情绪体验，可以通过许多不同的认知机制进行调节。我们比较了两种不同的冥想练习在有害热刺激下的调节作用：专注于一个远离刺激的固定十字，通过感觉门控机制调节负性情绪；和开放监控，通过非评判性、非反应性地感知感觉体验的机制调节负性情绪。在这里，我们报告了使用这些技术的新手和长期冥想练习者（长期冥想者，LTM）之间的比较的行为数据。与新手相比，在练习开放监控时，LTM 对疼痛刺激的自我报告不愉快程度有显著降低，但对强度没有显著影响。FA 没有发现显著影响。这一发现阐明了基于冥想的临床干预，如正念减压（MBSR）的可能调节机制。在训练诱导的特质情绪调节变化的更广泛背景下讨论了其含义。
