Laneri Davide, Krach Sören, Paulus Frieder M, Kanske Philipp, Schuster Verena, Sommer Jens, Müller-Pinzler Laura
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg, Rudolf-Bultmann Strasse 8, Marburg, 35039, Germany.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Social Neuroscience Lab, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, Lübeck, 23538, Germany.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2017 Aug;38(8):4034-4046. doi: 10.1002/hbm.23646. Epub 2017 May 15.
Mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress, promote health, and well-being, as well as to increase compassionate behavior toward others. It reduces distress to one's own painful experiences, going along with altered neural responses, by enhancing self-regulatory processes and decreasing emotional reactivity. In order to investigate if mindfulness similarly reduces distress and neural activations associated with empathy for others' socially painful experiences, which might in the following more strongly motivate prosocial behavior, the present study compared trait, and state effects of long-term mindfulness meditation (LTM) practice. To do so we acquired behavioral data and neural activity measures using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during an empathy for social pain task while manipulating the meditation state between two groups of LTM practitioners that were matched with a control group. The results show increased activations of the anterior insula (AI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as well as the medial prefrontal cortex and temporal pole when sharing others' social suffering, both in LTM practitioners and controls. However, in LTM practitioners, who practiced mindfulness meditation just prior to observing others' social pain, left AI activation was lower and the strength of AI activation following the mindfulness meditation was negatively associated with trait compassion in LTM practitioners. The findings suggest that current mindfulness meditation could provide an adaptive mechanism in coping with distress due to the empathic sharing of others' suffering, thereby possibly enabling compassionate behavior. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4034-4046, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
正念已被证明可以减轻压力、促进健康和幸福，还能增加对他人的同情行为。它通过增强自我调节过程和降低情绪反应性，减少对自身痛苦经历的困扰，同时伴随着神经反应的改变。为了研究正念是否同样能减少与对他人社交痛苦经历的同理心相关的困扰和神经激活，而这可能在接下来更强烈地激发亲社会行为，本研究比较了长期正念冥想（LTM）练习的特质和状态效应。为此，我们在一项社交痛苦同理心任务中，使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）获取行为数据和神经活动测量值，同时在两组与对照组匹配的LTM练习者之间操纵冥想状态。结果显示，在LTM练习者和对照组中，当分享他人的社交痛苦时，前脑岛（AI）、前扣带回皮质（ACC）以及内侧前额叶皮质和颞极的激活都会增加。然而，在恰好在观察他人社交痛苦之前进行正念冥想的LTM练习者中，左侧AI激活较低，并且正念冥想后AI激活的强度与LTM练习者的特质同情心呈负相关。研究结果表明，当前的正念冥想可能为应对因共情他人痛苦而产生的困扰提供一种适应性机制，从而可能促成同情行为。《人类大脑图谱》38:4034 - 4046, 2017。© 2017威利期刊公司。
