Chau Bolton K H, Keuper Kati, Lo Mandy, So Kwok-Fai, Chan Chetwyn C H, Lee Tatia M C
Laboratory of Neuropsychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Laboratory of Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Brain Neurosci Adv. 2018 May 8;2:2398212818771822. doi: 10.1177/2398212818771822. eCollection 2018 Jan-Dec.
Neuroplastic underpinnings of meditation-induced changes in affective processing are largely unclear.
We included healthy older participants in an active-controlled experiment. They were involved a meditation training or a control relaxation training of eight weeks. Associations between behavioral and neural morphometric changes induced by the training were examined.
The meditation group demonstrated a change in valence perception indexed by more neutral valence ratings of positive and negative affective images. These behavioral changes were associated with synchronous structural enlargements in a prefrontal network involving the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the inferior frontal sulcus. In addition, these neuroplastic effects were modulated by the enlargement in the inferior frontal junction. In contrast, these prefrontal enlargements were absent in the active control group, which completed a relaxation training. Supported by a path analysis, we propose a model that describes how meditation may induce a series of prefrontal neuroplastic changes related to valence perception. These brain areas showing meditation-induced structural enlargements are reduced in older people with affective dysregulations.
We demonstrated that a prefrontal network was enlarged after eight weeks of meditation training. Our findings yield translational insights in the endeavor to promote healthy aging by means of meditation.
冥想引起的情感加工变化的神经可塑性基础在很大程度上尚不清楚。
我们将健康的老年参与者纳入一项主动对照实验。他们参与了为期八周的冥想训练或对照放松训练。研究了训练引起的行为和神经形态学变化之间的关联。
冥想组在效价感知方面出现了变化，表现为对正负情感图像的效价评分更趋于中性。这些行为变化与一个涉及腹内侧前额叶皮层和额下沟的前额叶网络的同步结构扩大有关。此外，这些神经可塑性效应受到额下交界区扩大的调节。相比之下，完成放松训练的主动对照组没有出现这些前额叶扩大。在路径分析的支持下，我们提出了一个模型，描述了冥想如何诱导一系列与效价感知相关的前额叶神经可塑性变化。在情感调节失调的老年人中，这些显示出冥想诱导结构扩大的脑区会减少。
我们证明，经过八周的冥想训练后，一个前额叶网络扩大了。我们的研究结果为通过冥想促进健康衰老的努力提供了转化性见解。
