Graduate School of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Saitama, Japan.
Global Education Center, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
Neural Netw. 2021 Jun;138:198-214. doi: 10.1016/j.neunet.2021.01.029. Epub 2021 Feb 13.
The emotion regulation mechanism of mindfulness plays an important role in the stress reduction effect. Many researchers in the fields of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience have attempted to elucidate this mechanism by documenting the cognitive processes that occur and the neural activities that characterize each process. However, previous findings have not revealed the mechanism of information propagation in the brain that achieves emotion regulation during mindfulness. In this study, we constructed a functional brain model based on its anatomical network structure and a computational model representing the propagation of information between brain regions. We then examined the effects of mindfulness meditation on information propagation in the brain using simulations of changes in the activity of each region. These simulations of changes represent the degree of processing resource allocation to the neural activity via changes in the weights of each region's output. As a result of the simulations, we reveal how the neural activity characteristic of emotion regulation in mindfulness, which has been reported in previous studies, is realized in the brain. Mindfulness meditation increases the weight of the output from each region of the thalamus and sensory cortex, which processes sensory stimuli from the external world. This sensory information activates the insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The orbitofrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex inhibit amygdala activity (i.e., top-down emotion regulation). However, when mindfulness meditation dominates bottom-up processing via sensory stimuli from the external world, amygdala activity increases through the insula and ACC activation.
正念的情绪调节机制在减轻压力方面起着重要作用。认知心理学和认知神经科学领域的许多研究人员试图通过记录发生的认知过程和表征每个过程的神经活动来阐明这一机制。然而，以前的研究结果并没有揭示出在正念过程中实现情绪调节的大脑中信息传播的机制。在这项研究中，我们基于其解剖网络结构构建了一个功能大脑模型，以及一个代表大脑区域之间信息传播的计算模型。然后，我们通过模拟每个区域活动的变化，检查了正念冥想对大脑中信息传播的影响。这些变化的模拟代表了通过改变每个区域输出的权重，对神经活动进行处理资源分配的程度。通过模拟，我们揭示了正念中情绪调节的神经活动特征是如何在大脑中实现的，这在以前的研究中已经报道过。正念冥想增加了丘脑和感觉皮层每个区域输出的权重，这些区域处理来自外部世界的感觉刺激。这种感觉信息激活脑岛和前扣带皮层（ACC）。眶额皮层和背外侧前额叶皮层抑制杏仁核的活动（即自上而下的情绪调节）。然而，当正念冥想通过来自外部世界的感觉刺激主导自下而上的处理时，杏仁核的活动通过脑岛和 ACC 的激活而增加。
