Czajko Sébastien, Zorn Jelle, Daumail Loïc, Chetelat Gael, Margulies Daniel S, Lutz Antoine
EDUWELL team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Centre, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR 5292, Lyon 1 University, Lyon, France.
Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
Biol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci. 2024 Aug 9;4(6):100372. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2024.100372. eCollection 2024 Nov.
Short mindfulness-based interventions have gained traction in research due to their positive impact on well-being, cognition, and clinical symptoms across various settings. However, these short-term trainings are viewed as preliminary steps within a more extensive transformative path, presumably leading to long-lasting trait changes. Despite this, little is still known about the brain correlates of these meditation traits.
To address this gap, we investigated the neural correlates of meditation expertise in long-term Buddhist practitioners, comparing the large-scale brain functional connectivity of 28 expert meditators with 47 matched novices. Our hypothesis posited that meditation expertise would be associated with specific and enduring patterns of functional connectivity present during both meditative (open monitoring/open presence and loving-kindness and compassion meditations) and nonmeditative resting states, as measured by connectivity gradients.
Applying a support vector classifier to states not included in training, we successfully decoded expertise as a trait, demonstrating its non-state-dependent nature. The signature of expertise was further characterized by an increased integration of large-scale brain networks, including the dorsal and ventral attention, limbic, frontoparietal, and somatomotor networks. The latter correlated with a higher ability to create psychological distance from thoughts and emotions.
Such heightened integration of bodily maps with affective and attentional networks in meditation experts could point toward a signature of the embodied cognition cultivated in these contemplative practices.
基于正念的短期干预措施因其对各种环境下的幸福感、认知和临床症状具有积极影响而在研究中受到关注。然而，这些短期训练被视为更广泛的转变过程中的初步步骤，可能会导致持久的特质变化。尽管如此，对于这些冥想特质的大脑关联仍知之甚少。
为了填补这一空白，我们调查了长期佛教修行者冥想专业知识的神经关联，比较了28名冥想专家与47名匹配的新手的大规模脑功能连接。我们的假设是，冥想专业知识将与冥想（开放监测/开放存在以及慈爱与慈悲冥想）和非冥想静息状态下通过连接梯度测量的特定且持久的功能连接模式相关联。
将支持向量分类器应用于未包含在训练中的状态，我们成功地将专业知识解码为一种特质，证明了其非状态依赖性。专业知识的特征还表现为大规模脑网络的整合增加，包括背侧和腹侧注意、边缘、额顶叶和躯体运动网络。后者与从思想和情绪中创造心理距离的更高能力相关。
冥想专家中身体图谱与情感和注意网络的这种增强整合可能指向这些冥想练习中培养的具身认知的一个特征。
