Holzel et al. (2011) Flashcards
Psychology being investigated in mindfulness
Type of meditation in where you focus on being intensely aware of what you’re sensing/feeling in the moment without any judgement
What happens in mindfulness?
A person becomes more aware of:
- themselves
- current experience
- physical sensations
- thoughts
- feelings
What does mindfulness involve?
- breathing techniques
- guided imagery
- other practices that relax mind/body
What are some benefits of mindfulness?
- increases grey matter in brain
- helps to embrace the mind, heart, body
- improvd health
- helps to avoid depression and chronic anxiety
What is Localisation of Functions?
It’s the idea that certain functions (like language/memory) have certain locations within the brain
How is the brain studied?
- historically by studying dead bodies
- structural: scans take detailed pictures of the shape of the brain area
- functional: scans show activity levels in different parts of the brain
Localisation of the brain (areas)
Parts of the brain:
- hippocampus: learning and memory
- insula: awareness/PROI
How can meditation reshape our brains?
Reduced symptoms for:
- depression
- anxiety disorders
- pain
- insomnia
- enhanced ability to pay attention
- increased quality of life
- empathy/compassion/calmer
Size of amygdala in correlation to stress levels
- higher stress levels = larger amygdala
- lower stress levels = smaller amygdala
Aim of Holzel et al.
The focus of the study is to identify brain regions that changed in association with participation in an 8 week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course
Sample 1
- pps from New England
- age: 25-55 years
- People enrolled in 4 MBSR courses at Centre for Mindfulness at University of Massachusetts
- committed to attend all 8 classes and perform prescribed daily hw
- physically and psychologically healthy
- no meds taken
- self-referred: reduce stress and referred by physician
- all were safe to have an MRI scan (no metallic implants)
- had limited experience with meditation:
–> no meditation classes in past 6 months
–> no more than 4 classes in past 5 yrs
–> no 10 classes in a lifetime
Sample 2
- initial experimental sample:
–>18 R-handed pps
–> 8M, 10F
–> 2 males left and didn’t attend 2nd session due to discomfort - remaining sample:
–> mean age = 38 yrs
–> 13 caucasian
–> 1 asian
–> 1 african american
–> 1 multi-ethnic - control group:
–> 17 pps
–> 11M, 6F
–> mean age = 39 yrs
–> 13 caucasian
–> 2 asian
–> 2 african american
–> 1 hispanic
–> both groups did NOT differ in age and education level
Informed consent
- Written informed consent was obtained by all participants
Study protocol approved by:
- The IRBs of Massachusetts General Hospital
- The University of Massachusetts Medical School
Sample evaluation
STRENGTHS:
- opportunity sample
- multi-ethnic pps
WEAKNESSES:
- not generalisable
(all pps in the same area/small sample size)
Research method & design
(Design) - Independent measures:
- IV: MBSR
- 2 1/2 hr session every week for 8 weeks
- full day session in 6th week
- longitudinal study (8 weeks)
- pps tested before and after intervention
- compared to control group
Participants trained in mindfulness exercises:
- body scan
- mindful yoga
- sitting meditation
DV:
- changes in grey matter in brain (using MRI scans)
- measures on 5 mindfulness scales (questionnaires - FFMQ)
Describe what happened in MBSR intervention (part 1)
- 8 weekly group meetings
- 2 1/2 hrs each
- 1 full day (6.5 hrs)
- 6th week of the course
[A] BODY SCAN
- attention guided through entire body
- non-judgemental awareness
- sensations in each region
[B] MINDFUL YOGA
- gentle stretching exercises
- slow movements coordinated with breathing
- emphasis on full awareness with moment-to-moment experience
- non-harming attitude to body
- investigate what feels appropriate to one’s body
[C] SITTING MEDITATION
- awareness of sensations of breathing
- awareness of different modalities (sight, taste, other body sensations)
- expand awareness meditation by including anything that appears in the consciousness
MBSR intervention (part 2)
- questions relating to the practice of mindfulness in every day life were clarified
- pps received audio recordings containing 45 minute guided mindfulness exercises
- instructed to practice daily at home
- taught to practice mindfulness informally in everyday activities: eating, walking, taking a shower
- during classes, formal mindfulness exercises were practiced
- pps recorded amount of time they spent engaged in mindfulness exercises each day
- didactic (informative) instruction given on using mindfulness for coping with stress in daily life
Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire
(psychometric scale)
- Observing
- notice internal and external stimuli
- sensations
- emotions
- cognitions
- sights/sounds/smells - Describing
- noting
- mentally label these stimuli with words - Acting with awareness
- attending to one’s current actions - Non-judging of inner experience
- refraining from evaluation of one’s sensations, cognitions, emotions - non-reactivity to inner experience
- allowing thoughts and feelings to come and go, without attention getting caught up in them
5-point likert-type scale
1 = never/rarely very true
5 = very often/always true
- 5 subscales shown adequate to good internal consistency
- data collected from both groups
Evaluation MBSR
MBSR:
Strengths:
- descriptive
- efficacy
- reliability
Weakness:
- social desirability
- individual differences
- homework
Evaluation FFMQ
FFMQ:
Strengths:
- test-retest reliability
- validity
Weaknesses:
- social desirability
What is ROI (regions of interest)?
It’s an analysis where you choose to analyze a region selected in the brain before you look at the whole brain
Regions of Interest
- hippocampus
- insula
- exploratory analyses performed on entire brain compared to control
Procedure
- experimental and control group both completed FFMQ
- pps in both groups were put in MRI scans of their brains for 2 occasions
- 45 mins audio recording pps had to follow
- Experimental:
–> during 2 weeks before
–> 2 weeks after the 8-week MBSR intervention
–> average gap of 56 days - Control:
–> average of 66 days between 2 scans - Data from MRI scans used in 2 ways:
–> to procedure “Regions of Interest” analysis of particular brain areas
–> “Whole brain analysis” to explore other regions potentially affected by the mindfulness intervention
Procedure flowchart
Exp. group:
- MRI scans
- FFMQ
- MBSR
- MRI scans
= 56 days
Control group:
- MRI scans
- FFMQ
- MRI scans
= 66 days
Evaluation of MRI scans
Strengths:
- objective data
- details of structure
Weaknesses:
- stressful
- no qualitative data
- can be errors in scanner
- RESULTS: Amount of mindfulness practice
Formal hw exercises over 8 weeks:
- average 22.6 hrs
- average per day 27 mins
- amount of body scan practice = 335 - 1002 mins
- mean = 699 mins
- SD = 217 mins
- amount of yoga practice = 103 - 775 mins
- mean = 327 mins
- SD = 194 mins
- amount of sitting meditation = 0 - 755 mins
- mean = 332 mins
- SD = 211 mins
What’s the correlation coefficient for body scan, yoga, and sitting?
- body scan & yoga –> r = -0.042
- body scan & sitting –> r = -0.26
- yoga and sitting –> r = 0.49
- RESULTS: Improvements in mindfulness
Using FFMQ, 3 of 5 subscales we found:
- acting with awareness = 18.87
- observing = 7.09
- non-judging = 4.61
- MBSR pps increased their mindfulness scores on these 3 subscales compared to control group
- RESULTS: Grey matter changes in priori regions of interest
- LEFT HIPPOCAMPUS = NO difference between control and exp group at start of study
- NO changes in grey matter concentrations in control group between two test points
- Increases in LEFT HIPPOCAMPUS in MBSR was found
- Structural changes are detectable in this region within 8 weeks
Changes in priori regions were NOT CORRELATED with the amount of mindfulness practiced or changes in FFMQ
Grey matter concentration results
- changes in grey matter represented as a positive (+) number = increase
- changes in grey matter represented as a negative (-) = decrease
- figures can be converted as a %
Eg: +0.01 = 1% increase
- RESULTS: Whole brain analysis
- revealed 4 clusters with significant grey matter concentration at POST compared to PRE-POINT time in MBSR
- 1 cluster = posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)
- 1 cluster = Left temporo-parietal junction (TPJ)
- 2 clusters = cerebellum
- NO regions showed significant decrease in grey matter concentration following MBSR
- amount of hw practiced and change in FFMQ were not correlated with change in clusters
- NO significant clusters were identified to increase or decrease in grey matter concentration from PRE to POST in control group
- small reductions in grey matter were presented in control group over study period
Conclusions
- study demonstrates longitudinal changes in grey matter concentration following 8W MBSR compared to control group
- exploratory whole brain analyses identified increases in grey matter concentration in:
–> PCC
–> TPJ
–> cerebellum
Evaluation strengths
- high reliability (controls, standardized procedure)
- use of technical equipment (validity, objective)
- usefulness (to participants and brain functioning)
- ethics (informed consent)
- longitudinal study (long period of time allows for more in-depth research to be conducted in pps)
Evaluation weaknesses
- low eco validity (setting task)
- low generalisability (pps all from New England same area)
- correlation (no cause and effect)
- ethics (can be potential psychological discomfort)
