Mindfulness training preserves sustained attention and resting state anticorrelation between default‐mode network and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: A randomized controlled trial
Name
hbm.25197.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.36 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
160ad1a129108ad7ea2f389ac822379e
Author(s)
Bauer, Clemens CC
Rozenkrantz, Liron
Caballero, Camila
Nieto-Castanon, Alfonso
Scherer, Ethan
West, Martin R
Mrazek, Michael
Phillips, Dawa T
Gabrieli, John DE
Whitfield-Gabrieli, Susan
Date Issued
2020
Journal
Human Brain Mapping
Publisher
Wiley
Version
Final published version
Abstract
© 2020 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. Mindfulness training can enhance cognitive control, but the neural mechanisms underlying such enhancement in children are unknown. Here, we conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with sixth graders (mean age 11.76 years) to examine the impact of 8 weeks of school-based mindfulness training, relative to coding training as an active control, on sustained attention and associated resting-state functional brain connectivity. At baseline, better performance on a sustained-attention task correlated with greater anticorrelation between the default mode network (DMN) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a key node of the central executive network. Following the interventions, children in the mindfulness group preserved their sustained-attention performance (i.e., fewer lapses of attention) and preserved DMN–DLPFC anticorrelation compared to children in the active control group, who exhibited declines in both sustained attention and DMN–DLPFC anticorrelation. Further, change in sustained-attention performance correlated with change in DMN–DLPFC anticorrelation only within the mindfulness group. These findings provide the first causal link between mindfulness training and both sustained attention and associated neural plasticity. Administered as a part of sixth graders' school schedule, this RCT supports the beneficial effects of school-based mindfulness training on cognitive control.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1002/HBM.25197
