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A post-apocalyptic Earth, emptied of humans, seems like the stuff of science fiction TV and movies. But in this short, surprising talk, Lord Martin Rees asks us to think about our real existential risks — natural and human-made threats that could wipe out humanity. As a concerned member of the human race, he asks: What's the worst thing that could possibly happen?
Mindfulness meditation is a set of attention-based, regulatory, and self-inquiry training regimes. Although the impact of mindfulness training (MT) on self-regulation is well established, the neural mechanisms supporting such plasticity are poorly understood. MT is thought to act through interoceptive salience and attentional control mechanisms, but until now conflicting evidence from behavioral and neural measures renders difficult distinguishing their respective roles. To resolve this question we conducted a fully randomized 6 week longitudinal trial of MT, explicitly controlling for cognitive and treatment effects with an active-control group. We measured behavioral metacognition and whole-brain blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals using functional MRI during an affective Stroop task before and after intervention in healthy human subjects. Although both groups improved significantly on a response-inhibition task, only the MT group showed reduced affective Stroop conflict. Moreover, the MT group displayed greater dorsolateral prefrontal cortex responses during executive processing, consistent with increased recruitment of top-down mechanisms to resolve conflict. In contrast, we did not observe overall group-by-time interactions on negative affect-related reaction times or BOLD responses. However, only participants with the greatest amount of MT practice showed improvements in response inhibition and increased recruitment of dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, and right anterior insula during negative valence processing. Our findings highlight the importance of active control in MT research, indicate unique neural mechanisms for progressive stages of mindfulness training, and suggest that optimal application of MT may differ depending on context, contrary to a one-size-fits-all approach.
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BackgroundNon-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a transdiagnostic behaviour that can be difficult to treat; to date no evidence based treatment for NSSI exists. Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) specifically targets the mechanisms thought to initiate and maintain NSSI, and thus appears a viable treatment option. The aims of the current study are to test the ability of MBCT to reduce the frequency and medical severity of NSSI, and explore the mechanisms by which MBCT exerts its effect.
Methods/Design
We will conduct a parallel group randomised controlled trial of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) versus Supportive Therapy (ST) in young people aged 18–25 years. Computerised block randomisation will be used to allocate participants to groups. All participants will meet the proposed DSM-5 criteria for NSSI (i.e. five episodes in the last twelve months). Participants will be excluded if they: 1) are currently receiving psychological treatment, 2) have attempted suicide in the previous 12 months, 3) exhibit acute psychosis, 4) have a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, or 5) have prior experience of MBCT. Our primary outcome is the frequency and medical severity of NSSI. As secondary outcomes we will assess changes in rumination, mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, stress, and attentional bias, and test these as mechanisms of change.
Discussion
This is the first randomised controlled trial to test the efficacy of MBCT in reducing NSSI. Evidence of the efficacy of MBCT for self-injury will allow provision of a brief intervention for self-injury that can be implemented as a stand-alone treatment or integrated with existing treatments for psychiatric disorders.
Mindfulness training has been proposed as a potentially important new approach for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). However, to date only a few studies have investigated mindfulness training for GAD. The aim of this study was to further investigate symptom change and recovery in pathological worry after mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) using an uncontrolled pre-post design. Twenty-three adults with a primary diagnosis of GAD participated in the study. The MBCT program involved 9 weekly 2-hour group sessions, a post-treatment assessment session, and 6-week and 3-month follow-up sessions. Intent-to-treat analysis revealed significant improvements in pathological worry, stress, quality of life, and a number of other symptoms at post-treatment, which were maintained at follow-up. Attrition was also low, and MBCT was perceived as a credible and acceptable intervention. However, when applying standardized recovery criteria to pathological worry scores, the rate of recovery at post-treatment was very small, although improved at follow-up. Overall, the findings suggest MBCT is definitely worthy of further investigation as a treatment option for GAD, but falls well short of outcomes achieved by past research. Possible reasons for the poor rate of recovery, implications, and limitations are briefly outlined.
Mindfulness training has been proposed as a potentially important new approach for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). However, to date only a few studies have investigated mindfulness training for GAD. The aim of this study was to further investigate symptom change and recovery in pathological worry after mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) using an uncontrolled pre-post design. Twenty-three adults with a primary diagnosis of GAD participated in the study. The MBCT program involved 9 weekly 2-hour group sessions, a post-treatment assessment session, and 6-week and 3-month follow-up sessions. Intent-to-treat analysis revealed significant improvements in pathological worry, stress, quality of life, and a number of other symptoms at post-treatment, which were maintained at follow-up. Attrition was also low, and MBCT was perceived as a credible and acceptable intervention. However, when applying standardized recovery criteria to pathological worry scores, the rate of recovery at post-treatment was very small, although improved at follow-up. Overall, the findings suggest MBCT is definitely worthy of further investigation as a treatment option for GAD, but falls well short of outcomes achieved by past research. Possible reasons for the poor rate of recovery, implications, and limitations are briefly outlined.
OBJECTIVE:We sought to determine if we could reduce symptoms of depression in individuals with a traumatic brain injury using mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
SETTING:
The study was conducted in a community setting.
PARTICIPANTS:
We enrolled adults with symptoms of depression after a traumatic brain injury.
DESIGN:
We conducted a randomized controlled trial; participants were randomized to the 10-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy intervention arm or to the wait-list control arm.
MAIN MEASURES:
The primary outcome measure was symptoms of depression using the Beck Depression Inventory-II.
RESULTS:
The parallel group analysis revealed a greater reduction in Beck Depression Inventory-II scores for the intervention group (6.63, n = 38,) than the control group (2.13, n = 38, P = .029). A medium effect size was observed (Cohen d = 0.56). The improvement in Beck Depression Inventory-II scores was maintained at the 3-month follow-up.
CONCLUSION:
These results are consistent with those of other researchers that use mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to reduce symptoms of depression and suggest that further work to replicate these findings and improve upon the efficacy of the intervention is warranted.
OBJECTIVE:We sought to determine if we could reduce symptoms of depression in individuals with a traumatic brain injury using mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
SETTING:
The study was conducted in a community setting.
PARTICIPANTS:
We enrolled adults with symptoms of depression after a traumatic brain injury.
DESIGN:
We conducted a randomized controlled trial; participants were randomized to the 10-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy intervention arm or to the wait-list control arm.
MAIN MEASURES:
The primary outcome measure was symptoms of depression using the Beck Depression Inventory-II.
RESULTS:
The parallel group analysis revealed a greater reduction in Beck Depression Inventory-II scores for the intervention group (6.63, n = 38,) than the control group (2.13, n = 38, P = .029). A medium effect size was observed (Cohen d = 0.56). The improvement in Beck Depression Inventory-II scores was maintained at the 3-month follow-up.
CONCLUSION:
These results are consistent with those of other researchers that use mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to reduce symptoms of depression and suggest that further work to replicate these findings and improve upon the efficacy of the intervention is warranted.
In everyday life, many people believe that two heads are better than one. Our ability to solve problems together appears to be fundamental to the current dominance and future survival of the human species. But are two heads really better than one? We addressed this question in the context of a collective low-level perceptual decision-making task. For two observers of nearly equal visual sensitivity, two heads were definitely better than one, provided they were given the opportunity to communicate freely, even in the absence of any feedback about decision outcomes. But for observers with very different visual sensitivities, two heads were actually worse than the better one. These seemingly discrepant patterns of group behavior can be explained by a model in which two heads are Bayes optimal under the assumption that individuals accurately communicate their level of confidence on every trial.
<p>ABSTRACTIn order to identify potential training to enhance comprehensive soldier fitness, this analysis searched MEDLINE via PubMed and elsewhere for 33 reasonably significant modalities, screening over 11,500 articles for relevance regarding soldier resilience. Evaluation of modalities that are exclusively educational or cognitive/behavioral in nature is deferred. Using the volume and quality of research over 40 parameters distributed among the five domains of resilience (physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and family life), these data allow culling of most of the meditative modalities and discrimination among the remaining techniques. The resulting order of merit is Transcendental Meditation, mindfulness, and progressive muscle relaxation. Transcendental Meditation, mindfulness, and progressive muscle relaxation, in that order, have the most supporting data. Fortuitously, they also represent a cross section of the domain of techniques regarded as meditation, stress management, or relaxation, with three very different mechanisms of action. They are suitable potential options for improving soldier resilience.</p>
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