Archival ReportAlterations in Resting-State Functional Connectivity Link Mindfulness Meditation With Reduced Interleukin-6: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Section snippets
Participants
Thirty-five right-handed unemployed job-seeking community adults participated (see Supplemental Table S1 for inclusion/exclusion study criteria) (see Supplemental Figure S1 for CONSORT flowchart). Participants had moderate to high levels of job-seeking stress over the past month, scoring >5 on an adapted 4-item Perceived Stress Scale (34) (mean [M] = 9.60, SD = 2.35; for job-seeking stress measure see Supplemental Table S1). After complete description of the study to the participants, written
Preliminary Analyses—Success of Randomization and Treatment Program Measures
There were no significant differences between the mindfulness (HEM) and relaxation (HER) groups on study baseline characteristics, indicating successful randomization (Table 1). There were no significant group differences in fast head motion during the resting-state scan period (F1,35 = 0.002, p = .97) and no differential fast head motion changes from baseline to the posttreatment fMRI resting-state scan between groups (time × condition, F1,34 = 0.001, p = .98). The relaxation training program
Discussion
There has been considerable recent interest in characterizing resting-state neural networks, such as the DMN, and understanding their role in health and disease (23). We report that mindfulness meditation training (compared with relaxation training without a mindfulness component) increased rsFC between the DMN (PCC) and left dlPFC. These findings corroborate and experimentally extend cross-sectional findings in advanced mindfulness meditation practitioners (17), suggesting that mindfulness
Acknowledgments and Disclosures
This research was supported by funding from the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse Opportunity Fund, who played no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
J.D. Creswell and A.A. Taren had full access to the data and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
We thank the
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