It matters what you practice: differential training effects on subjective experience, behavior, brain and body in the ReSource Project
Introduction
Modern societies are marked by great progress toward improved health, technology and general knowledge. Yet, we face economic and environmental crises, increasing egoism and narcissism, and high prevalence rates of loneliness, psychosocial stress and associated diseases. As one solution to cope with these problems, a growing interest in secular meditation-based mental training programs has emerged [1•]. Aiming to foster stress resilience and improve health and wellbeing, interventions such as the 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program [2] and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy [3] have built a powerful reputation in mainstream clinical and educational settings [1•]. ‘Mindfulness’ earned its current meaning in the 1970s with Jon Kabat-Zinn’s initiative to make Buddhist meditation accessible for secular audiences. As per Kabat-Zinn’s definition, it is ‘the awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally’ [4]. However, in recent years—and at least partially owed to an overly simplistic presentation of what mindfulness can achieve in the popular media—an undifferentiated view of mindfulness as the panacea for all the ills of modern life has developed.
To move beyond such an undifferentiated view, we argue for the multifaceted nature of mindfulness and meditation-based mental practices. The parable of sport serves to illustrate this point. Clearly, sport is not a unitary practice, but an umbrella term for numerous physical exercises that train specific parts of the body. In similar vein, meditation-based mental training comprises different practices targeting distinct mental faculties such as attention and interoceptive awareness, socio-emotional or socio-cognitive abilities [e.g. Refs. 5, 6, 7]. Consequently, it should matter what we train, and not every practice should yield the same effects. In an attempt to differentiate between different types of mental practice, we conducted the ReSource Project [7], a multi-level, multi-method scientific evaluation of a 9-month training intervention cultivating a wide range of mental exercises in three distinct 3-month training modules. These modules focused on: (1) present-moment attention and interoceptive awareness (Presence), (2) socio-affective skills such as loving kindness, compassion, prosocial motivation and acceptance of difficult emotions (Affect), and (3) socio-cognitive skills including meta-cognition as well as perspective-taking on self and others (Perspective). This division partly reflects recent social neuroscience research identifying distinct neural routes to social understanding: one socio-affective route including emotions such as empathy and compassion [8,9], and one socio-cognitive route including the capacity to mentalize (or have a Theory of Mind) and take perspective on self and others [for details on the scientific backbone of this division see Refs. 10,11]. Results from the ReSource Project serve to demonstrate that, indeed, different types of meditation-based mental practices yield differential effects on behavior, brain and body. After a short introduction into the design of the ReSource Project, we will systematically review these findings in the following paragraphs.
Section snippets
Training protocol and design of the ReSource Project
The ReSource Project comprised three mental training modules—Presence, Affect and Perspective—aiming at the cultivation of a healthy, balanced and compassionate way of living (see Figure 1, Figure 2). Each module started with a 3-day silent retreat, followed by a 3-month training course. Participants met once weekly with two meditation teachers in a 2-hour class. They otherwise integrated the training into their daily lives, supported by a custom-designed practice app. While the mindful
How does it feel to meditate? Phenomenological fingerprints of distinct meditation types
Since meditation is a conscious first-person experience, we included a range of subjective measures to capture the phenomenological fingerprints of each practice type. On a coarse level, this was done by using psychological trait questionnaires [13,14]. On a semi fine-grained level, we used state ratings assessed before and after daily core practice [12•,15]. On a fine-grained level, phenomenological fingerprints were captured through micro-phenomenological interviews, in which the interviewer
Evidence for plasticity on the level of behavior and brain
On a more objective level, we assessed behavioral aspects such as attention, compassion and Theory of Mind [24]. Also, prosocial behavior was assessed using a range of measures including game theoretical paradigms, interactive computer tasks, hypothetical distribution tasks and psychological trait questionnaires (Interpersonal Reactivity Index [25], Machiavelli Scale [26] and Prosocialness Scale [27]) [28•]. Here we focused on three distinct facets of prosocial behavior that were identified by
Malleability of autonomic, stress and interoceptive body systems
Finally, we assessed common and specific training effects at the level of peripheral physiology including measures of interoceptive body awareness, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and autonomic nervous system activity.
Compared to the above measures, examining the ability to accurately perceive and regulate internal body processes revealed a different picture: Some skills need time to develop, irrespective of practice type. Thus, heartbeat perception accuracy and associated emotional
Conclusions and future research
We reviewed multi-level evidence from a 9-month longitudinal mental training study, the ReSource Project, supporting our claim that practice type matters. We showed, for example, that attention-based mindfulness practice is efficient in increasing feelings of presence, body awareness and attentional performance. Intersubjective socio-emotional or socio-cognitive practices, on the other hand, are efficient in reducing social stress sensitivity and boosting ethical and social qualities of the
Funding
Tania Singer as principal investigator received funding for the ReSource Project from (a) the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) ERC Grant Agreement Number 205557, and (b) the Max Planck Society.
Conflict of interest statement
Nothing declared.
References and recommended reading
Papers of particular interest, published within the period of review, have been highlighted as
• of special interest
Acknowledgements
We are thankful to the members of the Social Neuroscience Department involved in the ReSource Project over many years, in particular to Astrid Ackermann, Christina Bochow, Matthias Bolz and Sandra Zurborg for managing the large-scale longitudinal study, to Elisabeth Murzik, Nadine Otto, Sylvia Tydecks, and Kerstin Träger for help with recruiting and data archiving, to Henrik Grunert for technical assistance, and to Hannes Niederhausen and Torsten Kästner for data management. Thank you also to
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