Ganesan, Saampras;
Van Dam, Nicholas T;
Kamboj, Sunjeev K;
Tsuchiyagaito, Aki;
Sacchet, Matthew D;
Misaki, Masaya;
Moffat, Bradford A;
... Zalesky, Andrew; + view all
(2025)
Neurofeedback Training Facilitates Awareness and Enhances Emotional Well-being Associated with Real-World Meditation Practice: A 7-T MRI Study.
Mindfulness
10.1007/s12671-025-02671-z.
(In press).
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Abstract
Objectives Novice meditators often struggle to recognise and intentionally disengage from self-referential thought during meditation. We investigated whether personalised high-precision neurofeedback (NF) training improves volitional disengagement from self-referential thought during meditation and enhances meditation’s outcomes. Method In a single-blind, controlled study, novices received 2 days of veridical (n = 20) or sham (n = 20) 7-T fMRI NF targeting posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) deactivation during meditation. After NF training, at-home meditation practice was monitored for 1 week, followed by an in-lab behavioural assessment. Results Both groups reported similar perceptions of NF contingency, performance, and expectancy (p > 0.05), suggesting effective participant blinding. PCC deactivation during NF-guided meditation was comparable across groups (p > 0.05). Veridical NF group showed significantly stronger negative functional coupling (d = 0.59) between PCC and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), significantly greater mindful awareness (d = 0.41) and emotional well-being (d = 0.40) associated with 1-week practice, and significant correlation (r = 0.71, p < 0.01) between emotional well-being and PCC-DLPFC negative coupling. Conclusions These findings suggest that high-precision NF can improve novices’ ability to volitionally disengage from self-referential thought during meditation, thereby fostering greater mindful awareness in real-world practice and promoting emotional well-being. Preregistration This exploratory study was not preregistered.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Neurofeedback Training Facilitates Awareness and Enhances Emotional Well-being Associated with Real-World Meditation Practice: A 7-T MRI Study |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s12671-025-02671-z |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-025-02671-z |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Meditation, Neurofeedback, 7-T fMRI, Emotional well-being, Mindful awareness, Posterior cingulate cortex, Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10214560 |
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