Changes in State Mindfulness are the Key to Success in Mindfulness Interventions: Ecological Momentary Assessments of Predictors, Mediators, and Outcomes in a Four-Week Koru Mindfulness Intervention.

It is often assumed that changes in state mindfulness coupled with a decrease in intrusive thinking (e.g., rumination or worry) are the crucial ingredients in mindfulness interventions. We investigate this claim by examining within-person day-to-day changes and causal relationships among these changes in state measures of mindfulness, cognitive interference (a measure of intrusive thinking), depression, well-being, stress, sleep, physical activity, and quality of formal and informal mindfulness practice in a four-week randomized controlled mindfulness intervention with a sample of college students using the Koru mindfulness program; n = 55 for intervention, n = 57 for control; mean age = 21.4). The intervention was effective in improving day-to-day state mindfulness, cognitive interference, and sleep (the effects on all three were linear), but the effects on physical activity, depression, and well-being were not significant. Day-to-day mindfulness (the independent variable) was a predictor of change in daily cognitive interference (the mediating variable), which in turn predicted depression and well-being (dependent variables). The beneficial effects of state mindfulness were demonstrable over a lag of four days, suggesting it is indeed a key ingredient in the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions. Physical activity, sleep, and practice quality did not mediate any effects. One clear implication is that maintaining or restoring high levels of mindfulness, for instance by engaging in meditation or in more informal mindfulness exercises, would be of obvious and direct benefit to mental health and well-being.

The Effects of Mindfulness Interventions on Older Adults' Cognition: A Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effect of mindfulness interventions on cognitive tasks in healthy older adults and older adults with diagnoses of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia. METHODS: Three-level meta-analysis and systematic review of 30 published randomized-controlled trials. RESULTS: Mindfulness interventions provided a small, yet significant positive effect on cognition compared to a control group (average weighted Hedges' g = 0.36, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.06-0.65]). Attention (g = 0.22, 95% CI = [0.09, 0.35]), long-term memory (g = 0.32, 95% CI = [0.08, 0.56]), and visuospatial processing (g = 0.22, 95% CI = [0.10, 0.34]) all showed significantly meaningful changes regardless of cognitive status of the participants. There was no evidence for publication bias. Healthy older adults showed higher effect sizes than those with MCI (g = 0.27, 95% CI = [0.11, 0.43], vs. (g = -0.09, 95% CI = [-0.35, 0.17], respectively). Otherwise, there were no significant moderating effects of age, marital status, education, region, intervention type, length, number of sessions, adherence, or gender on effect size. Moderator analyses within cognitive domains suggest that focused attention practices might be the best for improving cognition. Lastly, meditation interventions seem to work as effectively as other mind-body interventions, but not as effectively as other interventions to improve cognitive functioning in older adults. DISCUSSION: Mindfulness interventions appear to be a useful tool for improving cognitive functioning in older adults.

Remote delivery of a Koru Mindfulness intervention for college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether a remote, online, group-based mindfulness intervention results in effects during the COVID-19 pandemic. PARTICIPANTS: 111 college students: 58 in the intervention group, 53 in a waitlist control group. METHODS: Randomized control trial (RCT) using a 4-week Koru Mindfulness program, investigating pre-to-posttest changes in the intervention group compared to time-yoked control participants. RESULTS: Average effect size for all 21 variables measured was 0.48. The intervention produced significant benefits for mindfulness, rumination, worry, mood, stress, anxiety, three out of six aspects of psychological wellbeing (Autonomy, Environmental mastery, Self-acceptance) and physical activity. No significant effect was noted for depression (d = 0.33) or sleep (d = -0.13), and three aspects of psychological wellbeing (Personal growth, Positive relationships, Purpose in life). CONCLUSIONS: A remote, online, group-based mindfulness program yielded benefits on stress, anxiety, and mood in college students, even under the dire circumstances of a pandemic.

Fronto-striatal activity predicts anhedonia and positive empathy subtypes.

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, globus pallidus, and nucleus accumbens are important components of the reward circuit in the brain; and prior research suggests individuals with damage to these regions feel less pleasure (i.e., are anhedonic). However, little is known about how these brain regions relate to vicarious pleasure. Pilot fMRI data were collected from 20 participants (Mage = 22, SD = 7.0, 63% female) during a validated empathy induction paradigm that utilized video clips extracted from the television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" to elicit empathic happiness (i.e. vicarious happiness) when targets display positive affect, and either empathic cheerfulness (i.e. the tendency to want to cheer someone up) or empathic concern (i.e. vicarious sadness) when targets display negative affect. Participants also completed the novel "Happy Faces" task-a behavioral measure of anhedonia-while fMRI was collected. fMRI data during task completion were used to predict trait empathy measured via self-report outside of the scanner, and accuracy on the "Happy Faces" task. Results indicate that globus pallidus activity during empathic concern-eliciting video clips significantly predicted self-reported trait empathic cheerfulness (R2 = 26%, p = 0.045). Furthermore, greater dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity during the Happy Faces task predicted accurate performance on the task (R2 = 34%, p < .05); and greater nucleus accumbens shell activity during the Happy Faces task predicted greater trait empathic happiness (R2 = 38%, p < .05). These results suggest that fronto-striatal circuitry contributes to our experience of anhedonia, empathic happiness, and empathic cheerfulness.