Holzel et al. (2011) Flashcards
(35 cards)
Psychology being investigated in mindfulness
Type of meditation in where you focus on being intensely aware of what you’re sensing/feeling in the moment without any judgement
What happens in mindfulness?
A person becomes more aware of:
- themselves
- current experience
- physical sensations
- thoughts
- feelings
What does mindfulness involve?
- breathing techniques
- guided imagery
- other practices that relax mind/body
What are some benefits of mindfulness?
- increases grey matter in brain
- helps to embrace the mind, heart, body
- improvd health
- helps to avoid depression and chronic anxiety
What is Localisation of Functions?
It’s the idea that certain functions (like language/memory) have certain locations within the brain
How is the brain studied?
- historically by studying dead bodies
- structural: scans take detailed pictures of the shape of the brain area
- functional: scans show activity levels in different parts of the brain
Localisation of the brain (areas)
Parts of the brain:
- hippocampus: learning and memory
- insula: awareness/PROI
How can meditation reshape our brains?
Reduced symptoms for:
- depression
- anxiety disorders
- pain
- insomnia
- enhanced ability to pay attention
- increased quality of life
- empathy/compassion/calmer
Size of amygdala in correlation to stress levels
- higher stress levels = larger amygdala
- lower stress levels = smaller amygdala
Aim of Holzel et al.
The focus of the study is to identify brain regions that changed in association with participation in an 8 week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course
Sample 1
- pps from New England
- age: 25-55 years
- People enrolled in 4 MBSR courses at Centre for Mindfulness at University of Massachusetts
- committed to attend all 8 classes and perform prescribed daily hw
- physically and psychologically healthy
- no meds taken
- self-referred: reduce stress and referred by physician
- all were safe to have an MRI scan (no metallic implants)
- had limited experience with meditation:
–> no meditation classes in past 6 months
–> no more than 4 classes in past 5 yrs
–> no 10 classes in a lifetime
Sample 2
- initial experimental sample:
–>18 R-handed pps
–> 8M, 10F
–> 2 males left and didn’t attend 2nd session due to discomfort - remaining sample:
–> mean age = 38 yrs
–> 13 caucasian
–> 1 asian
–> 1 african american
–> 1 multi-ethnic - control group:
–> 17 pps
–> 11M, 6F
–> mean age = 39 yrs
–> 13 caucasian
–> 2 asian
–> 2 african american
–> 1 hispanic
–> both groups did NOT differ in age and education level
Informed consent
- Written informed consent was obtained by all participants
Study protocol approved by:
- The IRBs of Massachusetts General Hospital
- The University of Massachusetts Medical School
Sample evaluation
STRENGTHS:
- opportunity sample
- multi-ethnic pps
WEAKNESSES:
- not generalisable
(all pps in the same area/small sample size)
Research method & design
(Design) - Independent measures:
- IV: MBSR
- 2 1/2 hr session every week for 8 weeks
- full day session in 6th week
- longitudinal study (8 weeks)
- pps tested before and after intervention
- compared to control group
Participants trained in mindfulness exercises:
- body scan
- mindful yoga
- sitting meditation
DV:
- changes in grey matter in brain (using MRI scans)
- measures on 5 mindfulness scales (questionnaires - FFMQ)
Describe what happened in MBSR intervention (part 1)
- 8 weekly group meetings
- 2 1/2 hrs each
- 1 full day (6.5 hrs)
- 6th week of the course
[A] BODY SCAN
- attention guided through entire body
- non-judgemental awareness
- sensations in each region
[B] MINDFUL YOGA
- gentle stretching exercises
- slow movements coordinated with breathing
- emphasis on full awareness with moment-to-moment experience
- non-harming attitude to body
- investigate what feels appropriate to one’s body
[C] SITTING MEDITATION
- awareness of sensations of breathing
- awareness of different modalities (sight, taste, other body sensations)
- expand awareness meditation by including anything that appears in the consciousness
MBSR intervention (part 2)
- questions relating to the practice of mindfulness in every day life were clarified
- pps received audio recordings containing 45 minute guided mindfulness exercises
- instructed to practice daily at home
- taught to practice mindfulness informally in everyday activities: eating, walking, taking a shower
- during classes, formal mindfulness exercises were practiced
- pps recorded amount of time they spent engaged in mindfulness exercises each day
- didactic (informative) instruction given on using mindfulness for coping with stress in daily life
Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire
(psychometric scale)
- Observing
- notice internal and external stimuli
- sensations
- emotions
- cognitions
- sights/sounds/smells - Describing
- noting
- mentally label these stimuli with words - Acting with awareness
- attending to one’s current actions - Non-judging of inner experience
- refraining from evaluation of one’s sensations, cognitions, emotions - non-reactivity to inner experience
- allowing thoughts and feelings to come and go, without attention getting caught up in them
5-point likert-type scale
1 = never/rarely very true
5 = very often/always true
- 5 subscales shown adequate to good internal consistency
- data collected from both groups
Evaluation MBSR
MBSR:
Strengths:
- descriptive
- efficacy
- reliability
Weakness:
- social desirability
- individual differences
- homework
Evaluation FFMQ
FFMQ:
Strengths:
- test-retest reliability
- validity
Weaknesses:
- social desirability
What is ROI (regions of interest)?
It’s an analysis where you choose to analyze a region selected in the brain before you look at the whole brain
Regions of Interest
- hippocampus
- insula
- exploratory analyses performed on entire brain compared to control
Procedure
- experimental and control group both completed FFMQ
- pps in both groups were put in MRI scans of their brains for 2 occasions
- 45 mins audio recording pps had to follow
- Experimental:
–> during 2 weeks before
–> 2 weeks after the 8-week MBSR intervention
–> average gap of 56 days - Control:
–> average of 66 days between 2 scans - Data from MRI scans used in 2 ways:
–> to procedure “Regions of Interest” analysis of particular brain areas
–> “Whole brain analysis” to explore other regions potentially affected by the mindfulness intervention
