We evaluated the effects of mindfulness on impulsivity during smoking cessation. Current methods for self-reporting formal mindfulness practice are inaccurate, so we used accelerometer-based watches to monitor formal mindfulness practice testing. In this study, we attempted to replicate the Yale trial comparing Mindfulness Training (MT) to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for smoking cessation. We randomized …
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Exploring the role of self-compassion in the establishment and maintenance of a meditation practice
Although the benefits of meditation for physical and psychological well-being are well-known, little is known about factors that contribute to the successful completion of a meditation program and establishment of a regular meditation practice. Beginning meditators are often frustrated by the difficulties that they have meditating. Self-compassion, or treating oneself kindly in the face of …
Mindfulness training for parents and children
This project will examine how mindfulness training affects dispositional mindfulness, parental monitoring, a child’s effortful control of attention, and the quality of the parent-child relationship. In addition to how changes in these variables are related to changes in problem behavior. Forty families (with children ages 10-12) will be recruited from a Northwestern city, and half …
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Effects of short-term mindfulness intervention on depression and immunity
This study aimed to examine the longitudinal effects of a short-term mindfulness intervention on psychological and immune variables in a student sample with moderate depressive symptoms. 64 college females were assigned to a mindfulness intervention group or a contact-control condition. Participants received three separate assessments: (a) before treatment initiation (baseline), (b) following treatment completion (6-week …
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Mindfulness and response inhibition: Behavioral, neural and subjective correlates in smoking cessation
We conducted a study to see how a very short mindfulness training would affect smokers who were trying to quit. We wanted to know whether <20 minutes of instruction would affect peoples’ cigarette cravings and what the brain mechanisms might be. In this study, we invited smokers who were about to participate in a mindfulness-based …
Exploring the impact of meditation on stress and psychopathology: Attentional allocation as a potential mechanism of active change following meditation training
Attentional function is one possible mechanism underlying meditation’s impact on stress and psychopathology, but few studies examine this newly discovered factor. Attentional allocation, in the context of cognitive and emotional self-regulation, may underlie changes observed following meditation training and practice. Additionally, meditation’s potential to ameliorate subjective and biochemical reactions to an acute stressor remains unexplored. …
School-based mindfulness training in middle school and college students
The aim of this multi-investigator award was to assess the effects of school-based mindfulness training in two different educational settings: college students and middle schoolers. Because common emotional disturbances are already present in the college sample, and ameliorated with meditation practice, it is feasible that teaching these skills before the onset of emotional disturbance may …
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The neural and behavioral correlates of a neurofeedback-based metta meditation training
A compassionate and prosocial attitude can be cultivated through loving-kindness (metta) meditation. The proposed study aims to elucidate how brain activity, prosocial behaviour and prosocial attitudes in novice meditators change with a brief loving-kindness meditation training. Furthermore, the benefits of using neurofeedback to learn metta meditation strategies will be investigated. Twenty female participants will receive …
Identifying the mechanisms of action in MBCT
Randomized clinical trials (e.g., Teasdale, Segal, Williams, Ridgeway, Soulsby, & Lau, 2000; Ma & Teasdale, 2004) support the efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for preventing depressive relapse. Unfortunately, there are scant studies of the treatment’s mechanisms of action. Teasdale and colleagues (2000) have speculated that MBCT is effective because it enhances participants’ ability to disengage …
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Application of the neurovisceral integration model to mindfulness: Implications for stress regulation and the development of insomnia
Despite the burgeoning of mindfulness research, it remains unclear which components of mindfulness are directly related to symptom reduction. Furthermore, little is known about the experience of daily life mindfulness or the relationship between stress regulation and mindfulness in insomnia patients. Using a neurovisceral integration model of self-regulation, the proposed study seeks to examine the …
