Mindful-state Connectivity of Anterior Cingulate Cortex
Poster No:
640
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Annika Rosenthal1, Lorenz Mathewson2, Michael Marxen3, Nina Romanczuk Seiferth4, Anne Beck2
Institutions:
1Charité - Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Berlin, 2Health and Medical University Potsdam, Potsdam, Brandenburg, 3Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Saxony, 4Medical School Berlin, Berlin, Berlin
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have shown efficacy in the treatment of various psychiatric disorders such as alcohol use disorder (AUD) (Li et al., 2017). Among others, this efficacy has been shown to be linked to alterations in functional connectivity of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Sezer et al., 2022). We therefore aimed at investigating the impact of a brief mindfulness intervention on this region's functional connectivity and to compare healthy controls with mildly to moderately affected patients with AUD.
Methods:
Participants with AUD (n=24) as well as healthy controls (n=18) were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Via an active noise canceling headphone system, participants were instructed to follow a guided mindfulness practice or listen to an audio of nature sounds. Data was analysed using the Matlab-based CONN toolbox. Seed-based connectivity maps and ROI-to-ROI connectivity matrices were generated to analyse the functional connectivity patterns of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) with 164 network and Harvard-Oxford atlas regions. Second level analysis investigated the effect of group (AUD versus healthy controls), condition (mindfulness versus nature sounds) and their interaction on these connectivity patterns.
Results:
We found no functional connectivity differences between AUD and healthy controls. However, seed-based analysis showed increased functional connectivity of the ACC with clusters comprised of executive brain regions including bilateral superior frontal gyrus (0.009 p-FDR), bilateral frontal pole (right 0.02 p-FDR, left 0.03 p-FDR) and right middle frontal gyrus (0.009 p-FDR) during mindfulness practice compared to the nature sounds condition (see figure 1). We found no interaction effect of group and condition on functional connectivity strength.
Conclusions:
Although no group or interaction effects were observed, the ACC displayed enhanced connectivity with a network implicated in cognitive control function. These findings align with studies demonstrating increased prefrontal control network activation due to MBIs (Tang et al., 2015). Despite potential limitations, such as a small sample size, our results suggest that mindfulness practice may enhance cognitive control function by increasing ACC – prefrontal cortex network connectivity, providing insights into the mechanism of MBIs in treating AUD.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) 1
Higher Cognitive Functions:
Executive Function, Cognitive Control and Decision Making 2
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Task-Independent and Resting-State Analysis
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
BOLD fMRI
Keywords:
Addictions
Cognition
Data analysis
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Psychiatric Disorders
Therapy
Other - Mindfulness
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
Sezer, I., Pizzagalli, D. A., & Sacchet, M. D. (2022). Resting-state fMRI functional connectivity and mindfulness in clinical and non-clinical contexts: A review and synthesis. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 135, 104583.
Tang, Y. Y., Hölzel, B. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015). The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature reviews neuroscience, 16(4), 213-225.