The Neurophysiological Effect of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Training on Emotional Regulation

Background Emotional distress is known to render vicious effects both mentally and physiologically to human beings. Emotional regulation is therefore an important capability to dilute the poisonous effect of emotional distress. The cognitive reappraisal and mindfulness thinking are two major strategies that have been empirically tested and supported to be effective emotional regulation approaches. Oftentimes, entry-level practitioners of mindfulness get confused easily between the cognitive reappraisal and mindfulness approach to emotional regulation in that they look similar in some of their practice forms. However, they are quite different from each other in terms of their fundamental concept. Although there are already many studies contribute to the mechanisms underlying these two approaches independently, very few studies have been proposed to directly investigate the fundamental differences of the underlying neural mechanisms between the two approaches. The current proposal therefore aims to compare the underlying neural mechanisms between the cognitive reappraisal and the mindfulness approaches within the context of emotional processing.

Objectives We propose herein a 2-year research project to address the following two hypotheses: (1) we hypothesize that the differences in terms of neural activation patterns between the mindfulness and cognitive reappraisal responses toward positive or negative stimuli in the emotion regulation task (ERT) will appear only after certain amount of MBSR training and (2) we hypothesize that the 10-week Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training will be accompanied by the increased resting-state functional connectivity between the salience network (involved in the process of meta-awareness) and both the dorsal attention network (i.e., attention to the outside world) and the default mode network (i.e., attention to the internal state).

Methods For the current proposal, we will use a pre-post-test plus longitudinal follow-up design research design. Based on the power analysis, we expect to recruit 45 adults (convenient sampling). We will collect neuropsychological, EEG and fMRI data from each participants at three time points with one time point before the MBSR training course (pre-test), one time point immediately after completing the MBSR training course (post-test) and one time point 8 months after completing the MBSR training course (8-month follow-up). For the neuropsychological measures, we will use the MAAS for evaluating trait mindfulness, DERS for evaluating emotional regulation and dysregulationand IRI for evaluating cognitive and emotional empathy level. For the fMRI measures, we will analyze the functional activation patterns between the cognitive reappraisal and the mindfulness process of emotion regulation. Furthermore, we will analyze the functional connectivity based on the resting-state fMRI data to investigate the change of pre- and post-MBSR training. For EEG measures, we will further analyze the different time-frequency patterns between these two types of emotional regulation.

Anticipated results We expect that the results will help unravel the functional changes of neuronal circuits associated with the transition from habitual cognitive reappraisal strategy to a mindfulness strategy, after an intensive mindfulness-based training. We hope that the overall outcomes from the current proposal will help enrich our knowledge that will enhances the translation of applying cognitive reappraisal and mindfulness based approaches in clinical psychiatry.

Keywords: cognitive reappraisal, mindfulness, emotion regulation, emotional distress