The effect of body-mind relaxation meditation induction on major depressive disorder: A resting-state fMRI study.


Author: Chen F1, Lv X2, Fang J3, Yu S4, Sui J4, Fan L4, Li T2, Hong Y3, Wang X3, Wang W5, Jiang T6.

Affiliation: 1School of Mathematics and Computational Science, Sun Yat-Sen University of China, Guangzhou 510275, China; School of Mathematics and Computational Science, Shenzhen University of China, Shenzhen 518060, China. 2Psychology Department of Guang׳anMen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China. 3Radiology Department of Guang׳anMen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China. 4Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. 5Psychology Department of Guang׳anMen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China. Electronic address: prof_wwd@126.com. 6Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. Electronic address: jiangtz@nlpr.ia.ac.cn.
Conference/Journal: J Affect Disord.
Date published: 2015 Apr 28
Other:
 Volume ID: 183   ,  Pages: 75-82   ,  Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2015.04.030.   ,  Word Count: 302  
    

BACKGROUND:

Meditation has been increasingly evaluated as an important complementary therapeutic tool for the treatment of depression. The present study employed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to examine the effect of body-mind relaxation meditation induction (BMRMI) on the brain activity of depressed patients and to investigate possible mechanisms of action for this complex intervention.

METHOD:

21 major depressive disorder patients (MDDs) and 24 age and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs) received rs-fMRI scans at baseline and after listening to a selection of audio designed to induce body-mind relaxation meditation. The rs-fMRI data were analyzed using Matlab toolbox to obtain the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) of the BOLD signal for the whole brain. A mixed-design repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the whole brain to find which brain regions were affected by the BMRMI. An additional functional connectivity analysis was used to identify any atypical connection patterns after the BMRMI.

RESULTS:

After the BMRMI experience, both the MDDs and HCs showed decreased ALFF values in the bilateral frontal pole (BA10). Additionally, increased functional connectivity from the right dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) to the left dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) was identified only in the MDDs after the BMRMI.

LIMITATION:

In order to exclude the impact of other events on the participants׳ brain activity, the Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression (HDRS) was not measured after the body-mind relaxation induction.

CONCLUSION:

Our findings support the hypothesis that body-mind relaxation meditation induction may regulate the activities of the prefrontal cortex and thus may have the potential to help patients construct reappraisal strategies that can modulate the brain activity in multiple emotion-processing systems.

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

KEYWORDS:

Body–mind relaxation meditation; Cognitive reappraisal; Major depressive disorder; Medial frontal cortex; Orbitofrontal cortex; fMRI

PMID: 26001666