Mindfulness Practice Alters Brain Connectivity in Community-living Elders with Mild Cognitive Impairment.
Author: Fam J1, Sun Y2,3,4, Qi P5, Lau RC1, Feng L1, Kua EH1, Mahendran R1
Affiliation:
1Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
2Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, China.
3Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, China.
4Centre for Life Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
5Department of Control Science and Engineering, College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
Conference/Journal: Psychiatry Clin Neurosci.
Date published: 2019 Dec 25
Other:
Special Notes: doi: 10.1111/pcn.12972. [Epub ahead of print] , Word Count: 253
AIM: There is increasing evidence that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with widespread brain dysconnectivity. Mindfulness practice, which involves focused attention to experience the present moment in a purposeful way, has been shown to confer positive psychological and functional brain changes in healthy practitioners. It is unclear whether mindfulness practice could improve functional brain connectivity in older adults with cognitive impairment.
METHODS: Forty-seven participants with MCI were randomized into two groups: a mindfulness practice group and a control group. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and neurocognitive tests were performed before and after the 3-month intervention. A temporal efficiency analysis approach was used to examine the spatiotemporal networks of the brain.
RESULTS: Participants in the mindfulness group had significantly better temporal global efficiency than controls after 3-months of intervention. Localized changes of temporal nodal properties were present in the right cingulate gyrus, insula, and left superior temporal gyrus. Together, these results suggest greater information transmission efficiency at both the global and local spatiotemporal level. In terms of cognitive function, verbal recognition memory improved in the mindfulness group compared to the controls.
CONCLUSION: Elders who practiced mindfulness had better brain network efficiency and neurocognitive function relative to controls in this study, suggesting that mindfulness may be of benefit to ageing adults with early cognitive degeneration.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02286791). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS: cognitive dysfunction; connectome; dementia; dynamic functional connectivity; magnetic resonance imaging
PMID: 31876024 DOI: 10.1111/pcn.12972
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