Poster No:
556
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Lia Antico1, Rohan Freedman1, Joseph Casamassima1, Lindsay Gould1, Judson Brewer1
Institutions:
1Brown University, Providence, RI
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
All individuals experience anxiety, whether momentary based on circumstances or constantly, as with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Currently, the only way to measure anxiety is through self-report measures, like the GAD-7 questionnaire. We identified an aspect of conscious experience that is universal and orthogonal to current self-report measures of anxiet Joseph Casamassima y: the mental/physical experience of feeling open vs. closed. For example, the general population report that anxiety feels closed, whereas kindness feels open. A nascent field of research has identified possible neurobiological markers that correlated with anxiety, like the activations of precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (P/PCC). In previous studies, we found that P/PCC was activated when we get caught up in one experience, like craving, rumination and worrying, whereas it was specifically deactivated during meditation. Because mindfulness trains individuals to open to their experience rather than being caught up in it, these results suggest that we may link components of consciousness (open/closed) to anxious (and non-anxious) states.
Methods:
This research aims to confirm that feeling open/closed correlates with P/PCC activation/deactivation and to determine if differences in P/PCC activity predict clinical outcomes (GAD-7 scores) before and after a mindfulness-based training (Unwinding Anxiety). To do that, we ran a cross-sectional fMRI study in which we induced both open and closed mental states in three groups, 25 anxious, 25 non-anxious, 20 expert meditators. Then, participants will high anxiety will be randomized in two groups and will receive Unwinding Anxiety app vs. a control active treatment and we will measure their brain activity two months later.
Results:
Preliminary results showed that open states correlate with P/PCC deactivation and closed states with P/PCC activation. We expect that differences in brain activity will predict changes in GAD-7 scores pre- to post-treatment
Conclusions:
Learning neural mechanisms of anxiety will help our understanding of how mindfulness-based trainings can change the anxious brain.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) 1
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Self Processes 2
Keywords:
ADULTS
Anxiety
Cognition
Emotions
MRI
Other - Mindfulness
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Task-activation
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Healthy subjects
Was this research conducted in the United States?
Yes
Are you Internal Review Board (IRB) certified?
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Yes, I have IRB or AUCC approval
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
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Yes
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel?
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Not applicable
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Functional MRI
Structural MRI
Behavior
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
3.0T
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
SPM
Provide references using APA citation style.
1. Roy, A. H., et al., (2021) “Clinical efficacy and psychological mechanisms of an app-based digital therapeutic for generalized anxiety disorder.” JMIR 23(12):e26987.
2. Brewer, J. A. et al., (2021) “Can approaching anxiety like a habit lead to novel treatments?” American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 15(5).
3. Roy, A. H. et al., (2020) “Physician anxiety and burnout. Is mindfulness a solution? Symptom correlates and a pilot study of app-delivered mindfulness training,” JMIR mHealth uHealth 8(4):e15608.
4. Janes, A.C. et al., (2019) “Quitting starts in the brain: a randomized controlled trial of app-based mindfulness shows decreases in neural responses to smoking cues that predict reductions in smoking.”
5. Brewer, J. A., (2019) “Mindfulness training for addictions: has neuroscience revealed a brain hack by which awareness subverts the addictive process?” Current Opinions in Psychology 28: 198–203.
6. Garrison, K. M. et al., (2015) “Meditation leads to reduced default mode network activity beyond an active task” Cognitive Affective Behavioral Neuroscience 15(3): 712-720.
7. Brewer, J. A. Garrison et al, (2013) “What about the “self” is processed in the posterior cingulate cortex?” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 7: 647.
8. Garrison, K. M. et al., (2013) “Effortless awareness: using real-time neurofeedback to probe correlates of posterior cingulate cortex activity in meditators’ self-report.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 7: 440.
9. Garrison, K. M. et al., (2013) “Real-time fMRI links subjective experience with brain activity during focused attention” NeuroImage 81:110-118.
10. Brewer, J. A. et al., (2011) “Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity.” PNAS 108(50): 20254-9.
No