Decoding meditation mechanisms underlying brain preservation and psycho-affective health in older expert meditators and older meditation-naive participants
Year: 2024
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Meditation is a mental training approach that can improve mental health and well-being in aging. Yet the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. The Medit-Ageing model stipulates that three mechanisms - attentional, constructive, and deconstructive - upregulate positive psycho-affective factors and downregulate negative ones. To test this hypothesis, we measured brain structural MRI and perfusion, negative and positive psycho-affective composite scores, and meditation mechanisms in 27 older expert meditators and 135 meditation-naive older controls. We identified brain and psycho-affective differences and performed mediation analyses to assess whether and which meditation mechanisms mediate their links.Meditators showed significantly higher volume in fronto-parietal areas and perfusion in temporo-occipito-parietal areas. They also had higher positive and lower negative psycho-affective scores. Attentional and constructive mechanisms both mediated the links between brain differences and the positive psycho-affective score whereas the deconstructive mechanism mediated the links between brain differences and the negative psycho-affective score.Our results corroborate the Medit-Ageing model, indicating that, in aging, meditation leads to brain changes that decrease negative psycho-affective factors and increase positive ones through relatively specific mechanisms. Shedding light on the neurobiological and psycho-affective mechanisms of meditation in aging, these findings provide insights to refine future interventions.
Source: Scientific Reports
Authors: Sacha Haudry, Anne-Laure Turpin, Brigitte Landeau, Florence Mézenge, Marion Delarue, Oriane Hébert, Natalie L Marchant, Olga Klimecki, Fabienne Collette, Julie Gonneaud, Vincent de La Sayette, Denis Vivien, Antoine Lutz, Gaël Chételat, Florence Allais, Claire André, Eider Arenaza-Urquijo, Sebastian Baez-Lugo, Alexandre Bejanin, Maelle Botton, Pierre Champetier, Léa Chauveau, Gaël Chételat, Anne Chocat, Fabienne Collette, Sophie Dautricourt, Robin de Flores, Vincent de La Sayette, Marion Delarue, Harriet Demnitz-King, Stéphanie Egret, Rawda El Sadawy, Hélène Espérou, Séverine Fauvel, Francesca Felisatti, Victor Ferment, Eglantine Ferrand Devouge, Eric Frison, Julie Gonneaud, Anaïs Hamel, Sacha Haudry, Oriane Hébert, Marc Heidmann, Elizabeth Kuhn, Olga Klimecki, Brigitte Landeau, Gwendoline Ledu, Valérie Lefranc, Antoine Lutz, Natalie L Marchant, Florence Mezenge, Inès Moulinet, Valentin Ourry, Cassandre Palix, Léo Paly, Géraldine Poisnel, Anne Quillard, Géraldine Rauchs, Stéphane Rehel, Florence Requier, Eric Salmon, Rhonda Smith, Clémence Tomadesso, Edelweiss Touron, Anne-Laure Turpin, Patrik Vuilleumier, Tim Whitfield, Miranka Wirth
Institutions: Inserm, Cyceron, Physiopathologie et imagerie des troubles neurologiques, Université de Caen Normandie, University College London, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Technische Universität Dresden, University of Liège, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen Normandie, Lyon 1 Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, University of Geneva, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) Dresden
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,590
Funders: Fondation Vaincre Alzheimer, Alzheimer's Society, European Commission, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, Association France Alzheimer, Fondation de France, FONDATION ALZHEIMER, Alzheimer’s Society, Région Normandie, Fondation pour la Recherche sur Alzheimer, Staatssekretariat für Bildung, Forschung und Innovation
OpenAlex ID: W4404754378