This Is Your Brain on Mindfulness: Dispositional Mindfulness and Neural Activity in Attentional Networks
Date of Award
2009
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Social Sciences
First Advisor
Bauer, Gordon
Keywords
Mindfulness, Attention, Neuroimaging, FMRI, Meditation, Networks
Area of Concentration
Biological Psychology
Abstract
Mindfulness is the basis of behavioral therapies treating mental illness. Evidence suggests mindfulness is attentional skill-set composed of two skills, concentrative and receptive attention. It was hypothesized concentrative attention scores would correlate with activity in the dorsal network and receptive attention scores would correlate with activity in the dorsal and ventral networks. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to test this relationship. Participants took a mindfulness inventory and completed an attentional task in the fMRI scanner. Receptive attention correlated with activity in both networks as hypothesized. Concentrative attention did not correlate with activity in the dorsal network. These results support an attentional conceptualization of mindfulness, although the hypothesis about mindfulness skills and specific attentional networks was only partially supported.
Recommended Citation
Paul, Natalie, "This Is Your Brain on Mindfulness: Dispositional Mindfulness and Neural Activity in Attentional Networks" (2009). Theses & ETDs. 4161.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/4161