Resting-state FMRI Study In Mindfulness Practitioners Based On ALFF

Objective:Resting state functional meganetic resonance imaging(MRI) and clinical measurement were used for analysis of subjects’neuroimaging changes before and after mindfulness training. This project may focus on:1. exploring the mechanism of the short-term mindfulness practice on brain function.2. discussing the advantagious change of functional network in the process of mindfulness.Methods:Thirty-two healthy volenteers (8 male) without any mindfulness or meditation training experiences were recruited in this study. They were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group (16:16). Sixteen experimental subjects rountinly attended MBSR training for 8 weeks. DPARSF toolkit was used to calculate the ALFF (amplitude of low frequency) map for each participant. Functional connectivities of 12 regions were analyzed using correlation analysis based on regions of interest (ROI) identified by paired t-test of ALFF map.Results:1. The levels of mindfulness in the experimental group increased significantly after 8 weeks practice (P<0.05); state anxiety eased but lack of statistical significance; significant difference was observed in the differentiation of self inventory score between baseline and 8th week (P<0.05). The difference in meta cognitive ability was no significance. But that in out of control and crisis sense factor score was significant between baseline and 8th week (P<0.05).2. No statistical significance was observed in ALFF map in control group; Compared with baseline, experimental group showed a significantly increased functional connectivity at 8th week in ROI level (P<0.05), i.e., FCs between ACC and right frontal middle gyrus, ACC and right frontal supeirior gyrus. We observed the activation of ACC and PFC decreased consistently in our study after 8 weeks mindfulness training.Conclusion:1. The activation of ACC and PFC decreased after 8 weeks mindfulness training in this study, to a certain extent, which may decrease the extra brain workload and play a role of "energy saving".2. ACC and PFC showed a high degree of consistency in activation, which may relate to the mechanism of mindfulness thus presented as clinical effect.