Change Mechanism of Cognitively-Based Compassion Training for Couples with Depression: An Exploratory Empirical Investigation of Process Variables.

Objective: Compassion training seems to be a promising intervention for couples to improve individual psychopathology and relationship quality. Beyond studying the efficacy of training such as Cognitively-Based Compassion Training for Couples (CBCT-fC), it is important to gain insights into the putative mechanisms along the process. Methods: Theoretically derived presumed mechanisms of compassion training (clarification of values, self-regulation, decentering, and exposure) and additional therapeutic factors (emotional bond, social learning, and clarification of meaning) were studied over the course of a 10-session-long group-based CBCT-fC among women with depressive disorders. Results: Dyadic growth curve models indicated that emotional bond, social learning, and clarification of meaning increase over time in both partners. In decentering and clarification of values, women who suffered from depression showed a larger increase than men, while men had higher values at the start of the training. Conclusions: Women with depression seem to benefit from CBCT-fC in terms of an increase in decentering and value clarification, important mechanisms of compassion training. This study is the first to show that theoretically derived mechanisms of compassion and additional therapeutic factors can describe the process along secular contemplative training sessions, which are increasingly implemented in the health care system. Future studies should explore the relationship of mechanisms and the outcome along the process of the training. Study Registration: Trial registration number NCT03080025.

The neural mediators of kindness-based meditation: a theoretical model.

Although kindness-based contemplative practices are increasingly employed by clinicians and cognitive researchers to enhance prosocial emotions, social cognitive skills, and well-being, and as a tool to understand the basic workings of the social mind, we lack a coherent theoretical model with which to test the mechanisms by which kindness-based meditation may alter the brain and body. Here, we link contemplative accounts of compassion and loving-kindness practices with research from social cognitive neuroscience and social psychology to generate predictions about how diverse practices may alter brain structure and function and related aspects of social cognition. Contingent on the nuances of the practice, kindness-based meditation may enhance the neural systems related to faster and more basic perceptual or motor simulation processes, simulation of another's affective body state, slower and higher-level perspective-taking, modulatory processes such as emotion regulation and self/other discrimination, and combinations thereof. This theoretical model will be discussed alongside best practices for testing such a model and potential implications and applications of future work.

Effects of mindful-attention and compassion meditation training on amygdala response to emotional stimuli in an ordinary, non-meditative state.

The amygdala has been repeatedly implicated in emotional processing of both positive and negative-valence stimuli. Previous studies suggest that the amygdala response to emotional stimuli is lower when the subject is in a meditative state of mindful-attention, both in beginner meditators after an 8-week meditation intervention and in expert meditators. However, the longitudinal effects of meditation training on amygdala responses have not been reported when participants are in an ordinary, non-meditative state. In this study, we investigated how 8 weeks of training in meditation affects amygdala responses to emotional stimuli in subjects when in a non-meditative state. Healthy adults with no prior meditation experience took part in 8 weeks of either Mindful Attention Training (MAT), Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT; a program based on Tibetan Buddhist compassion meditation practices), or an active control intervention. Before and after the intervention, participants underwent an fMRI experiment during which they were presented images with positive, negative, and neutral emotional valences from the IAPS database while remaining in an ordinary, non-meditative state. Using a region-of-interest analysis, we found a longitudinal decrease in right amygdala activation in the Mindful Attention group in response to positive images, and in response to images of all valences overall. In the CBCT group, we found a trend increase in right amygdala response to negative images, which was significantly correlated with a decrease in depression score. No effects or trends were observed in the control group. This finding suggests that the effects of meditation training on emotional processing might transfer to non-meditative states. This is consistent with the hypothesis that meditation training may induce learning that is not stimulus- or task-specific, but process-specific, and thereby may result in enduring changes in mental function.