A network approach to the five-facet model of mindfulness.

Despite the large-scale dissemination of mindfulness-based interventions, debates persist about the very nature of mindfulness. To date, one of the dominant views is the five-facet approach, which suggests that mindfulness includes five facets (i.e., Observing, Describing, Nonjudging, Nonreactivity, and Acting with Awareness). However, uncertainty remains regarding the potential interplay between these facets. In this study, we investigated the five-facet model via network analysis in an unselected sample (n = 1704). We used two distinct computational network approaches: a Gaussian graphical model (i.e., undirected) and a directed acyclic graph, with each model determining the relations between the facets and their relative importance in the network. Both computational approaches pointed to the facet denoting Acting with Awareness as playing an especially potent role in the network system. Altogether, our findings offer novel data-driven clues for the field's larger quest to ascertain the very foundations of mindfulness.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Trichotillomania: A Bayesian Case-Control Study.

Over the last years, mindfulness-based interventions combined with habit reversal training have been demonstrated to be particularly suitable for addressing trichotillomania. However, because these studies always combined mindfulness training to habit reversal without including either a mindfulness or habit reversal condition alone, it is still unclear whether clinical benefits are the consequences of mindfulness or merely result from habit reversal training. The primary purpose of the present study was thus to examine whether a mindfulness training procedure without habit reversal could alleviate trichotillomania. Using a Bayesian probabilistic approach for single-case design, client's hair loss severity and level of mindfulness were compared to a normative sample (n = 15) before treatment, after treatment, and at six-month follow-up. Improvement in mindfulness first occurred, and that beneficial effect then transferred to hair-pulling. Indeed, as compared to the normative sample, the client exhibited, from baseline to post-treatment, an improvement in mindfulness. Although a marginal trend to improvement was already evidenced at post-treatment, the mindfulness program only had a significant beneficial effect transferred to hair-loss severity at six-month follow-up. Although it remains particularly difficult to infer generalization from one client, the data from the present case study are the first to suggest that mindfulness training per se might be a suitable clinical intervention for trichotillomania.

Altered top-down cognitive control and auditory processing in tinnitus: evidences from auditory and visual spatial stroop.

PURPOSE: Tinnitus is the perception of a sound in the absence of external stimulus. Currently, the pathophysiology of tinnitus is not fully understood, but recent studies indicate that alterations in the brain involve non-auditory areas, including the prefrontal cortex. Here, we hypothesize that these brain alterations affect top-down cognitive control mechanisms that play a role in the regulation of sensations, emotions and attention resources. METHODS: The efficiency of the executive control as well as simple reaction speed and processing speed were evaluated in tinnitus participants (TP) and matched control subjects (CS) in both the auditory and the visual modalities using a spatial Stroop paradigm. RESULTS: TP were slower and less accurate than CS during both the auditory and the visual spatial Stroop tasks, while simple reaction speed and stimulus processing speed were affected in TP in the auditory modality only. CONCLUSIONS: Tinnitus is associated both with modality-specific deficits along the auditory processing system and an impairment of cognitive control mechanisms that are involved both in vision and audition (i.e. that are supra-modal). We postulate that this deficit in the top-down cognitive control is a key-factor in the development and maintenance of tinnitus and may also explain some of the cognitive difficulties reported by tinnitus sufferers.

Development of the Sexual Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ-S): Validation Among a Community Sample of French-Speaking Women.

It has been recently demonstrated that mindfulness-based intervention may be particularly suitable for addressing sexual difficulties in women. Although the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) is currently one of the most widely used scales to assess mindfulness, no adaptation and validation of the FFMQ to measure female sexual functioning has been published. The main aim of this study was to develop and validate a sexual version of the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ-S) to specifically measure mindfulness in the context of sexual encounters. A total of 251 healthy, French-speaking female volunteers were administered the FFMQ-S, the original FFMQ, and the Female Sexual Distress Scale (FSDS-R). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the FFMQ-S exhibits a five-factor model, as implied by the original FFMQ. Good scale reliability was observed. The FFMQ-S showed significant correlations with the FSDS-R and the usual FFMQ. Scores on the FFMQ-S correlated significantly more negatively with the total FSDS-R score than with the total score of the original version of the FFMQ. These findings clearly support the relevance of developing a version of the FFMQ tailored to sexual functioning.

The neural network sustaining crossmodal integration is impaired in alcohol-dependence: an fMRI study.

INTRODUCTION: Crossmodality (i.e., the integration of stimulations coming from different sensory modalities) is a crucial ability in everyday life and has been extensively explored in healthy adults. Still, it has not yet received much attention in psychiatry, and particularly in alcohol-dependence. The present study investigates the cerebral correlates of crossmodal integration deficits in alcohol-dependence to assess whether these deficits are due to the mere accumulation of unimodal impairments or rather to specific alterations in crossmodal areas. METHODS: Twenty-eight subjects [14 alcohol-dependent subjects (ADS), 14 paired controls] were scanned using fMRI while performing a categorization task on faces (F), voices (V) and face-voice pairs (FV). A subtraction contrast [FV-(F+V)] and a conjunction analysis [(FV-F) ∩ (FV-V)] isolated the brain areas specifically involved in crossmodal face-voice integration. The functional connectivity between unimodal and crossmodal areas was explored using psycho-physiological interactions (PPI). RESULTS: ADS presented only moderate alterations during unimodal processing. More centrally, in the subtraction contrast and conjunction analysis, they did not show any specific crossmodal brain activation while controls presented activations in specific crossmodal areas (inferior occipital gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobule). Moreover, PPI analyses showed reduced connectivity between unimodal and crossmodal areas in alcohol-dependence. CONCLUSIONS: This first fMRI exploration of crossmodal processing in alcohol-dependence showed a specific face-voice integration deficit indexed by reduced activation of crossmodal areas and reduced connectivity in the crossmodal integration network. Using crossmodal paradigms is thus crucial to correctly evaluate the deficits presented by ADS in real-life situations.

The effects of mindfulness on executive processes and autobiographical memory specificity.

Previous studies have found that mindfulness training reduces overgeneral memories and increases autobiographical memory specificity (e.g., [Williams, J. M. G., Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z. V., & Soulsby, J. (2000). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy reduces overgeneral autobiographical memory in formerly depressed patients. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 150-155]). However, little work has investigated the mechanisms underlying this effect. The present study explored the role of executive processes as a mediator of MBCT effects in an unselected sample. An autobiographical memory task, a cognitive inhibition task, a motor inhibition task, a cognitive flexibility task and a motor flexibility task were administered before and after intervention. Compared to matched controls, MBCT participants showed increased autobiographical memory specificity, decreased overgenerality, and improved cognitive flexibility capacity and capacity to inhibit cognitive prepotent responses. Mediational analyses indicated that changes in cognitive flexibility partially mediate the impact of MBCT on overgeneral memories. Results are discussed in terms of Conway's [2005. Memory and the self. Journal of Memory and Language, 53, 594-628] autobiographical memory model.