Decoding meditation mechanisms underlying brain preservation and psycho-affective health in older expert meditators and older meditation-naive participants
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.
Authors
- Stéphane Rehel
- Antoine Lutz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0258-3233)
- Denis Vivien (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7636-2185)
- Claire André (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7077-1108)
- Éric Frison (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5844-1886)
- Léo Paly
- Gaël Chételat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4889-7932)
- Séverine Fauvel
- Eglantine Ferrand Devouge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2398-2233)
- Vincent de La Sayette (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0663-092X)
- Éric Salmon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2520-9241)
- Natalie L. Marchant (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0669-6910)
- Géraldine Poisnel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7943-1281)
- Marion Delarue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8934-8649)
- Marc Heidmann
- Olga Klimecki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0757-7761)
- Florence Mézenge
- Florence Allais
- Elizabeth Kuhn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3744-1155)
- Anne Quillard
- Tim Whitfield (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0305-646X)
- Clémence Tomadesso
- Gwendoline Ledu
- Eider M. Arenaza‐Urquijo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7016-7576)
- Edelweiss Touron (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7906-934X)
- Florence Requier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7342-538X)
- Léa Chauveau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5965-3194)
- Miranka Wirth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0725-7314)
- Stéphanie Egret
- Robin de Florès (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3953-3392)
- Patrik Vuilleumier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8198-9214)
- Sebastian Baez Lugo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7781-2387)
- Florence Mézenge
- Harriet Demnitz‐King (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7421-7101)
- Hélène Espérou
- Valentin Ourry (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8535-9009)
- Francesca Felisatti
- Brigitte Landeau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0814-3714)
- Victor Ferment
- Inès Moulinet
- Maëlle Botton
- Sacha Haudry
- Valérie Lefranc
- Pierre Champetier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0228-6084)
- Géraldine Rauchs
- Anne Chocat
- Julie Gonneaud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0566-5581)
- Cassandre Palix (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8736-5261)
- Alexandre Bejanin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9958-0951)
- Fabienne Collette
- Sophie Dautricourt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8848-8300)
- Oriane Hébert
- Rhonda L. Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9048-611X)
- Anne‐Laure Turpin
- Anaïs Hamel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8033-497X)
- Rawda El Sadawy
Institutions
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR)
- University of Geneva (CH)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Inserm (FR)
- University of Liège (BE)
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DE)
- Faculty (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (FR)
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen Normandie (FR)
- Minerva Laboratories (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Cyceron (FR)
- French Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (FR)
- Physiopathologie et imagerie des troubles neurologiques
- University College London (GB)
- Friedrich Schiller University Jena (DE)
- Technische Universität Dresden (DE)
- Université de Caen Normandie (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2024-11-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-79687-3
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.92
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
- Région Normandie
- Fondation pour la Recherche sur Alzheimer
- Staatssekretariat für Bildung, Forschung und Innovation