The study isolates the changes in pain-related brain activity after mindfulness training

The study isolates the changes in pain-related brain activity after mindfulness training

Research at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has isolated the changes in pain-related brain activity that follow mindfulness training -; Groundbreaking for more targeted and precise pain treatment.

The study, published today (July 27) in the American Journal of Psychiatry, identified pathways in the brain specific to pain regulation whose activity is altered by the center's eight-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course.

These changes were not observed in participants who attended a similar course without mindfulness instruction -; important new evidence that the brain changes are due to mindfulness training itself, according to Joseph Wielgosz, who led the work when he was a graduate student at UW-Madison and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. The study is the first to show pain-related brain changes from a standardized mindfulness course widely used in clinical settings.

About a third of Americans have pain-related problems, but frequent treatments -; such as medications and invasive procedures -; do not work for everyone and, according to Wielgosz, have contributed to an epidemic of addiction to prescription and illegal drugs.

Mindfulness training courses such as MBSR are popular among patients and show promise in their clinical outcomes and have taken a central place in the pursuit of a more effective approach to pain management. By practicing nonjudgmental, “present-centered” awareness of mind and body, participants can learn to respond to pain with less stress and more psychological flexibility -; which can ultimately lead to pain relief.

To measure the neural pain response, study participants had their brains scanned while receiving a carefully controlled heat-based stimulus on their forearm. The researchers recorded two brain-wide signatures of pain-related activity developed by their collaborator Tor Wager, a professor of neuroscience at Dartmouth College. This innovative technique significantly improves the ability to detect pain-related signals in the complex activity of the brain. Changes in signatures are also easier to interpret psychologically.

Participants in the MBSR course showed a reduction in a signature associated with sensory pain intensity.

“Our finding supports the idea that mindfulness training for new practitioners directly influences how the body's sensory signals are translated into a brain response,” says Wielgosz, whose work was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

The study also looked at longer-term mindfulness training. Intriguingly, practice on intensive meditation retreats was associated with changes in the neural signature for influences that indirectly shape pain -; for example, differences in attention, beliefs and expectations, factors that often increase perceived levels of stress in non-meditators.

Just as an experienced athlete performs a sport differently than a beginner, experienced mindfulness practitioners appear to use their mental “muscles” in response to pain differently than beginners.”

Josef Wielgosz

These results help demonstrate the potential of mindfulness practice as a lifestyle behavior.

The study is also important for pain research because it uses brain-based pain measures in addition to the subjective assessments of participants in a randomized study. Pain researchers have long been looking for ways to biologically measure the effect of a treatment.

“Looking at neural signatures together with patient experiences revealed insights about mindfulness that we could not have seen from either alone,” says Wielgosz.

Therefore, the researchers believe that in addition to the insights it provides about mindfulness, their study can also provide a model for future research that will help untangle the complexities of pain and ultimately reduce the burden it places on our lives.

Source:

University of Wisconsin-Madison