ENIGMA-Meditation: Worldwide consortium for neuroscientific investigations of meditation practices

Saampras Ganesan; Fernando A Barrios; Ishaan Batta; Clemens C C Bauer; Todd S Braver; Judson A Brewer; Kirk Warren Brown; Rael Cahn; Joshua A Cain; Vince D Calhoun; Lei Cao; Gaël Chetelat; Christopher R K Ching; J David Creswell; Paulina Clara Dagnino; Svend Davanger; Richard J Davidson; Gustavo Deco; Janine M Dutcher; Anira Escrichs; Lisa T Eyler; Negar Fani; Norman A S Farb; Suruchi Fialoke; David M Fresco; Rahul Garg; Eric L Garland; Philippe Goldin; Danella M Hafeman; Neda Jahanshad; Yoona Kang; Sahib S Khalsa; Namik Kirlic; Sara W Lazar; Antoine Lutz; Timothy J McDermott; Giuseppe Pagnoni; Camille Piguet; Ruchika S Prakash; Hadley Rahrig; Nicco Reggente; Luigi F Saccaro; Matthew D Sacchet; Greg J Siegle; Yi-Yuan Tang; Sophia I Thomopoulos; Paul M Thompson; Alyssa Torske; Isaac N Treves; Vaibhav Tripathi; Aki Tsuchiyagaito; Matthew D Turner; David R Vago; Sofie Valk; Fadel Zeidan; Andrew Zalesky; Jessica A Turner; Anthony P King

doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.10.015

ENIGMA-Meditation: Worldwide consortium for neuroscientific investigations of meditation practices

Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2024 Nov 6:S2451-9022(24)00314-8. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.10.015. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Saampras Ganesan¹, Fernando A Barrios², Ishaan Batta³, Clemens C C Bauer⁴, Todd S Braver⁵, Judson A Brewer⁶, Kirk Warren Brown⁷, Rael Cahn⁸, Joshua A Cain⁹, Vince D Calhoun³, Lei Cao¹⁰, Gaël Chetelat¹¹, Christopher R K Ching¹², J David Creswell¹³, Paulina Clara Dagnino¹⁴, Svend Davanger¹⁵, Richard J Davidson¹⁶, Gustavo Deco¹⁷, Janine M Dutcher⁷, Anira Escrichs¹⁴, Lisa T Eyler¹⁸, Negar Fani¹⁹, Norman A S Farb²⁰, Suruchi Fialoke²¹, David M Fresco²², Rahul Garg²³, Eric L Garland²⁴, Philippe Goldin²⁵, Danella M Hafeman²⁶, Neda Jahanshad¹², Yoona Kang²⁷, Sahib S Khalsa²⁸, Namik Kirlic²⁹, Sara W Lazar³⁰, Antoine Lutz³¹, Timothy J McDermott¹⁹, Giuseppe Pagnoni³², Camille Piguet³³, Ruchika S Prakash³⁴, Hadley Rahrig³⁵, Nicco Reggente⁹, Luigi F Saccaro³⁶, Matthew D Sacchet³⁷, Greg J Siegle²⁶, Yi-Yuan Tang³⁸, Sophia I Thomopoulos¹², Paul M Thompson¹², Alyssa Torske³⁹, Isaac N Treves⁴⁰, Vaibhav Tripathi⁴¹, Aki Tsuchiyagaito⁴², Matthew D Turner¹⁰, David R Vago³⁹, Sofie Valk⁴³, Fadel Zeidan⁴⁴, Andrew Zalesky⁴⁵, Jessica A Turner¹⁰, Anthony P King⁴⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia; Contemplative Studies Centre, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia; Systems lab of neuroscience, neuropsychiatry and neuroengineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Neurobiolgía, Querétaro, México.
³ Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS): Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Emory University, Atlanta, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, USA; Brain and Cognitive Science, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA.
⁶ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, RI, USA.
⁷ Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁸ University of Southern California Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences; University of Southern California Center for Mindfulness Science.
⁹ Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA.
¹¹ Normandie Univ, UNICAEN, INSERM, U1237, Neuropresage Team, Cyceron, 14000 Caen, France.
¹² Imaging Genetics Center, Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹³ Desert-Pacific Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, USA.
¹⁴ Computational Neuroscience Group, Center for Brain and Cognition, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
¹⁵ Division of Anatomy, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
¹⁶ Psychology Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA and Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
¹⁷ Computational Neuroscience Group, Center for Brain and Cognition, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; Institució Catalana de la Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
¹⁸ Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Desert-Pacific Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
²⁰ Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; Department of Psychological Clinical Science, University of Toronto, Scarborough, Canada.
²¹ National Resource Center for Value Education in Engineering (NRCVEE), Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India.
²² Department of Psychiatry and Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
²³ National Resource Center for Value Education in Engineering (NRCVEE), Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India; Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India.
²⁴ Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
²⁵ University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA.
²⁶ Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
²⁷ Department of Psychology, Rutgers University - Camden, Camden, NJ, USA.
²⁸ Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
²⁹ Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.
³⁰ Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
³¹ Eduwell team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Centre, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon 1 University, Lyon, France; Lyon Neuroscience Research Centre, INSERM U1028, France.
³² Department of Biomedical, Metabolic, and Neural Sciences, University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.
³³ Psychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
³⁴ Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA; Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Brain Imaging, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA.
³⁵ Psychology Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA and Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
³⁶ Psychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Psychiatry Department, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland.
³⁷ Meditation Research Program, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
³⁸ College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
³⁹ Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, School of Medicine and Health, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
⁴⁰ Brain and Cognitive Science, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.
⁴¹ Center for Brain Science & Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁴² Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA; Oxley College of Health & Natural Sciences, The University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA; Research Center for Child Mental Development, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
⁴³ Center for Brain Science & Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA; Research Center for Child Mental Development, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7: Brain & Behaviour) Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany.
⁴⁴ Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; T. Denny Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁴⁵ Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia; Systems lab of neuroscience, neuropsychiatry and neuroengineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia.
⁴⁶ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA; Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA; Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Brain Imaging, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA; Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA; Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39515581
DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.10.015

Abstract

Meditation is a family of ancient and contemporary contemplative mind-body practices that can modulate psychological processes, awareness, and mental states. Over the last 40 years, clinical science has manualised meditation practices and designed various meditation interventions (MIs), that have shown therapeutic efficacy for disorders including depression, pain, addiction, and anxiety. Over the past decade, neuroimaging has examined the neuroscientific basis of meditation practices, effects, states, and outcomes for clinical and non-clinical populations. However, the generalizability and replicability of current neuroscientific models of meditation are yet to be established, as they are largely based on small datasets entrenched with heterogeneity along several domains of meditation (e.g., practice types, meditation experience, clinical disorder targeted), experimental design, and neuroimaging methods (e.g., preprocessing, analysis, task-based, resting-state, structural MRI). These limitations have precluded a nuanced and rigorous neuroscientific phenotyping of meditation practices and their potential benefits. Here, we present ENIGMA-Meditation, the first worldwide collaborative consortium for neuroscientific investigations of meditation practices. ENIGMA-Meditation will enable systematic meta- and mega-analyses of globally distributed neuroimaging datasets of meditation using shared, standardized neuroimaging methods and tools to improve statistical power and generalizability. Through this powerful collaborative framework, existing neuroscientific accounts of meditation practices can be extended to generate novel and rigorous neuroscientific insights, accounting for multi-domain heterogeneity. ENIGMA-Meditation will inform neuroscientific mechanisms underlying therapeutic action of meditation practices on psychological and cognitive attributes, advancing the field of meditation and contemplative neuroscience.

Publication types

Review