Positive Health Online

Abstract

TORSKE and COLLEAGUES, (1)Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, School of Medicine and Health, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany. alyssa.torske@tum.de. (2)TUM-Neuroimaging Center (TUM-NIC), Klinikum Rechts Der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany. alyssa.torske@tum.de. (3)Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Ludwig Maximilians Universität München, Martinsried, Germany. alyssa.torske@tum.de. (4)Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, School of Medicine and Health, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany;  5)TUM-Neuroimaging Center (TUM-NIC), Klinikum Rechts Der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany. (6)Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Ludwig Maximilians Universität  München, Martinsried, Germany. (#)Contributed equally. The Researchers investigated the effects of mindfulness meditation and whether it modulates stress-eating and could be an effective intervention for stress-related overeating behaviour.

Background

Stress-related overeating can lead to excessive weight gain, increasing the risk of metabolic and cardiovascular disease. Mindfulness meditation has been demonstrated to reduce stress and increase interoceptive awareness and could, therefore, be an effective intervention for stress-related overeating behaviour.

Methodology

METHODOLOGY: To investigate the effects of mindfulness meditation on stress-eating behaviour, meditation-naïve individuals with a tendency to stress-eat (N = 66) participated in either a 31-day, web-based mindfulness meditation training or a health training condition. Behavioral and resting-state fMRI data were acquired before and after the intervention.

Results

Mindfulness meditation training, in comparison to health training, was found to significantly increase mindfulness while simultaneously reducing stress- and emotional-eating tendencies as well as food cravings. These behavioral results were accompanied by functional connectivity changes between the hypothalamus, reward regions, and several areas of the default mode network in addition to changes observed between the insula and somatosensory areas. Additional changes between seed regions (i.e., hypothalamus and insula) and brain areas attributed to emotion regulation, awareness, attention, and sensory integration were observed.

Conclusion

Notably, these changes in functional connectivity correlated with behavioural changes, thereby providing insight into the underlying neural mechanisms of the effects of mindfulness on stress-eating. Clinical trial on the ISRCTN registry: trial ID ISRCTN12901054. © 2024. The Author(s). Conflict of interest statement: This study was supported by the German Ministry  for Education and Research (BMBF) grant to author KK (BMBF 01EA1807H), and the preparation of this paper was supported by the enable Cluster (http://enable-cluster.de) in addition to a private donation made by Maria Tussi Kluge. Author AT was additionally funded by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. Author BKH is the author of commercially available books and online mindfulness-based interventions. The remaining authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

References

Torske A(#)(1)(2)(3), Bremer B(#)(4)(5), Hölzel BK(4)(5), Maczka A(4)(5), Koch K(4)(5)(6). Mindfulness meditation modulates stress-eating and its neural correlates. Sci Rep.  ;14(1):7294. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-57687-7. Mar 27 2024.