Closed-loop digital meditation for neurocognitive and behavioral development in adolescents with childhood neglect

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences are linked to poor attentive behaviors during adolescence, as well as increased risk for mental health disorders in adults. However, no study has yet tested targeted interventions to optimize neurocognitive processes in this population. Here, we investigated closed-loop digital interventions in a double-blind randomized controlled study in adolescents with childhood neglect, and evaluated the outcomes using multimodal assessments of neuroimaging, cognitive, behavioral, and academic evaluations. In the primary neuroimaging results, we demonstrate that a closed-loop digital meditation intervention can strengthen functional connectivity of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) in the cingulo-opercular network, which is critically developing during the adolescent period. Second, this intervention enhanced sustained attention and interference-resolution abilities, and also reduced behavioral hyperactivity at a 1-year follow-up. Superior academic performance was additionally observed in adolescents who underwent the digital meditation intervention. Finally, changes in dACC functional connectivity significantly correlated with improvements in sustained attention, hyperactivity, and academic performance. This first study demonstrates that closed-loop digital meditation practice can facilitate development of important aspects of neurocognition and real-life behaviors in adolescents with early childhood neglect.

Chronic Mental Health Sequelae of Climate Change Extremes: A Case Study of the Deadliest Californian Wildfire

“…Similarly, a study in Tsunami disaster survivors did not find a positive effect of trait mindfulness on PTSD symptoms, indicating that mindfulness may not be a protective factor against post-traumatic stress in trauma-exposed individuals [ 56 ]. Much interventional research shows that mindfulness can be enhanced and serve to provide positive mental health benefits, which should be encouraged in these vulnerable communities [ 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ]. Finally, physical exercise was found to only have a positive effect on depression symptom severity.…”

Developing functional network connectivity of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex mediates externalizing psychopathology in adolescents with child neglect

“…Regions within the CO network were manually created as 12 mm radius spheres with peak MNI coordinates from previous literature ( Fair et al, 2007 ). The dACC (MNI coordinates: -2, 7, 50) was defined as a seed region based on prior evidence that it segregates from its FP connections to form the CO network during typical adolescence ( Fair et al, 2007 ), as well as our prior results that dACC functional connectivity relates to childhood adversity ( Mishra et al, 2020 ) and mediates the link between adversity and self-reported EF in a cross-sectional sample of adolescents ( Silveira et al, 2018 ). Other regions of the CO include the bilateral anterior insula (left: -36, 17, 3; right: 38, 19, 0), anterior prefrontal cortex (left: -28, 53, 16; right: 28, 51, 25) and thalamus (left: -13, -14, 4; right: 11, -14, 6).…”

“…Particularly, increased CO network integration during adolescence has also been shown to moderate the effect of age in the transition to adult-level EF ( Marek et al, 2015 ). Moreover, in our recent, albeit small sample research in adolescents with childhood adversity, we have found that reduced strength of maturing functional connectivity of the dACC in the CO network is associated with greater child neglect severity ( Mishra et al, 2020 ).…”

Developing Functional Network Connectivity of the Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex Mediates Externalizing Psychopathology in Adolescents with Child Neglect

“…Regions within the CO network were manually created as 12mm radius spheres with peak MNI coordinates from previous literature (24). The dACC (MNI coordinates: −2, 7, 50) was defined as a seed region based on prior evidence that it segregates from its FP connections to form the CO network during typical adolescence (24), as well as our prior results that dACC functional connectivity relates to childhood adversity (26) and mediates the link between adversity and self-reported EF in a cross-sectional sample of adolescents (43). Other regions of the CO include the bilateral anterior insula (left: −36, 17, 3; right: 38, 19, 0), anterior prefrontal cortex (left: −28, 53, 16; right: 28, 51, 25) and thalamus (left: −13, −14, 4; right: 11, −14, 6).…”

“…Particularly, increased CO network integration during adolescence has also been shown to moderate the effect of age in the transition to adult-level EF (25). Moreover, in our recent, albeit small sample research in adolescents with childhood adversity, we have found that reduced strength of maturing functional connectivity of the dACC in the CO network is associated with greater child neglect severity (26).…”