Pupillary Response to Negative Emotional Stimuli Is Differentially Affected in Meditation Practitioners

Abstract

Clinically, meditative practices have become increasingly relevant, decreasing anxiety in patients and increasing antibody production. However, few studies have examined the physiological correlates, or effects of the incorporation of meditative practices. Because pupillary reactivity is a marker for autonomic changes and emotional processing, we hypothesized that the pupillary responses of mindfulness meditation practitioners (MP) and subjects without such practices (non-meditators (NM)) differ, reflecting different emotional processing. In a group of 11 MP and 9 NM, we recorded the pupil diameter using video-oculography while subjects explored images with emotional contents. Although both groups showed a similar pupillary response for positive and neutral images, negative images evoked a greater pupillary contraction and a weaker dilation in the MP group. Also, this group had faster physiological recovery to baseline levels. These results suggest that mindfulness meditation practices modulate the response of the autonomic nervous system, reflected in the pupillary response to negative images and faster physiological recovery to baseline levels, suggesting that pupillometry could be used to assess the potential health benefits of these practices in patients.

Pupillary reactivity to alcohol cues as a predictive biomarker of alcohol relapse following treatment in a pilot study

“…The former two studies find that the pupils generally dilate more to positive and negative stimuli compared to neutral stimuli. In contrast Franzen et al (2009) and Vasquez-Rosati et al (2017) show greater pupil dilation to negative images as compared with neutral and positive images. Translating this line of research onto predictors of alcohol relapse will also have to consider the inter-individual variability in the assessment of alcohol as negative or positive.…”

“…Further testing with positive and negatively emotionally valenced stimuli, non-alcohol beverages or in the context of stress-induced craving are required to dissociate emotional valence from arousal effects (Pulido et al 2010). Previous studies have investigated pupillary dilations and contractions to emotional images of neutral, positive, and negative emotional valence (Bradley et al 2008; Franzen et al 2009; Dietz et al 2011; Vasquez-Rosati et al 2017). The former two studies find that the pupils generally dilate more to positive and negative stimuli compared to neutral stimuli.…”

“…The pupils are the apertures which allow light into the eyes and, therefore, dilate as a reflex to light fluctuations in the environment (Goldinger and Papesh 2012). However, multiple studies show differential pupillary dilation in response to arousing and cognitively taxing stimuli under constant light conditions (Kuchinke et al 2007; Claisse et al 2016; Finke et al 2017; Vasquez-Rosati et al 2017). Moreover, as pupil dilation is an indirect measure of norepinephrine (NE) released from the locus coeruleus, it serves as a proxy of neural activity which is potentially more cost-efficient relative to fMRI (Siegle et al 2003; Aston-Jones and Cohen 2005).…”

Spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) blocks autophagic Tau degradation in vitro and in vivo

“…Neuroinflammation has been shown previously to be increased in Tg Tau P301S mice (51,69) and is likely to exacerbate the neurodegeneration and Tau pathology (69). We carefully investigated the impact of chronic SYK inhibition on neuroinflammation in Tg Tau P301S mice by analyzing the levels of various pro-inflammatory cytokines and by quantifying Iba-1 and iNOS levels as markers of microgliosis (70,71), as well as GFAP to measure astrogliosis (72). We found that Iba-1, iNOS, and various pro-inflammatory cytokine levels were markedly increased in Tg Tau P301S mice compared with WT littermates, whereas GFAP levels were unchanged.…”

A systemic approach to resilience and ecological sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic: Human, societal, and ecological health as a system-wide emergent property in the Anthropocene

“…Evidence from the field of cognitive neuroscience suggests that long-term involvement in meditation decreases the reaction intensity of the autonomic nervous system [ 76 ] and may also increase cognitive flexibility [ 77 ] and produce positive effects on emotion-cognition interactions [ 75 ]. Zen is advocated by the writers as a spiritual path that leads to healing in the personal, social, and ecological dimensions [ 73 ].…”