Dispositional mindfulness, alexithymia and sensory processing: Emerging insights from habituation of the acoustic startle reflex response

Non-dual awareness and sensory processing in meditators: Insights from startle reflex modulation

Startle modulation paradigms, namely habituation and prepulse inhibition (PPI), can offer insight into the brain's early information processing mechanisms that might be impacted by regular meditation practice. Habituation refers to decreasing response to a repeatedly-presented startle stimulus, reflecting its redundancy. PPI refers to response reduction when a startling stimulus "pulse" is preceded by a weaker sensory stimulus "prepulse" and provides an operational measure of sensorimotor gating. Here, we examined habituation and PPI of the acoustic startle response in regular meditators (n = 32), relative to meditation-naïve individuals (n = 36). Overall, there was no significant difference between meditators and non-meditators in habituation or PPI, but there was significantly greater PPI in meditators who self-reported being able to enter and sustain non-dual awareness during their meditation practice (n = 18) relative to those who could not (n = 14). Together, these findings suggest that subjective differences in meditation experience may be associated with differential sensory processing characteristics in meditators.

Electroencephalography microstates highlight specific mindfulness traits

The present study aimed to investigate the spontaneous dynamics of large-scale brain networks underlying mindfulness as a dispositional trait, through resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) microstates analysis. Eighteen participants had attended a standardized mindfulness-based stress reduction training (MBSR), and 18 matched waitlist individuals (CTRL) were recorded at rest while they were passively exposed to auditory stimuli. Participants' mindfulness traits were assessed with the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). To further explore the relationship between microstate dynamics at rest and mindfulness traits, participants were also asked to rate their experience according to five phenomenal dimensions. After training, MBSR participants showed a highly significant increase in FFMQ score, as well as higher observing and non-reactivity FFMQ sub-scores than CTRL participants. Microstate analysis revealed four classes of microstates (A-D) in global clustering across all subjects. The MBSR group showed lower duration, occurrence and coverage of microstate C than the control group. Moreover, these microstate C parameters were negatively correlated to non-reactivity sub-scores of FFMQ across participants, whereas the microstate A occurrence was negatively correlated to FFMQ total score. Further analysis of participants' self-reports suggested that MBSR participants showed a better sensory-affective integration of auditory interferences. In line with previous studies, our results suggest that temporal dynamics of microstate C underlie specifically the non-reactivity trait of mindfulness. These findings encourage further research into microstates in the evaluation and monitoring of the impact of mindfulness-based interventions on the mental health and well-being of individuals.

Gender differences in vitiligo: psychological symptoms and quality of life assessment description

Objective

Assuming that the difference exist in the manifestation of psychological suffering among genders, the purpose of this review is to summarize the current knowledge on gender differences in vitiligo quality of life and psychological assessment.

Methods

We searched in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases for original articles in English language. Results were screened according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA checklist).

Results

The study yielded 107 results; 12 articles have been evaluated as eligible. Each eligible study has been screened and analyzed. The study's qualitative evaluation revealed that 8 papers were classifiable as satisfactory, 4 were classifiable as unsatisfactory. The agreement between the coders was high (% agreement = 84.6%; Cohen's kappa = 0.79). All considered researches (100%) were cross-sectional studies, based on self-report questionnaires. From our analysis, women with vitiligo had a higher risk to experience lower quality of life, and worse mental health in a wide range of psychopathology symptoms than men. A wide heterogeneity of tools is used to investigate the quality of life and psychological symptoms among these patients.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, there are few explanatory models proposed in the literature to rationalize these findings. It will be important to investigate in further researches the specific influence of known risk factors for psychopathology in this population to better explore these phenomena.