Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Sep 19, 2022; 12(9): 1141-1149
Published online Sep 19, 2022. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v12.i9.1141
Underlying mechanisms of mindfulness meditation: Genomics, circuits, and networks
Ying-Qi Gu, Yi Zhu
Ying-Qi Gu, Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, Zhejiang Province, China
Yi Zhu, School of Psychology, Hainan Medical University, Haikou 571199, Hainan Province, China
Yi Zhu, Department of Psychology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou 570102, Hainan Province, China
Author contributions: Gu YQ performed the majority of the writing, Zhu Y prepared the figures and revised the paper; all authors reviewed the paper.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82001443; MOE Project of Humanities and Social Sciences, No. 20YJCZH036; Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China, No. LY20C090009; and Major Humanities and Social Sciences Research Program of Zhejiang Province, No. 2021QN060.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ying-Qi Gu, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, No. 928 Second Avenue, Xiasha Higher Education Zone, Hangzhou 310018, Zhejiang Province, China. guyingqi2006@aliyun.com
Received: January 30, 2022
Peer-review started: January 30, 2022
First decision: April 18, 2022
Revised: April 29, 2022
Accepted: August 14, 2022
Article in press: August 14, 2022
Published online: September 19, 2022
Abstract

Understanding neuropsychological mechanisms of mindfulness meditation (MM) has been a hot topic in recent years. This review was conducted with the goal of synthesizing empirical relationships via the genomics, circuits and networks between MM and mental disorders. We describe progress made in assessing the effects of MM on gene expression in immune cells, with particular focus on stress-related inflammatory markers and associated biological pathways. We then focus on key brain circuits associated with mindfulness practices and effects on symptoms of mental disorders, and expand our discussion to identify three key brain networks associated with mindfulness practices including default mode network, central executive network, and salience network. More research efforts need to be devoted into identifying underlying neuropsychological mechanisms of MM on how it alleviates the symptoms of mental disorders.

Keywords: Mindfulness meditation, Gene expression, Neural circuits, Neural networks

Core Tip: Recently, understanding neuropsychological mechanisms of mindfulness meditation (MM) has been a hot topic. We describe progress made in assessing the effects of MM on gene expression in inflammatory processes, with particular focus on stress-related inflammatory markers and associated biological pathways. We then discuss primary brain circuits related to MM and effects on symptoms of mental disorders, and three brain networks associated with MM including default mode network, central executive network, and salience network. More research examining MM effects and outcomes at the potential molecular mechanisms, critical genes and the network level is necessary.