Data_Sheet_1_Measuring Mindfulness: A Psychophysiological Approach.ZIP

Mindfulness-based interventions have proved effective in reducing various clinical symptoms and in improving general mental health and well-being. The investigation of the mechanisms of therapeutic change needs methods for assessment of mindfulness. Existing self-report measures have, however, been strongly criticized on various grounds, including distortion of the original concept, response bias, and other. We propose a psychophysiological method for the assessment of the mindfulness learned through time-limited mindfulness-based therapy by people who undergo meditation training for the first time. We use the individual pre-post-therapy changes (dERPi) in the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) recorded in a passive meditation task as a measure of increased mindfulness. dERPi is computed through multivariate assessment of individual participant's ERPs. We tested the proposed method in a group of about 70 recurrently depressed participants, randomly assigned in 1.7:1 ratio to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) or cognitive therapy (CT). The therapy outcome was measured by the long-term change (dDS) relative to baseline in the depression symptoms (DS) assessed weekly, for 60 weeks, by an online self-report questionnaire. We found a strong, highly significant, negative correlation (r = −0.55) between dERPi (mean = 0.4) and dDS (mean = −0.7) in the MBCT group. Compared to this result, the relationship between dDS and the other (self-report) measures of mindfulness we used was substantially weaker and not significant. So was also the relationship between dERPi and dDS in the CT group. The interpretation of dERPi as a measure of increased mindfulness was further supported by positive correlations between dERPi and the other measures of mindfulness. In this study, we also replicated a previous result, namely, the increase (dLCNV) of the late contingent negative variation (LCNV) of the ERP in the MBCT group, but not in the control group (in this case, CT). We interpreted dLCNV as a measure of increased meditative concentration. The relationship between dLCNV and dDS was, however, very week, which suggests that concentration might be relatively unimportant for the therapeutic effect of mindfulness. The proposed psychophysiological method could become an important component of a “mindfulness test battery” together with self-report questionnaires and other newly developed instruments.

基于正念的干预（Mindfulness-based interventions）已被证实可有效缓解多种临床症状，并改善整体心理健康与主观幸福感。对治疗改变机制的探究，离不开对正念进行评估的相关方法。然而，现有的自我报告式测评工具因多方面原因广受诟病，包括对正念原始概念的歪曲、应答偏差等问题。本研究提出一种心理生理学测评方法，用于评估首次接受冥想训练的人群在经过限时正念治疗后所习得的正念水平。我们将被动冥想任务中记录的事件相关脑电位（event-related brain potentials, ERPs）的个体治疗前后变化量（dERPi）作为正念水平提升的测评指标。dERPi通过对个体参与者的ERP进行多变量评估计算得到。我们招募了约70名复发性抑郁参与者，并将其以1.7:1的比例随机分配至基于正念的认知疗法（mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, MBCT）组与认知疗法（cognitive therapy, CT）组。治疗效果通过为期60周、每周通过线上自我报告问卷评估的抑郁症状（depression symptoms, DS）相较于基线的长期变化量（dDS）进行衡量。我们在MBCT组中发现，dERPi（均值为0.4）与dDS（均值为-0.7）之间存在显著的强负相关关系（r = -0.55）。相较于这一结果，MBCT组中dDS与我们所采用的其他（自我报告式）正念测评指标之间的相关性显著更弱，且不具备统计学显著性；CT组中dERPi与dDS之间的相关性同样如此。将dERPi作为正念水平提升的测评指标，还得到了dERPi与其他正念测评指标之间正相关结果的进一步支持。在本研究中，我们还重复了此前的一项研究结果：MBCT组的ERP晚期伴随负变化（late contingent negative variation, LCNV）出现提升（dLCNV），而CT对照组则未出现该变化。我们将dLCNV视为冥想专注度提升的测评指标。然而，dLCNV与dDS之间的相关性极弱，这表明专注度可能对正念治疗的疗效相对而言并不重要。所提出的心理生理学测评方法，可与自我报告问卷及其他新开发的测评工具一同，成为“正念测评组合套件”的重要组成部分。