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Mindfulness is considered to benefit social behavior and interpersonal communication. However, the underlying neural mechanism has not been fully examined. This study aimed to explore how mindfulness practice affected the interbrain synchrony within adolescent peer dyads when sharing emotional experience together by using the electroencephalograph hyperscanning approach. Thirty adolescent dyads were randomly assigned to a mindfulness group or a non-mindfulness group. Mindfulness group performed a 20-min mindfulness exercise. Non-mindfulness group were instructed to rest. Simultaneously, electroencephalograph was recorded when they completed a picture-processing task. Phase-locking-value in the gamma band was used to calculate adolescent dyads' brain-to-brain synchrony. Results showed that greater interbrain synchrony in the frontal region was observed when viewing different emotional stimuli together after the mindfulness than before the mindfulness in the mindfulness group. However, there was no significant difference in the interbrain synchrony in the non-mindfulness group. Moreover, greater interbrain synchrony was observed in the mindfulness group than in the non-mindfulness group after mindfulness or rest in the frontal region. However, there was no significant difference between the mindfulness and non-mindfulness group before mindfulness or rest. The findings are discussed in light of the broader theoretical questions of how mindfulness may promote interpersonal functioning from a psychophysiological perspective., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Mindfulness is a state of concentration that allows individuals to focus on their feelings and thoughts without judgment. However, little is known regarding the underlying neural processes of mindfulness. This study used ERPs to investigate the differences between high and low trait mindfulness adolescents during emotional conflict processing. Nineteen low mindfulness adolescents (LMSs) and sixteen high mindfulness adolescent (HMSs) individuals were asked to complete a face Stroop task. The task superimposed emotional words on emotional faces to generate congruent (CC) and incongruent (IC) conditions. Continuous electroencephalogram data were recorded during the face Stroop task. Results revealed that for N450, the interaction of congruency and group was significant. The incongruent trials evoked a larger N450 than the congruent trials in the HMSs, whereas there were no significant differences between the two conditions in the LMSs. There were significant main effects of congruency for SP (slow potential). The incongruent trials evoked a larger SP than the congruent trials. The results suggest that mindfulness may only affect early conflict monitoring rather than later conflict resolution. The findings expand the neural basis of the effect of mindfulness on inhibitory control.

The present study examined the differences in frontal EEG asymmetry during emotion regulation between participants who had different levels of trait mindfulness. EEG recordings were taken from 23 high mindfulness adolescents (M age = 12.34) and 22 low mindfulness adolescents (M age = 12.53) during the Reactivity and Regulation-Image Task. The results showed that (1) high mindfulness adolescents had greater left (relative to right) asymmetry than low mindfulness adolescents in down-regulation and up-regulation conditions; however, there was no significant difference in the non-regulation condition; (2) In the up-regulating condition, adolescents showed greater right (relative to left) asymmetry for negative stimuli compared to neutral stimuli; however, there was no significant difference in down-regulation and non-regulation conditions. The results provide neurological evidence that trait mindfulness was highly related to the regulation of emotions and affects how emotions are processed., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Mindfulness has been shown to improve mental health through adaptive responses during emotional processing. Although the benefits of mindfulness and the corresponding neural correlates have been demonstrated in adults, little is known about the impact of mindfulness on pre-adolescent children. The present study examined the influence of mindfulness induction on electrocortical responses during emotional processing in pre-adolescent children. Electroencephalograms were recorded from 35 pre-adolescent children; 18 children (M age  = 10.44 years) were randomly assigned to a mindfulness induction group and 17 children were randomly assigned to a control group (M age  = 9.88 years). Group differences in event-related brain potentials (ERPs) associated with the processing of positive, negative and neutral stimuli were analysed. The P1, N2 and late positive potentials (LPPs) were compared between the mindfulness induction group and the control group. The amplitude of the P1 was smaller in the mindfulness induction group compared to the control group under both the negative and neutral conditions. For both groups, the amplitude of the N2 was larger during the presentation of negative stimuli compared to both positive and neutral stimuli. Additionally, the LPP 600-1000 and LPP 1000-1500 were smaller in the mindfulness induction group than in the control group. The presented findings suggest that the impacts of mindfulness during emotional processing are reflected by both bottom-up (evidenced by the early ERP components) and top-down (evidenced by the later ERP components) processes. These results indicate that mindfulness modulates emotional responses in pre-adolescent children and thus has important implications in training and clinical practices., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The current study identified profiles of trait mindfulness in a sample of 514 early Chinese adolescents (mean age = 10.54 years), and examined their associations with emotion regulation. Latent profile model was built on five facets of mindfulness (observing, non-judging, acting with awareness, describing, and non-reactivity). Results showed negative correlations of the five facets among the four identified profiles: Judging & High Mindfulness (Profile 1, 43.1%), Non-reacting Observing (Profile 2, 6.7%), Non-judging & Low Mindfulness (Profile 3, 20.4%), and Non-judgmental Awareness (Profile 4, 29.7%). Judging & High Mindfulness and Non-reacting Observing profile used significantly more reappraisal than the other profiles. Besides, Non-reacting Observing applied significantly more behavioral suppression than the other profiles. The result indicated diverse patterns of trait mindfulness among the early adolescents, and the associations of trait mindfulness with emotion regulation should be considered comprehensively with all facets, rather than separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]