Explanation of emotional regulation mechanism during mindfulness considering training stage by brain function model

Abstract

The effect of emotional regulation during mindfulness through mindfulness training (MT) is currently attracting attention, as mindfulness has a relationship with human cognitive tendency. The purpose of our research is to elucidate the mechanism of the effect by simulating the information propagation in the network structure reflecting the structural connections in the human brain using a brain function model. Elucidation of the emotion regulation mechanism during mindfulness is thought to contribute to elucidation of the human cognitive mechanism in the real world. Here, MT has two stages: “focused attention (FA) training” and “open monitoring (OM) training”. Previous research has pointed out the importance of gradually shifting to OM training as FA training improves. Therefore, in elucidating the mechanism, it is necessary to consider the training stage. In this paper, we focused on the difference between FA training and OM training, and attempted a simulation considering the training stage. As a result, the behavior of the activity of each brain part in the brain network structure was classified into three patterns according to the change of the activity by the OM training after the FA training. In particular, it was confirmed that the OM training after the FA training increased the activity of AI and decreased the activity of mPFC.