Scientists discover new insights into how mindfulness practices shift the brain’s neural landscape

New research provides evidence that group-based mindfulness and compassion programs tend to alter specific patterns of brain activity and improve how people relate to themselves. Three new papers published in the journals Mindfulness, the Journal of Mood and Anxiety Disorders, and Scientific Reports detail how these therapeutic programs reduce internal criticism and foster a sense of connection with others. These changes correspond with physical shifts in how emotional and executive control centers in the brain communicate.

Many psychological therapies focus on modifying self-related traits, such as self-judgment, rumination, and an internal sense of isolation. Self-judgment involves adopting a harsh, critical view of one’s own perceived flaws. Rumination is the tendency to repetitively dwell on negative past experiences.

These mental habits are transdiagnostic, meaning they frequently appear across a wide range of distinct mental health conditions like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. High levels of these traits are associated with poorer emotional recovery and a lower quality of life.

“My primary research area is psychological trauma, especially regarding developing and optimizing psychosocial intervention for trauma survivors,” said Diane Joss, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at the Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School. “Among trauma survivors, distorted self-referential processes (e.g., thinking or feeling negatively toward oneself) is the underlying factor impacting a wide range of psychological symptoms and interferes with therapy progress.”

To address this, scientists look at neural plasticity, which refers to the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new connections. This adaptability is essential for learning new habits and recovering from psychological distress.

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“My prior research showed mindfulness meditation is very beneficial for childhood trauma survivors, with neural plasticity being observed at the hippocampus and amygdala that supported clinical improvements in depression and anxiety symptoms,” Joss said. “However, the mechanisms for how these therapeutic effects are achieved still need further investigation.”

In 2025, Joss and her colleagues published a study in the Journal of Mood and Anxiety Disorders testing whether a program specifically targeting self-compassion could aid patients with clinical anxiety or depression. The sample included 24 adults, the vast majority of whom had more than one psychological diagnosis. These participants completed an eight-week mindful self-compassion program that focused on cultivating inner warmth and coping with difficult emotions.

The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to scan the participants’ resting brains before and after the intervention. They specifically looked at how a central brain hub called the posterior cingulate cortex communicated with other regions. This hub is heavily involved in wandering thoughts and self-referential mental processes.

Following the training, the participants reported a large absolute reduction in self-judgment, with a standardized effect size of -1.04 compared to their starting scores. They also reported a large absolute increase in self-compassion, characterized by an effect size of 1.20. Patients who scored above the median level for childhood trauma exposure experienced the greatest improvements in both areas.

The brain scans revealed that reduced self-judgment was associated with increased connectivity between the posterior cingulate cortex and frontal brain regions responsible for language and executive control. At the same time, this central hub showed reduced connectivity with the amygdala and hippocampus, which are core components of the brain’s fear circuitry. This pattern suggests that self-compassion training might help quiet the brain’s fear responses while strengthening cognitive regulation over self-critical inner speech.

Building on this neurobiological research, Joss wanted to explore similar brain changes in a broader population. In a paper authored by Joss and published in the journal Mindfulness, the researcher conducted a secondary analysis of a trial involving 64 healthy adults.

The participants were randomly assigned to one of two eight-week programs. Thirty-nine adults joined a mindfulness stress reduction group, which taught meditation techniques like breath awareness and body scanning. Twenty-five adults joined an active control group focused on general stress management education, such as learning about nutrition, time management, and sleep hygiene.

Joss analyzed two distinct pairs of mental traits: self-judgment versus self-kindness, and rumination versus self-reflection. Self-reflection differs from rumination in that it involves a more analytical, open approach to understanding one’s inner thoughts. Before and after the eight-week period, the participants completed psychological questionnaires and underwent fMRI scanning.

The scanner tracked blood flow to measure spontaneous neural activity, allowing the researcher to observe the brain’s natural baseline function without asking the participant to complete a cognitive task.

“I conducted this study by analyzing data from a longitudinal MRI study on the effects of meditation for several self-related traits, such as self-judgment and self-kindness, as well as rumination and reflection,” Joss told PsyPost. “Although this dataset was not from a population who experienced trauma, the generalizable knowledge on how meditation practices promotes neural plasticity related to self-related processes has fundamental value for informing future research and clinical development.”

Joss found that participants in the mindfulness group experienced improvements in all measured traits. They reported an absolute increase in self-kindness, with an effect size of 0.99, which represents a large magnitude of positive change relative to their baseline scores. They also reported reduced self-judgment with an effect size of -0.58, lowered rumination with an effect size of -0.41, and decreased self-reflection with an effect size of -0.41.

The control group did not have a statistically significant change in rumination or reflection. They did report a moderate increase in self-kindness, with an effect size of 0.52, and a reduction in self-judgment, with an effect size of -0.44. Statistical tests comparing the interaction between the group assignments and time showed that the overall differences between the two groups’ psychological outcomes were not statistically significant.

Next, the scientist looked at the brain scans to see how these psychological changes matched up with resting brain activity. In the mindfulness group, increased self-kindness was associated with higher spontaneous activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This brain region is heavily involved in executive functioning, which encompasses skills like planning, focus, and inhibiting impulsive thoughts.

Decreased rumination in the mindfulness group was linked to lowered activity in the temporoparietal junction. This area is associated with processing social information, empathy, and adopting the perspectives of others. Interestingly, a decrease in reflection was tied to higher activity in different parts of this exact same brain region.

The author proposes that mindfulness training provides evidence of a shifting neural landscape. This biological change tends to enable people to consciously override negative biases and relate to themselves with greater executive control.

“For people who have a tendency to think or feel negatively toward oneself (e.g., self-criticism, self-blame, self-doubt, low self-esteem), it can be helpful to try meditation practices for cultivating compassion toward yourself,” Joss said. “You can start by simply noticing the negative self-talk without judging yourself for having them, followed by giving yourself kind understanding and warm validation. Over time, the neural circuitry that supported the habitual patterns of being harsh toward yourself will be trained to shift toward a new mentality of self-compassion.”

Later in 2026, Joss and her colleagues published a third study in the journal Scientific Reports, exploring the social elements of psychological recovery. The authors analyzed data from 60 adults diagnosed with PTSD who participated in a 16-week online therapy program. The patients were randomly assigned to one of two group-based interventions.

Half of the participants underwent a therapy focused on resolving internal emotional conflicts through contemplative practices. This approach teaches patients to view internal conflicts as different parts of their personality and helps them apply compassion to those fragmented parts. The other half watched nature videos as a group and discussed how nature aids in stress reduction.

The researchers measured changes in the participants’ PTSD symptoms, their ability to regulate emotions, and their subjective sense of isolation. Both therapy formats resulted in improvements in PTSD symptoms, with statistical analysis showing the differences between the two interventions were not statistically significant.

A specific variance analysis revealed that an improved ability to regulate emotions accounted for about 13 to 17 percent of the symptom reduction. A reduced sense of isolation explained roughly 9 to 10 percent of the improvement across both groups.

Using a statistical method called path analysis, the researchers mapped out the likely sequence of psychological changes. They found that participating in either group reduced the patients’ sense of isolation. This reduction in feeling alone was linked to lower self-judgment and better emotion regulation, which in turn predicted a drop in PTSD symptoms. The authors propose that simply being part of a supportive group environment helps normalize suffering and reduces feelings of alienation.

These findings rely heavily on self-reported questionnaires to measure internal traits like self-judgment and isolation. Self-reports tend to be influenced by social desirability, meaning participants might unconsciously answer in ways they feel are expected of them. Brain imaging data also requires cautious interpretation.

Observing that brain connectivity changes at the same time a psychological trait changes does not definitively prove that the neural shift caused the mental shift. Experimental designs using a single treatment group without a non-intervention control make it difficult to completely isolate the specific effects of the therapy from the mere passage of time.

Small sample sizes in some of these analyses limit how broadly the findings can be applied to the general population. The participants were predominantly highly educated and mostly identified as white and female. Future research will need to enroll larger, more diverse groups of people to verify these results.

Subsequent studies should also compare group therapy formats directly against one-on-one therapy. This comparison would help isolate exactly how much of a treatment’s success comes from social interaction versus the specific therapeutic curriculum.

The study, “Neural Correlates of Meditation‑Induced Changes in Self‑Related Traits: A Resting State fMRI Study,” was authored by Diane Joss.

The study, “Neural correlates of reduction in self-judgment after mindful self-compassion training: A pilot study with resting state fMRI,” was authored by Diane Joss, Michael Datko, Charisma I. Washington, Mary A. Tresvalles, Mihriye Mete, Sara W. Lazar, Zev Schuman-Olivier, and Elizabeth A. Hoge.

The study, “The role of reduced sense of isolation in group-format PTSD treatment,” was authored by Diane Joss, Alexandra Comeau, Hanna Soumerai Rea, Adhithi Rajan, Martha Sweezy, and Zev Schuman-Olivier.