The ACC is involved in emotion-related learning, autonomic regulation, and emotion assessment. In other words, it helps in establishing: empathy, emotion, decision making, and impulse. 

Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)

The IC relates emotion to physiological experiences. In other words, it helps the conscious brain ascribe specific bodily states to certain emotions. Such as a hug to pleasure and/or comfort. 

Insular Cortex (IC)

The amygdala is a key brain structure that plays a central role in processing and relaying emotional information, making it a major focus of research into the biological basis of emotions like fear and anxiety. It is composed of various subnuclei and has a crucial role in memory, influencing how memories are stored—a process affected by stress hormones—and is involved in memory consolidation, the transfer of new learning into long-term memory. This is facilitated by enabling a deeper level of memory encoding for emotionally arousing events.

Amygdala

A part of the frontal lobe that is responsible for higher-level cognitive functioning and focuses on "in the moment" or rash behavior (decision-making, problem solving, and so on). This area is also responsible for the development of personality. The PFC has a handful of (not universally agreed upon) subdivisions:

- Dorsomedial
- Dorsolateral
- Ventromedial
- Ventrolateral
- Orbitofrontal

Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)

- Anterior Cingulate Cortex
- Insular Cortex
- Prefrontal Cortex
- Amygdala

University of Toledo

Mindfulness meditation  may  effect the cognitive processes of enhanced self-regulation, including attention control, emotion regulation and self-awareness.  Scientists have discovered changes in brain structure related to mindfulness meditation in brain regions that control these cognitive processes.

Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation

The study of Dispositional Mindfulness within the lens of Neurobiology. In more specific terms, figuring out what brain functions correspond to the activation of Dispositional Mindfulness.

The Neurobiology of Dispositional Mindfulness

The study of Emotion Regulation within the lens of Neurobiology. More specifically, understanding what brain functions correspond to Emotion Regulation. 

The Neurobiology of Emotion Regulation

The greater amount of grey matter within the right amygdala, the lesser activity and thus the greater cognitive control of stressful/fearful emotional responses. This is likely because the amygdala is inhibited by the Prefrontal Cortex at rest. Thus the result is greater top-down control of the emotions.

Mindfully Trained Right Amygdala

Wheeler, M., Arnkoff, D., & Glass, C. (2017). The Neuroscience of Mindfulness: How Mindfulness Alters the Brain and Facilitates Emotion Regulation. Mindfulness, 8(6), 1471-1487.

Wheeler, Arnkoff, & Glass (2017)

Volumetry

Concentration

Thickness

Fractional Anisotropy

Diffusivity

Gyrification

Morphometric measures used to study neural changes in meditation practitioners 

Morphometric neuroimaging seeks to discover whether meditation is a form of skill learning that can produce anatomical changes in the brain. These  changes would  implicate  increases in brain structure as a partial neural explanation for the numerous cognitive and emotional benefits of mediation.

Meaning of changes in brain structure of meditators

Mindfulness meditation improves conflict monitoring and reduces attentional blink. These changes were studies using the attention network test (ANT) and other experimental paradigms to determine the effects of meditation on attentional performance.

Effects of mindfulness meditation on attention

Mindfulness meditation has been shown to lead to the development of skills that allow individuals to regulate their emotions effectively as they arise. 

Through fMRI and DTI, activity changes were shown in several regions, including: amygdala, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and adjacent prefrontal cortex. 
Decreased activity in the amygdala and insula, paired with increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and adjacent prefrontal cortex, signifies both more stability in emotion regulation and better impulse control.

Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on Emotion Regulation

- models of food intake regulation that emphasize the interplay of psychological and physiological control processes
- self-regulation theory
- neuro-cognitive and therapeutic models of mindfulness meditation

Theoretical Approaches in Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training

As Intentional Mindfulness is practiced, the brain begins to acquire "learned" mindfulness (otherwise known as Dispositional or Trait Mindfulness). Extensively trained mindfulness practitioners have a keen sense of their current surroundings, a deep understanding of the body, and overall contain high levels of Dispositional Mindfulness. 

The Mindfully Trained Brain

There are strong negative relationships between activity in the prefrontal cortex and in the right amygdala. This suggests that identifying and understanding one's emotions allows mindful people to detach from them. Thus, reduce the experience of negative affect arising from stimuli. 

Reduction of Negative Affect

Maladaptive emotion regulation occurs when the regulatory processes do not have the desired effect on emotion, or when the short-term gain of the regulatory effect (for example, to suppress anxiety) is outweighed by a long-term consequence of that regulation (for example, decreased quality of life). 

Maladaptive Emotion Regulation

Mindfulness practitioners show more activity in areas of the brain that support more momentary, experiential, self-focus (such as the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, the interior cortex, and the secondary somatosensory cortex). 

Brain Activity of Mindfulness Practitioners

Labeling emotions seems to aid in the ability to detach from them. Having the ability to detach from negative emotions will help generate greater positive psychology. 

Emotional Awareness and Detachment

Top-down processing is a perceptual process where the recognition of stimuli is guided by an individual's pre-existing knowledge, experiences, and expectations. This cognitive approach is typically goal-directed, slow, deliberate, and effortful, operating under conscious control to interpret incoming sensory information.

Top-Down Processing

Researchers compared neural structures and function of the brains within a group of participants. Only one facet (the describing facet) correlated with greater gray matter volume. The higher people scored on the describing facet, the higher their gray matter volume in a region that spanned the right amygdala and in the right anterior IC. 

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