TY - JOUR

T1 - Differential benefits of mental training types for attention, compassion, and theory of mind

AU - Trautwein, Fynn Mathis

AU - Kanske, Philipp

AU - Böckler, Anne

AU - Singer, Tania

N1 - Funding Information: This study forms part of the ReSource Project, headed by Tania Singer. Data for this project were collected between 2013 and 2016 at the former Department of Social Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig. Tania Singer (Principal Investigator) received funding for the ReSource Project from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2013) ERC grant agreement number 205557 . We are thankful to the members of the Social Neuroscience Department involved in the ReSource Project over many years, in particular to the teachers of the ReSource intervention program, to Astrid Ackermann, Christina Bochow, Matthias Bolz and Sandra Zurborg for managing the large-scale longitudinal study, to Elisabeth Murzik, Sylvia Tydecks , Kerstin Träger, and Nadine Otto for help with recruiting and data archiving, to Henrik Grunert for technical assistance, to Manuela Hofmann, Sylvie Neubert, and Nicole Pampus for help with data collection, and to Hannes Niederhausen and Torsten Kästner for data management. Thank you also to the research assistants, especially to Theo Alexander Jose Schäfer for help with data analysis. Funding Information: Tania Singer, as principal investigator, received funding for the ReSource Project from a) the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013/ ERC Grant Agreement Number 205557 to T.S.), and b) from the Max Planck Society.

PY - 2020/1

Y1 - 2020/1

N2 - Mindfulness- and, more generally, meditation-based interventions increasingly gain popularity, effectively promoting cognitive, affective, and social capacities. It is unclear, however, if different types of practice have the same or specific effects on mental functioning. Here we tested three consecutive three-month training modules aimed at cultivating either attention, socio-affective qualities (such as compassion), or socio-cognitive skills (such as theory of mind), in three training cohorts and a retest control cohort (N = 332). While attentional performance improved most consistently after attention training, compassion increased most after socio-affective training and theory of mind partially improved after socio-cognitive training. These results show that specific mental training practices are needed to induce plasticity in different domains of mental functioning, providing a foundation for evidence-based development of more targeted interventions adapted to the needs of different education, labor, and health settings.

AB - Mindfulness- and, more generally, meditation-based interventions increasingly gain popularity, effectively promoting cognitive, affective, and social capacities. It is unclear, however, if different types of practice have the same or specific effects on mental functioning. Here we tested three consecutive three-month training modules aimed at cultivating either attention, socio-affective qualities (such as compassion), or socio-cognitive skills (such as theory of mind), in three training cohorts and a retest control cohort (N = 332). While attentional performance improved most consistently after attention training, compassion increased most after socio-affective training and theory of mind partially improved after socio-cognitive training. These results show that specific mental training practices are needed to induce plasticity in different domains of mental functioning, providing a foundation for evidence-based development of more targeted interventions adapted to the needs of different education, labor, and health settings.

KW - Attention

KW - Compassion

KW - Mental training

KW - Mindfulness meditation

KW - Theory of mind

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071037352&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104039

DO - 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104039

M3 - Article

C2 - 31450018

AN - SCOPUS:85071037352

VL - 194

JO - COGNITION

JF - COGNITION

SN - 0010-0277

M1 - 104039

ER -