TY - JOUR

T1 - Structural plasticity of the social brain

T2 - Differential change after socio-affective and cognitive mental training

AU - Valk, Sofie L.

AU - Bernhardt, Boris C.

AU - Trautwein, Fynn Mathis

AU - Böckler, Anne

AU - Kanske, Philipp

AU - Guizard, Nicolas

AU - Louis Collins, D.

AU - Singer, Tania

N1 - Funding Information: T.S. (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 and the Max Planck Society. B.C.B. is now funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)/SickKids New Investigator Research grant, a CIHR Foundation grant, and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada discovery grant and receives salary support from FRQS (Fonds de recherche du Québec).

PY - 2017/10/4

Y1 - 2017/10/4

N2 - Although neuroscientific research has revealed experience-dependent brain changes across the life span in sensory, motor, and cognitive domains, plasticity relating to social capacities remains largely unknown. To investigate whether the targeted mental training of different cognitive and social skills can induce specific changes in brain morphology, we collected longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data throughout a 9-month mental training intervention from a large sample of adults between 20 and 55 years of age. By means of various daily mental exercises and weekly instructed group sessions, training protocols specifically addressed three functional domains: (i) mindfulness-based attention and interoception, (ii) socio-affective skills (compassion, dealing with difficult emotions, and prosocial motivation), and (iii) socio-cognitive skills (cognitive perspective-taking on self and others and metacognition). MRI-based cortical thickness analyses, contrasting the different training modules against each other, indicated spatially diverging changes in cortical morphology. Training of present-moment focused attention mostly led to increases in cortical thickness in prefrontal regions, socio-affective training induced plasticity in frontoinsular regions, and sociocognitive training included change in inferior frontal and lateral temporal cortices. Module-specific structural brain changes correlated with training-induced behavioral improvements in the same individuals in domain-specific measures of attention, compassion, and cognitive perspective-taking, respectively, and overlapped with task-relevant functional networks. Our longitudinal findings indicate structural plasticity in well-known socio-affective and socio-cognitive brain networks in healthy adults based on targeted short daily mental practices. These findings could promote the development of evidence-based mental training interventions in clinical, educational, and corporate settings aimed at cultivating social intelligence, prosocial motivation, and cooperation.

AB - Although neuroscientific research has revealed experience-dependent brain changes across the life span in sensory, motor, and cognitive domains, plasticity relating to social capacities remains largely unknown. To investigate whether the targeted mental training of different cognitive and social skills can induce specific changes in brain morphology, we collected longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data throughout a 9-month mental training intervention from a large sample of adults between 20 and 55 years of age. By means of various daily mental exercises and weekly instructed group sessions, training protocols specifically addressed three functional domains: (i) mindfulness-based attention and interoception, (ii) socio-affective skills (compassion, dealing with difficult emotions, and prosocial motivation), and (iii) socio-cognitive skills (cognitive perspective-taking on self and others and metacognition). MRI-based cortical thickness analyses, contrasting the different training modules against each other, indicated spatially diverging changes in cortical morphology. Training of present-moment focused attention mostly led to increases in cortical thickness in prefrontal regions, socio-affective training induced plasticity in frontoinsular regions, and sociocognitive training included change in inferior frontal and lateral temporal cortices. Module-specific structural brain changes correlated with training-induced behavioral improvements in the same individuals in domain-specific measures of attention, compassion, and cognitive perspective-taking, respectively, and overlapped with task-relevant functional networks. Our longitudinal findings indicate structural plasticity in well-known socio-affective and socio-cognitive brain networks in healthy adults based on targeted short daily mental practices. These findings could promote the development of evidence-based mental training interventions in clinical, educational, and corporate settings aimed at cultivating social intelligence, prosocial motivation, and cooperation.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85040253112&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.1700489

DO - 10.1126/sciadv.1700489

M3 - Article

C2 - 28983507

AN - SCOPUS:85040253112

VL - 3

JO - Science advances

JF - Science advances

SN - 2375-2548

IS - 10

M1 - 1700489

ER -