In some types of meditation, such as mindfulness and Zen, breathing is the focus of attention, whereas during an excessive, short-period of anaerobic exercise, the muscles become the focus of attention. Thus, during both efforts, one’s attention is focused on a certain feature of the body. Both meditation and exercise generally provide mental refreshment to humans. We hypothesized that the same brain regions are activated by both efforts in humans. To examine this hypothesis, we engaged participants in 3 tasks: meditation, exercise, and a control task. After each task, the participants underwent a 2-back test to concentrate their thoughts, while changes in their blood hemoglobin levels were simultaneously monitored using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Seventeen participants (20–24 years of age; 11 men, 6 women) were enrolled. We applied a fast-Fourier transform (FFT) analysis to the NIRS wave data and calculated the correlation coefficients of the FFT data between (1) meditation and control, (2) exercise and control, and (3) meditation and exercise, at the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), brain areas that are generally involved in mental refreshment. A significant difference in the correlation coefficients between the OFC and DLPFC was detected in the meditation and exercise analysis, and signal source analysis confirmed that the NIRS waves spread from the right and left OFC edges (i.e., right and left temples) toward the center. Our results suggest that both meditation and exercise activate the OFC, which is involved in emotional reactions and motivation behavior, resulting in mental refreshment.

Pain in the elbow, shoulder, knee, lower back, and various other joints is relieved by adhesion of pyramidal thorn patches. To elucidate the pain relief mechanism induced by the patches, we established a quantitative method for estimating the pain reduction and investigated the brain regions that change in association with pain relief. We first attempted to quantify the pain relief using transcutaneous electric stimulation (TCES) and a visual analog scale (VAS), and then applied near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to the prefrontal cortex, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). We also examined the salivary oxytocin levels, which are thought to reflect oxytocin secretion levels from the posterior pituitary in the brain. Application of pyramidal thorn patches to pain regions decreased the pain degree estimated using TCES and VAS. Oxyhemoglobin levels were likely to be decreased in the left DLPFC on the basis of NIRS measurements during patch treatment, suggesting that the left DLPFC is involved in pain relief. On the other hand, the salivary oxytocin levels varied widely. A potential reason for the varying salivary oxytocin levels is its utilization in the pain region as an analgesic agent. Our results suggest that the left DLPFC will become a target brain region for pain therapy.

According to the response style theory, human responses to a depressive mood are divided into two styles: ruminative and distractive responses. Although response styles reportedly have both adaptive and maladaptive aspects, the factor associated with the adaptiveness of these response styles is unclear. The present study examined the mediation and moderation effects of voluntary attention control skills (selective, divided, and switching attention) on the relationship between adaptive/maladaptive forms of ruminative/distractive response styles and depression. In total, 234 Japanese undergraduates completed questionnaires of response styles, attention control skills, and depressive symptom. Selective attention and divided attention skill mediated the effects of adaptive response styles on depression. In addition, when combined with higher divided attention skill, the increase of depression by maladaptive response styles was mitigated. These results suggest that attention control skills could explain the adaptive process of response styles, and that heightening particular skills would be efficacious in reducing depression.

In recent years, mindfulness-based meditation programs have been applied to educational settings such as elementary and junior high schools in European and other countries. Some of these programs have started to be introduced to Japan. However, to date, few quantitative studies have investigated the effects of meditation in large university classes. In this study, the authors introduced a 5-minute focused attention and open monitoring meditation session into a university undergraduate course to examine whether and how meditation at the beginning of each lecture impacts mood and motivational states at the end of the lecture. The participants reported significantly higher scores regarding their degree of relaxation after lectures compared without meditation. In addition, when compared with students reporting lower scores for their own meditation performance, students reporting higher scores showed significantly higher scores for the degrees of relaxation, concentration during lectures, lecture comprehension, and interest in the lecture. These findings suggest that meditation at the beginning of a lecture can produce desirable psychological effects throughout the lecture period, and that self-evaluation regarding the meditation performance and type of meditation are associated with these effects.

Recent studies have suggested that ruminative and distractive response styles to negative moods could have adaptive and maladaptive consequences, respectively. However, whether there is a common component in the adaptive aspects of ruminative or distractive response styles has not been examined sufficiently. Adaptiveness of ruminative or distractive response styles is considered to be associated with decentering
thus, we investigated the indirect effects of four types of the response style (adaptive/maladaptive aspects of each response style) on depression through decentering. In this study, 241 Japanese undergraduate students (75 men and 166 women) were assessed using the Response Style Scale, the Japanese Version of Experience Questionnaire, and the Japanese Version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Mediation analyses revealed that decentering fully mediated the effects of adaptive aspects of ruminative and distractive response styles on depression whereas it partially mediated the effects of maladaptive aspects of response styles. These results indicate that the adaptiveness of response styles is influenced by decentering, and it particularly works in the adaptive aspects of ruminative/distractive response styles as a common element. Thus, a possibility is suggested that cultivating decentered perspective is effective in reducing maladaptive aspects of both response styles to negative moods or objects.

The effect of a task that encouraged participants to divide their attention between a present distractive task and previous negative events on improving negative mood and evaluation was investigated. Participants (n=24) were randomly assigned to three task groups: (A) distraction, (B) distraction while recalling negative events, and (C) recalling negative events without distraction. Then, they performed each task for 10 minutes. Negative mood and the evaluation of previous negative events were assessed after induced rumination, task engagement, and resting for two minutes. Analyses of variance indicated no significant differences in negative mood between the groups. However, groups A and B, compared to group C showed a higher reduction in the evaluation of negative events. Moreover, only group B showed a significant reduction in negative evaluation between “after task” and “after resting.” These results suggest that when a person cannot stop ruminating about negative events, distraction with recalling negative events would be more effective for improving negative evaluations than merely continuing to ruminate.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a 20-minute cutting-art task on depressive and anxious mood and on the level of self-focused attention in highly ruminative people. Participants were randomly assigned to three distractive task conditions that required attention—cutting-art, calculation, and silent reading—and engaged in each task after induced rumination. The results indicated that the level of self-focused attention reduced in all conditions after distractive tasks and showed no difference between tasks. Similarly, negative moods were reduced in all conditions and no difference was found between tasks. The paper concludes by discussing the characteristics of the state of attention generated during the cutting-art task.