Meditation and Cognitive Ageing: the Role of Mindfulness Meditation in Building Cognitive Reserve
Meditation and Cognitive Ageing: the Role of Mindfulness Meditation in Building Cognitive Reserve
复制标题
DOI：
10.1007/s41465-017-0022-7
复制
发表时间：
2017-06-01
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
Shalamanova, Liliana
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Malinowski, Peter;Shalamanova, Liliana
与正念相关的冥想练习涉及各种认知技能，包括集中和保持注意力的能力，这本身就需要几个相互作用的注意力子功能。越来越多的行为和神经科学证据表明，正念冥想可以改善这些功能和相关的神经过程。与其他认知训练项目相比，冥想的效果似乎可以推广到其他认知任务，从而证明了远距离转移效应。由于这些注意力功能与年龄相关的认知能力下降有关，人们对冥想是否可以减缓甚至防止这种下降的问题越来越感兴趣。认知储备假说建立在以下证据的基础上：各种生活方式因素可以导致老年人的认知表现比现有的大脑病理程度所预测的更好。我们认为，正念冥想作为大脑网络和大脑状态训练的结合，可能会增加认知储备能力，并可能减轻与年龄相关的认知功能下降。我们从认知储备理论的角度考虑了现有的直接和间接证据。有限的现有证据表明，MM可能直接通过反复激活注意力功能和多需求系统，间接通过改善与应激和免疫功能相关的生理机制来增强认知储备能力。文章最后概述了研究策略，以更实质性的方式解决潜在的实证问题。
Mindfulness-related meditation practices engage various cognitive skills including the ability to focus and sustain attention, which in itself requires several interacting attentional subfunctions. There is increasing behavioural and neuroscientific evidence that mindfulness meditation improves these functions and associated neural processes. More so than other cognitive training programmes, the effects of meditation appear to generalise to other cognitive tasks, thus demonstrating far transfer effects. As these attentional functions have been linked to age-related cognitive decline, there is growing interest in the question whether meditation can slowdown or even prevent such decline. The cognitive reserve hypothesis builds on evidence that various lifestyle factors can lead to better cognitive performance in older age than would be predicted by the existing degree of brain pathology. We argue that mindfulness meditation, as a combination of brain network and brain state training, may increase cognitive reserve capacity and may mitigate age-related declines in cognitive functions. We consider available direct and indirect evidence from the perspective of cognitive reserve theory. The limited available evidence suggests that MM may enhance cognitive reserve capacity directly through the repeated activation of attentional functions and of the multiple demand system and indirectly through the improvement of physiological mechanisms associated with stress and immune function. The article concludes with outlining research strategies for addressing underlying empirical questions in more substantial ways.