Minds "at attention": mindfulness training curbs attentional lapses in military cohorts

Amishi P Jha, Alexandra B Morrison, Justin Dainer-Best, Suzanne Parker, Nina Rostrup, Elizabeth A Stanley, Amishi P Jha, Alexandra B Morrison, Justin Dainer-Best, Suzanne Parker, Nina Rostrup, Elizabeth A Stanley

Abstract

We investigated the impact of mindfulness training (MT) on attentional performance lapses associated with task-unrelated thought (i.e., mind wandering). Periods of persistent and intensive demands may compromise attention and increase off-task thinking. Here, we investigated if MT may mitigate these deleterious effects and promote cognitive resilience in military cohorts enduring a high-demand interval of predeployment training. To better understand which aspects of MT programs are most beneficial, three military cohorts were examined. Two of the three groups were provided MT. One group received an 8-hour, 8-week variant of Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT) emphasizing engagement in training exercises (training-focused MT, n = 40), a second group received a didactic-focused variant emphasizing content regarding stress and resilience (didactic-focused MT, n = 40), and the third group served as a no-training control (NTC, n = 24). Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) performance was indexed in all military groups and a no-training civilian group (CIV, n = 45) before (T1) and after (T2) the MT course period. Attentional performance (measured by A', a sensitivity index) was lower in NTC vs. CIV at T2, suggesting that performance suffers after enduring a high-demand predeployment interval relative to a similar time period of civilian life. Yet, there were significantly fewer performance lapses in the military cohorts receiving MT relative to NTC, with training-focused MT outperforming didactic-focused MT at T2. From T1 to T2, A' degraded in NTC and didactic-focused MT but remained stable in training-focused MT and CIV. In sum, while protracted periods of high-demand military training may increase attentional performance lapses, practice-focused MT programs akin to training-focused MT may bolster attentional performance more than didactic-focused programs. As such, training-focused MT programs should be further examined in cohorts experiencing protracted high-demand intervals.

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: ES is the creator of Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT) and founder of the nonprofit Mind Fitness Training Institute (MFTI), established to support the delivery of MMFT. She was not involved in the data collection or analysis. Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT) and MMFT are registered trademarks. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1. CONSORT chart for the present…
Fig 1. CONSORT chart for the present study demonstrating group sizes for enrollment, allocation, follow-up, and analysis.
Fig 2. The Sustained-Attention-to-Response Task (SART).
Fig 2. The Sustained-Attention-to-Response Task (SART).
Responses were withheld from targets (the digit 3). Responses to non-targets (all other single digits) were made with the space bar. Probe 1 and 2 appeared intermittently between trials.
Fig 3. Time 2 (T2) performance in…
Fig 3. Time 2 (T2) performance in each group after adjustment for variation in Time 1 (T1) performance for (A) A’, (B) ICV, and (C) Probe 2 response.
Asterisks denote a significant planned contrast at a p-value of

Fig 4. A’ in each group from…

Fig 4. A’ in each group from T1 to T2.

While the M8T and CIV…

Fig 4. A’ in each group from T1 to T2.
While the M8T and CIV groups did not change over time, the M8D and NTC groups degraded from T1 to T2. Asterisks denote a significant planed contrast at an alpha of .05. Error bars show standard error of the mean.
Fig 4. A’ in each group from…
Fig 4. A’ in each group from T1 to T2.
While the M8T and CIV groups did not change over time, the M8D and NTC groups degraded from T1 to T2. Asterisks denote a significant planed contrast at an alpha of .05. Error bars show standard error of the mean.

References

    1. Stawarczyk D, Majerus S, Maj M, Van der Linden M, D’Argembeau A (2011) Mind-wandering: phenomenology and function as assessed with a novel experience sampling method. Acta Psychol 136: 370–381. 10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.01.002
    1. Smallwood J, Davies JB, Heim D, Finnigan F, Sudberry M, et al. (2004) Subjective experience and the attentional lapse: task engagement and disengagement during sustained attention. Conscious Cogn 13: 657–690.
    1. Smallwood J, Beach E, Schooler JW, Handy TC (2008) Going AWOL in the brain: mind wandering reduces cortical analysis of external events. J Cogn Neurosci 20: 458–469.
    1. McVay JC, Kane MJ (2009) Conducting the train of thought: working memory capacity, goal neglect, and mind wandering in an executive-control task. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 35: 196–204. 10.1037/a0014104
    1. Kam JW, Dao E, Stanciulescu M, Tildesley H, Handy TC (2013) Mind wandering and the adaptive control of attentional resources. J Cogn Neurosci 25: 952–960. 10.1162/jocn_a_00375
    1. Schooler J, Smallwood J, Christoff K, Handy TC, Reichle ED, et al. (2011) Meta-awareness, perceptual decoupling and the wandering mind. Trends in Cogn Sci 15: 319–326. 10.1016/j.tics.2011.05.006
    1. Kam JW, Handy TC (2013) The neurocognitive consequences of the wandering mind: a mechanistic account of sensory-motor decoupling. Front Psychol 4:725 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00725
    1. Smallwood J (2013) Distinguishing how from why the mind wanders: a process—occurrence framework for self-generated mental activity. Psychol Bull 139: 519–535. 10.1037/a0030010
    1. Endsley MR (1995) Measurement of situation awareness in dynamic-systems. Hum Factors 37: 65–84.
    1. Stanton NA, Chambers PRG, Piggott J (2001) Situational awareness and safety. Safety Sci 39: 189–204.
    1. Kam JW, Dao E, Blinn P, Krigolson OE, Boyd LA, et al. (2012) Mind wandering and motor control: off-task thinking disrupts the online adjustment of behavior. Front Hum Neurosci 6:329 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00329
    1. Kane MJ, Brown LH, McVay JC, Silvia PJ, Myin-Germeys I, et al. (2007) For whom the mind wanders, and when: an experience-sampling study of working memory and executive control in daily life. Psychol Sci 18: 614–621.
    1. Killingsworth MA, Gilbert DT (2010) A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science 330: 932 10.1126/science.1192439
    1. Baird B, Smallwood J, Fishman DJF, Mrazek MD, Schooler JW (2013) Unnoticed intrusions: dissociations of meta-consciousness in thought suppression. Consciousness and Cog 22: 1003–1012. 10.1016/j.concog.2013.06.009
    1. Takarangi MKT, Strange D, Lindsay DS (2014) Self-report may underestimate trauma intrusions. Consciousness and Cog 27: 297–305. 10.1016/j.concog.2014.06.002
    1. Bastian M, Sackur J (2013) Mind wandering at the fingertips: automatic parsing of subjective states based on response time variability. Front Psychol 4:573 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00573
    1. Smallwood J, Schooler JW (2006) The restless mind. Psychol Bull 132: 946–958.
    1. Morrison AB, Goolsarran M, Rogers SL, Jha AP (2014) Taming a wandering attention: short-form mindfulness training in student cohorts. Front Hum Neurosci 7: 897 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00897
    1. Mrazek MD, Franklin MS, Phillips DT, Baird B, Schooler JW (2013) Mindfulness training improves working memory capacity and GRE performance while reducing mind wandering. Psychol Sci 24: 776–781. 10.1177/0956797612459659
    1. Jha AP, Stanley EA, Kiyonaga A, Wong L, Gelfand L (2010) Examining the protective effects of mindfulness training on working memory capacity and affective experience. Emotion 10: 54–64. 10.1037/a0018438
    1. Jha AP, Krompinger J, Baime MJ (2007) Mindfulness training modifies subsystems of attention. Cog Affect Behav Neurosci 7: 109–119.
    1. Slagter HA, Lutz A, Greischar LL, Nieuwenhuis S, Davidson RJ (2009) Theta phase synchrony and conscious target perception: impact of intensive mental training. J Cogn Neurosci 21: 1536–1549. 10.1162/jocn.2009.21125
    1. Carmody J, Baer RA (2008) Relationships between mindfulness practice and levels of mindfulness, medical and psychological symptoms and well-being in a mindfulness-based stress reduction program. J Behav Med 31: 23–33.
    1. Gallegos AM, Hoerger M, Talbot NL, Krasner MS, Knight JM, et al. (2013) Toward identifying the effects of the specific components of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on biologic and emotional outcomes among older adults. J Altern Complement Med 19: 787–792. 10.1089/acm.2012.0028
    1. Kabat-Zinn J (1990) Full catastrophe living: using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain and illness. New York: Delta Trade.
    1. Smallwood J, Fitzgerald A, Miles LK, Phillips LH (2009) Shifting moods, wandering minds: negative moods lead the mind to wander. Emotion 9: 271–276. 10.1037/a0014855
    1. Murphy F, Macpherson K, Jeyabalasingham T, Manly T, Dunn B (2013) Modulating mind-wandering in dysphoria. Front Psychol 4:888 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00888
    1. Sayette MA, Schooler JW, Reichle ED (2010) Out for a Smoke: the impact of cigarette craving on zoning out during reading. Psychol Sci 21: 26–30. 10.1177/0956797609354059
    1. Vinski MT, Watter S (2013) Being a grump only makes things worse: a transactional account of acute stress on mind wandering. Front Psychol 4:730 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00730
    1. Banks JB, Tartar JL, Welhaf MS (2014) Where’s the impairment: an examination of factors that impact sustained attention following a stressor. Cogn Emot 28: 856–866. 10.1080/02699931.2013.857643
    1. Leonard NR, Jha AP, Casarjian B, Goolsarran M, Garcia C, et al. (2013) Mindfulness training improves attentional task performance in incarcerated youth: a group randomized controlled intervention trial. Front Psychol 4: 792 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00792
    1. Tanielian TL, Jaycox L (2008) Invisible wounds of war: psychological and cognitive injuries, their consequences, and services to assist recovery. Rand Corporation.
    1. Bolton EE, Litz BT, Britt TW, Adler A, Roemer L (2001) Reports of prior exposure to potentially traumatic events and PTSD in troops poised for deployment. J Trauma Stress 14: 249–256.
    1. Maguen S, Turcotte DM, Peterson AL, Dremsa TL, Garb HN, et al. (2008) Description of risk and resilience factors among military medical personnel before deployment to Iraq. Mil Med 173: 1–9.
    1. MacDonald C, Chamberlain K, Long N, Pereira-Laird J, Mirfin K (1998) Mental health, physical health, and stressors reported by New Zealand Defence Force peacekeepers: a longitudinal study. Mil Med 163: 477–481.
    1. Lieberman HR, Bathalon GP, Falco CM, Kramer FM, Morgan CA, et al. (2005) Severe decrements in cognition function and mood induced by sleep loss, heat, dehydration, and undernutrition during simulated combat. Biol Psychiat 57: 422–429.
    1. Morgan CA 3rd, Doran A, Steffian G, Hazlett G, Southwick SM (2006) Stress-induced deficits in working memory and visuo-constructive abilities in Special Operations soldiers. Biol Psychiatry 60: 722–729.
    1. Morgan CA 3rd, Hazlett G, Doran A, Garrett S, Hoyt G, et al. (2004) Accuracy of eyewitness memory for persons encountered during exposure to highly intense stress. Int J Law Psychiatry 27: 265–279.
    1. Lieberman HR, Tharion WJ, Shukitt-Hale B, Speckman KL, Tulley R (2002) Effects of caffeine, sleep loss, and stress on cognitive performance and mood during U.S. Navy SEAL training. Sea-Air-Land. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 164: 250–261.
    1. Smallwood J RC (2011) Imprisoned by the past: unhappy moods lead to a retrospective bias to mind wandering. Cognit Emot 25: 1481–1490. 10.1080/02699931.2010.545263
    1. Levinson DB, Smallwood J, Davidson RJ (2012) The Persistence of thought: evidence for a role of working memory in the maintenance of task-unrelated thinking. Psychol Sci 23: 375–380. 10.1177/0956797611431465
    1. McVay JC, Kane MJ (2012) Drifting from slow to “D’oh!”: working memory capacity and mind wandering predict extreme reaction times and executive control errors. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 38: 525–549. 10.1037/a0025896
    1. Stanley EA, Schaldach JM, Kiyonaga A, Jha AP (2011) Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training: a case study of a high-stress predeployment military cohort. Cog and Behav Pract 18: 566–576.
    1. Stanley EA (2014) Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT): An approach for enhancing performance and building resilience in high stress contexts In: Le CTN A., & Langer E.J., editor. The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Mindfulness. London: Wiley-Blackwell; pp. 964–985.
    1. Robertson IH, Manly T, Andrade J, Baddeley BT, Yiend J (1997) ‘Oops!’: performance correlates of everyday attentional failures in traumatic brain injured and normal subjects. Neuropsychologia 35: 747–758.
    1. Cheyne JA, Solman GJF, Carriere JSA, Smilek D (2009) Anatomy of an error: a bidirectional state model of task engagement/disengagement and attention-related errors. Cognition 111: 98–113. 10.1016/j.cognition.2008.12.009
    1. Johnson DC, Thom NJ, Stanley EA, Haase L, Simmons AN, et al. (2014) Modifying resilience mechanisms in at-risk individuals: a controlled study of mindfulness training in Marines preparing for deployment. Am J Psychiatry.171: 844–853. 10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.13040502
    1. Adler AB, Litz BT, Castro CA, Suvak M, Thomas JL, et al. (2008) A group randomized trial of critical incident stress debriefing provided to US peacekeepers. J of Trauma Stress 21: 253–263.
    1. Ogden P, Minton K, Pain C (2006) Trauma and the body: A sensorimotor approach to psychotherapy. New York, NY: WW Norton & Company.
    1. Levine PA (1997) Waking the tiger: healing trauma: the innate capacity to transform overwhelming experiences. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
    1. Stanislaw H, Todorov N (1999) Calculation of signal detection theory measures. Behav Res Methods Instrum Comput 31: 137–149.
    1. Mrazek MD, Smallwood J, Schooler JW (2012) Mindfulness and mind-wandering: finding convergence through opposing constructs. Emotion 12: 442–448. 10.1037/a0026678
    1. Seli P, Cheyne JA, Smilek D (2013) Wandering minds and wavering rhythms: linking mind wandering and behavioral variability. J of Exp PsycholHuman 39: 1–5.
    1. Zanesco A, King B, Maclean K, Saron C (2013) Executive control and felt concentrative engagement following intensive meditation training. Front Human Neuroscie 7: 1–13.
    1. Persson J, Welsh KM, Jonides J, Reuter-Lorenz PA (2007) Cognitive fatigue of executive processes: interaction between interference resolution tasks. Neuropsychologia 45: 1571–1579.
    1. Green MF, Nuechterlein KH, Gold JM, Barch DM, Cohen J, et al. (2004) Approaching a consensus cognitive battery for clinical trials in schizophrenia: the NIMH-MATRICS conference to select cognitive domains and test criteria. Biol Psychiatry 56: 301–307.
    1. Vasterling JJ, Proctor SP, Amoroso P, Kane R, Heeren T, et al. (2006) Neuropsychological outcomes of army personnel following deployment to the Iraq war. JAMA 296: 519–529.
    1. Schooler J, Mrazek MD, Franklin MS, Baird B, Mooneyham B, et al. (2014) The middle way: finding the balance between mindfulness and mind-wandering In: Ross BH, editor. Psychology of Learning and Motivation (Volume 60). Academic Press.
    1. MacCoon DG, Imel ZE, Rosenkranz MA, Sheftel JG, Weng HY, et al. (2012) The validation of an active control intervention for Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Behav Res Ther 50: 3–12. 10.1016/j.brat.2011.10.011
    1. Reivich KJ, Seligman MEP, McBride S (2011) Master Resilience Training in the US Army. Am Psychol 66: 25–34. 10.1037/a0021897

Source: PubMed

Sponsorer og samarbeidspartnere

Medisinsk tilstand

Legemiddelintervensjoner

3
Abonnere