Chumachenko, Serhiy Y.Cali, Ryan J.Rosal, Milagros CAllison, Jeroan J.Person, Sharina D.Ziedonis, DouglasNephew, BenMoore, Constance M.Zhang, NanyinKing, Jean A.Fulwiler, Carl E.2022-08-232022-08-232021-01-112021-03-01<p>Chumachenko SY, Cali RJ, Rosal MC, Allison JJ, Person SJ, Ziedonis D, Nephew BC, Moore CM, Zhang N, King JA, Fulwiler C. Keeping weight off: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction alters amygdala functional connectivity during weight loss maintenance in a randomized control trial. PLoS One. 2021 Jan 11;16(1):e0244847. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244847. PMID: 33428638; PMCID: PMC7799782. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244847">Link to article on publisher's site</a></p>1932-6203 (Linking)10.1371/journal.pone.024484733428638https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/46925Obesity is associated with significant comorbidities and financial costs. While behavioral interventions produce clinically meaningful weight loss, weight loss maintenance is challenging. The objective was to improve understanding of the neural and psychological mechanisms modified by mindfulness that may predict clinical outcomes. Individuals who intentionally recently lost weight were randomized to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) or a control healthy living course. Anthropometric and psychological factors were measured at baseline, 8 weeks and 6 months. Functional connectivity (FC) analysis was performed at baseline and 8 weeks to examine FC changes between regions of interest selected a priori, and independent components identified by independent component analysis. The association of pre-post FC changes with 6-month weight and psychometric outcomes was then analyzed. Significant group x time interaction was found for FC between the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, such that FC increased in the MBSR group and decreased in controls. Non-significant changes in weight were observed at 6 months, where the mindfulness group maintained their weight while the controls showed a weight increase of 3.4% in BMI. Change in FC at 8-weeks between ventromedial prefrontal cortex and several ROIs was associated with change in depression symptoms but not weight at 6 months. This pilot study provides preliminary evidence of neural mechanisms that may be involved in MBSR's impact on weight loss maintenance that may be useful for designing future clinical trials and mechanistic studies.en-USCopyright: © 2021 Chumachenko et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Functional magnetic resonance imagingEmotionsWeight lossBody weightDepressionAmygdalaAnthropometryPsychological stressAlternative and Complementary MedicineBehavioral MedicineHealth PsychologyHealth Services ResearchMovement and Mind-Body TherapiesNeuroscience and NeurobiologyNutritional and Metabolic DiseasesPsychiatry and PsychologyJournal Articlehttps://escholarship.umassmed.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2408&amp;context=qhs_pp&amp;unstamped=1https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/qhs_pp/140421892734qhs_pp/1404