ArticleScience advances2017
Structural plasticity of the social brain: Differential change after socio-affective and cognitive mental training.
Article in Science advances, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 101 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
101 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 263 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparison of the efficacy of parent-mediated NDBIs on developmental skills in children with ASD and fidelity in parents: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.BMC pediatrics · 2024Pooled it
- Mindfulness-based randomized controlled trials led to brain structural changes: an anatomical likelihood meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2023Pooled it
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of social cognition training success across the healthy lifespan.Scientific reports · 2022Pooled it
- Is the voice an auditory face? An ALE meta-analysis comparing vocal and facial emotion processing.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2018Pooled it
- Impact of meditation on brain age derived from multimodal neuroimaging in experts and older adults from a randomized trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Effects of brief mindfulness meditation on compassion and personal distress using the socio-affective video task.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- A randomized trial on differential changes in thought and affect after mindfulness versus dyadic practice indicates phenomenological fingerprints of app-based interventions.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Boosting Empathy and Compassion Through Mindfulness-Based and Socioemotional Dyadic Practice: Randomized Controlled Trial With App-Delivered Trainings.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Trial
- Effects of compassion training on brain responses to suffering others.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2021Trial
- Familiarity with children improves the ability to recognize children's mental states: an fMRI study using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task and the Nencki Children Eyes Test.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- Association of Short-term Change in Leukocyte Telomere Length With Cortical Thickness and Outcomes of Mental Training Among Healthy Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2019Trial
- Opportunities and pitfalls of data contextualization in neuroimaging.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Cortical Structure in Relation to Empathy and Psychopathy in 800 Incarcerated Men.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Mindfulness Practice and Increases in Gray Matter Density, Gray Matter Volume, and Cortical Thickness: A Scoping Review.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Childhood unpredictability, expressive suppression, and mindfulness as predictors of bystanders' outsider behaviors in cyberbullying among Chinese undergraduates: a moderated mediation model.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Cortical structure in relation to empathy and psychopathy in 800 incarcerated men.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Longitudinal changes in brain asymmetry track lifestyle and disease.Nature communications · 2025Article
- From triple-mode network to triple-layered model - novel insights in social cognition.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- Childhood abuse and neglect are differentially related to perceived discrimination and structural change in empathy-related circuitry.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Assessing brain neuroplasticity: Surface morphometric analysis of cortical changes induced by Quadrato motor training.Journal of anatomy · 2025Article
41 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
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 socio-cognitive 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.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.