***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: CONTEXT : Although cognitive aspects of meditation underlie much of its clinical application , very little research has examined meditation 's cognitive consequences . This investigation provides experimental support for the idea that meditation leads to a reduction in habitual responding using r and omly selected subjects , a secular form of meditation , and a full experimental design . OBJECTIVE : To test the hypothesis that meditation leads to a reduction in habitual responding . DESIGN : Studies 1 and 2 each incorporated pre-test and post-test design s with a 20-minute intervening attention task ( meditation , rest , or a cognitive control ) . SETTING : Yale University in New Haven , Conn , and the University of California , Berkeley . PARTICIPANTS : One hundred and twenty and 90 undergraduates participated in Studies 1 and 2 , respectively . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES : Stroop  and Word Production ( category generation and stem-completion ) tasks assessed habitual responding in Study 1 . Galvanic Skin response measured arousal in Study 1 . The category generation task assessed habitual responding in Study 2 . Tellegen 's Absorption Scale ( TAS ) measured attention ability . RESULTS : In Study 1 ,  meditation participants showed a reduction in habitual responding on the Stroop task as compared to controls . Study 1 revealed no statistically significant effects in the word production task . Stroop task performance was not mediated by arousal reduction . In Study 2 ,  meditation participants showed a reduction in habitual responding on the category production task . Specifically , when participants generated either typical or atypical items , on average , meditation participants produced more atypical items than controls . Category production performance was not mediated by Tellegen 's Absorption Scale ( TAS ) scores . Overall , high TAS scores were related to atypical responding . CONCLUSION : Across cognitive tasks , when participants understood that the goal was to respond non-habitually , meditation reduced habitual responding Recent studies suggest that months to years of intensive and systematic meditation training can improve attention . However , the lengthy training required has made it difficult to use r and om assignment of participants to conditions to confirm these findings . This article shows that a group r and omly assigned to 5 days of meditation practice with the integrative body – mind training method shows significantly better attention and control of stress than a similarly chosen control group given relaxation training . The training method comes from traditional Chinese medicine and incorporates aspects of other meditation and mindfulness training . Compared with the control group , the experimental group of 40 undergraduate Chinese students given 5 days of 20-min integrative training showed greater improvement in conflict scores on the Attention Network Test , lower anxiety , depression , anger , and fatigue , and higher vigor on the Profile of Mood States scale , a significant decrease in stress-related cortisol , and an increase in immunoreactivity . These results provide a convenient method for study ing the influence of meditation training by using experimental and control methods similar to those used to test drugs or other interventions Cognitive Reactivity ( CR ) refers to the degree to which a mild dysphoric state reactivates negative thinking patterns , and it has been found to play a key causal role in depressive relapse . Although Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy ( MBCT ) directly aims to address this mechanism of CR , the relationship between mindfulness and CR has not been tested to date . Using a cross-sectional design ( Study 1 ; n = 164 ) and a non-r and omized waiting list controlled design ( Study 2 ; MBCT [ n = 18 ] vs. waiting list [ n = 21 ] ) , the authors examined the relationship between naturally occurring levels of mindfulness ( Study 1 ) and MBCT ( Study 2 ) on the one h and , and CR on the other h and . In line with predictions , it was found that ( a ) trait mindfulness is significantly negatively correlated with CR , even when controlled for current depressive symptoms and prior history of depression ( Study 1 ) , and that ( b ) MBCT , compared to a matched control group , significantly reduces CR , and that this effect of MBCT on reduction of CR is mediated by a positive change in mindfulness skills ( Study 2 ) . Results provide first evidence for the cl aim that mindfulness practice s in MBCT are design ed to address the process of CR This individual differences study examined the separability of three often postulated executive functions-mental set shifting ( " Shifting " ) , information updating and monitoring ( " Updating " ) , and inhibition of prepotent responses ("Inhibition")- and their roles in complex " frontal lobe " or " executive " tasks . One hundred thirty-seven college students performed a set of relatively simple experimental tasks that are considered to predominantly tap each target executive function as well as a set of frequently used executive tasks : the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test ( WCST ) , Tower of Hanoi ( TOH ) , r and om number generation ( RNG ) , operation span , and dual tasking .  Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the three target executive functions are moderately correlated with one another , but are clearly separable . Moreover , structural equation modeling suggested that the three functions contribute differentially to performance on complex executive tasks . Specifically , WCST performance was related most strongly to Shifting , TOH to Inhibition , RNG to Inhibition and Updating , and operation span to Updating . Dual task performance was not related to any of the three target functions . These results suggest that it is important to recognize both the unity and diversity of executive functions and that latent variable analysis is a useful approach to study ing the organization and roles of executive functions We investigated the impact of mindfulness training ( MT ) on working memory capacity ( WMC ) and affective experience . WMC is used in managing cognitive dem and s and regulating emotions . Yet , persistent and intensive dem and s , such as those experienced during high-stress intervals , may deplete WMC and lead to cognitive failures and emotional disturbances . We hypothesized that MT may mitigate these deleterious effects by bolstering WMC . We recruited 2 military cohorts during the high-stress predeployment interval and provided MT to 1 ( MT , n = 31 ) but not the other group ( military control group , MC , n = 17 ) . The MT group attended an 8-week MT course and logged the amount of out-of-class time spent practicing formal MT exercises . The operation span task was used to index WMC at 2 testing sessions before and after the MT course . Although WMC remained stable over time in civilians ( n = 12 ) , it de grade d in the MC group . In the MT group , WMC decreased over time in those with low MT practice time , but increased in those with high practice time . Higher  MT practice time also corresponded to lower levels of negative affect and higher levels of positive affect ( indexed by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule ) . The relationship between practice time and negative , but not positive , affect was mediated by WMC , indicating that MT-related improvements in WMC may support some but not all of MT 's salutary effects . Nonetheless , these findings suggest that sufficient MT practice may protect against functional impairments associated with high-stress context Previous research on depressed and suicidal patients and those with posttraumatic stress disorder has shown that patients ' memory for the past is overgeneral ( i.e. , patients retrieve generic summaries of past events rather than specific events ) . This study investigated whether autobiographical memory could be affected by psychological treatment . Recovered depressed patients were r and omly allocated to receive either treatment as usual or treatment design ed to reduce risk of relapse . Whereas control patients showed no change in specificity of memories recalled in response to cue words , the treatment group showed a significantly reduced number of generic memories . Although such a memory deficit may arise from long-st and ing tendencies to encode and retrieve events generically , such a style is open to modification Although research has found that long-term mindfulness meditation practice promotes executive functioning and the ability to sustain attention , the effects of brief mindfulness meditation training have not been fully explored . We examined whether brief meditation training affects cognition and mood when compared to an active control group . After four sessions of either meditation training or listening to a recorded book , participants with no prior meditation experience were assessed with measures of mood , verbal fluency , visual coding , and working memory . Both interventions were effective at improving mood but only brief meditation training reduced fatigue , anxiety , and increased mindfulness . Moreover , brief mindfulness training significantly improved visuo-spatial processing , working memory , and executive functioning . Our findings suggest that 4days of meditation training can enhance the ability to sustain attention ; benefits that have previously been reported with long-term meditators Objective : Mindfulness is a process whereby one is aware and receptive to present moment experiences . Although mindfulness-enhancing interventions reduce pathological mental and physical health symptoms across a wide variety of conditions and diseases , the mechanisms underlying these effects remain unknown . Converging evidence from the mindfulness and neuroscience literature suggests that labeling affect may be one mechanism for these effects . Methods : Participants ( n = 27 ) indicated trait levels of mindfulness and then completed an affect labeling task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging . The labeling task consisted of matching facial expressions to appropriate affect words ( affect labeling ) or to gender-appropriate names ( gender labeling control task ) . Results : After controlling for multiple individual difference measures , dispositional mindfulness was associated with greater widespread prefrontal cortical activation , and reduced bilateral amygdala activity during affect labeling , compared with the gender labeling control task . Further , strong negative associations were found between areas of prefrontal cortex and right amygdala responses in participants high in mindfulness but not in participants low in mindfulness . Conclusions : The present findings with a dispositional measure of mindfulness suggest one potential neurocognitive mechanism for underst and ing how mindfulness meditation interventions reduce negative affect and improve health outcomes , showing that mindfulness is associated with enhanced prefrontal cortical regulation of affect through labeling of negative affective stimuli . fMRI = functional magnetic resonance imaging ; PFC = prefrontal cortex ; VLPFC = ventrolateral prefrontal cortex ; VMPFC = ventromedial prefrontal cortex ; MPFC = medial prefrontal cortex ; DLPFC = dorsolateral prefrontal cortex Previous studies have found that mindfulness training reduces overgeneral memories and increases autobiographical memory specificity ( e.g. , [ Williams , J. M. G. , Teasdale , J. D. , Segal , Z. V. , & Soulsby , J. ( 2000 ) . Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy reduces overgeneral autobiographical memory in formerly depressed patients . Journal of Abnormal Psychology , 109 , 150 - 155 ] ) . However , little work has investigated the mechanisms underlying this effect . The present study explored the role of executive processes as a mediator of MBCT effects in an unselected sample .  An autobiographical memory task , a cognitive inhibition task , a motor inhibition task , a cognitive flexibility task and a motor flexibility task  were administered before and after intervention . Compared to matched controls , MBCT participants showed increased autobiographical memory specificity , decreased overgenerality , and improved cognitive flexibility capacity and capacity to inhibit cognitive prepotent responses . Mediational analyses indicated that changes in cognitive flexibility partially mediate the impact of MBCT on overgeneral memories . Results are discussed in terms of Conway 's [ 2005 . Memory and the self . Journal of Memory and Language , 53 , 594 - 628 ] autobiographical memory model OBJECTIVES In the present prospect i ve study , the relationship between autobiographical memory specificity and the emotional reactions to a stressful event was investigated . DESIGN AND METHODS The Autobiographical Memory Test ( AMT ) was administered to 74 women before they underwent an in vitro fertilization ( IVF ) treatment , which subsequently failed . Symptoms of emotional reactions - depression and anxiety - were measured both before and after the ( failed ) IVF treatment . RESULTS It was found that the number of reported specific memories at baseline was negatively related to depressive and anxiety symptoms after the treatment , even when initial depressive and anxiety symptoms and verbal fluency were controlled for . CONCLUSIONS Taken together , the findings indicate that a lack of autobiographical memory specificity predicts changes in depressive mood after a stressful event Background : Mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy ( MBCT ) has been widely used to treat patients with depressive disorder to prevent relapse . The objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of newly developed MBCT program as an adjuvant to pharmacotherapy in the treatment of patients with panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder . Methods : Forty‐six patients with panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder were assigned to either MBCT or an anxiety disorder education ( ADE ) program for a period of 8 weeks . The Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale ( HAM‐A ) , Hamilton Depression Rating Scale ( HAM‐D ) , Beck Anxiety Inventory ( BAI ) , Beck Depression Inventory ( BDI ) , and Symptom Checklist‐90‐Revised ( SCL‐90‐R ) were used to assess the patients at 0 week and after the two programs had been running for 2 , 4 , and 8 weeks . Results : The MBCT group demonstrated significantly more improvement than the ADE group according to all anxiety ( HAM‐A , p<0.01 ; BAI , p<0.01 ; anxiety subscale of SCL‐90‐R , p=0.01 ) and depression ( HAM‐D , p<0.01 ; BDI , p<0.01 ; depression subscale of SCL‐90‐R , p<0.01 ) scale scores . The obsessive‐compulsive and phobic subscales of the SCL‐90‐R also showed significantly more improvement in the MBCT group . However , no significant improvement was observed in the MBCT group versus the ADE group in terms of the somatization , interpersonal sensitivity , paranoid ideation , or psychoticism subscale scores of the SCL‐90‐R. Conclusions : MBCT may be effective at relieving anxiety and depressive symptoms in patients with panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder . However , well‐ design ed , r and omized controlled trials are needed . Depression and Anxiety , 2009 . © 2009 Wiley 
    Output:
    
Overall , review ed studies suggested that early phases of mindfulness training , which are more concerned with the development of focused attention , could be associated with significant improvements in selective and executive attention whereas the following phases , which are characterized by an open monitoring of internal and external stimuli , could be mainly associated with improved unfocused sustained attention abilities .
Additionally , MMPs could enhance working memory capacity and some executive functions .