Changing the social brain: plasticity along macro-scale axes of functional connectivity following social mental training

Abstract

AbstractDespite the importance of our ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others, the social brain remains incompletely understood. Here, we studied the plasticity of social brain function in healthy adults following the targeted training of attention-mindfulness, socio-affective, and socio-cognitive skills for 9 months. All participants were followed with repeated multimodal neuroimaging and behavioral testing. Longitudinal analyses of functional networks indicated marked and specific reorganization following mental training. Socio-cognitive training resulting in an increased integration of multiple demand and default mode regions whereas attention-mindfulness resulted in their segregation. Socio-affective training resulted in an increased functional integration of ventral attention network with these regions. Changes in functional network organization were robust after varying analysis parameters, and predictive of change in behavioral markers of compassion and perspective-taking. Our results advance the understanding of the social brain, describing its intrinsic functional organization and reorganization following mental training.