How often should I meditate? A randomized trial examining the role of meditation frequency when total amount of meditation is held constant.

Meditation apps are the most commonly used mental health apps. However, the optimal dosing of app-delivered meditation practice has not been established. We examined whether the distribution of meditation practices across a day impacted outcomes in a distressed population.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Smartphone-Based Well-Being Training in Public School System Employees During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

While the extraordinary pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic on student mental health have received considerable attention, less attention has been placed on educator well-being. School system employees play a vital role in society, and teacher levels of well-being are associated with the educational outcomes of young people. We extend extant research on the prevalence and correlates of educator distress during the pandemic by reporting on a pragmatic randomized wait-list controlled trial (=662; 64% teachers) of an innovative mental health promotion strategy implemented during the pandemic; a free four-week smartphone-based meditation app designed to train key constituents of well-being (Healthy Minds Program; HMP).

The effects of perceived stress and anhedonic depression on mnemonic similarity task performance.

Previous research has demonstrated hippocampal alterations in individuals experiencing elevated stress. The Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST) is a hippocampal-dependent task sensitive to age-related hippocampal decline, but it is unknown how performance on this task is related to one's experience of daily stress. We conducted separate discovery and replication analyses in 510 participants who completed the MST across four different Mechanical Turk studies.

The Neurodynamics of Affect in the Laboratory Predicts Persistence of Real-World Emotional Responses.

Failure to sustain positive affect over time is a hallmark of depression and other psychopathologies, but the mechanisms supporting the ability to sustain positive emotional responses are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the neural correlates associated with the persistence of positive affect in the real world by conducting two experiments in humans: an fMRI task of reward responses and an experience-sampling task measuring emotional responses to a reward obtained in the field. The magnitude of DLPFC engagement to rewards administered in the laboratory predicted reactivity of real-world positive emotion following a reward administered in the field.

Active and sedentary behaviors influence feelings of energy and fatigue in women.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether physical activity and sedentary behaviors interact to influence feelings of energy and fatigue in women.

Methods: Feelings of energy and fatigue and physical activity and sedentary behaviors were assessed in 73 women (mean ± SD age = 37 ± 10) who were dichotomized based on physical activity status (meets physical activity recommendations [n = 40] vs insufficiently active [n = 33]) and the amount of uninterrupted sedentary time they accumulated (high [n = 38] vs low [n = 35]). Three 2 × 2 ANOVA were conducted to determine the relationships between physical activity and sedentary behaviors and between energy (vigor and vitality) and fatigue.