Mindfulness Meditation and Network Neuroscience: Review, Synthesis, and Future Directions

A 2025 network-neuroscience review by scientists from The Ohio State University, Harvard University, Boston University, Harvard Medical School, Northeastern University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Indiana University finds that mindfulness meditation systematically reshapes brain connectivity, shifting connector hubs in regions like the ACC, thalamus, and mid-insula and reducing default mode network segregation. The authors highlight mixed but promising evidence for more efficient global communication and call for rigorous, diverse, and open science to map how meditation reorganizes whole-brain networks.