Enhancing Chinese preschoolers’ executive function via mindfulness training: An fNIRS study

Mindfulness training has been found to enable cognitive and emotional awareness and diminish emotional distraction and cognitive rigidity. However, the existing intervention studies have largely focused on school children, adolescents, and adults, leaving young children unexplored. This study examin...

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Published inFrontiers in behavioral neuroscience Vol. 16; p. 961797
Main Authors Xie, Sha, Gong, Chaohui, Lu, Jiahao, Li, Hui, Wu, Dandan, Chi, Xinli, Chang, Chunqi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Lausanne Frontiers Research Foundation 25.08.2022
Frontiers Media S.A
Subjects
Behavior
Children
Cognitive ability
cognitive shifting
Emotions
Executive function
fNIRS
inhibitory control
Intervention
Medical imaging
Memory
Mindfulness
mindfulness training
Neuroimaging
Neuroscience
Preschool children
preschooler
Short term memory
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Summary:Mindfulness training has been found to enable cognitive and emotional awareness and diminish emotional distraction and cognitive rigidity. However, the existing intervention studies have largely focused on school children, adolescents, and adults, leaving young children unexplored. This study examined the influence of mindfulness training on young children using the one-group pretest-posttest design. Altogether 31 Chinese preschoolers ( M age = 67.03 months, SD = 4.25) enrolled in a 5-week, twice-per-week mindfulness training. Their cognitive shifting, inhibitory control, and working memory were examined using a battery of executive function tasks. And their brain activations in the region of interest during the tasks were measured using fNIRS before and after the intervention. Results showed that their cognitive shifting and working memory tasks performance significantly improved, and their activation in the DLPFC significantly changed. Implications for this study were also included.
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This article was submitted to Emotion Regulation and Processing, a section of the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
Edited by: Satoru Otani, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), France
Reviewed by: Yong Ping, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China; Zhuangfei Chen, Kunming University of Science and Technology, China
ISSN:1662-5153
1662-5153
DOI:10.3389/fnbeh.2022.961797