The capacity for the human brain to change in response to training has only recently begun to be appreciated. Moreover, examinations of the effects of training on brain anatomy and function have typically focused on the outcomes produced by narrowly focused training programs targeting a minimal number of domains. However, such programs neglect consideration of the fact that many outcomes may be produced by interacting causal factors, and that simultaneous change may be possible across many outcome dimensions. Two multifaceted lifestyle-change intervention programs were run at the University of California, Santa Barbara: designed to enable positive changes within multiple dimensions of physiological, cognitive, and psychological well-being, and implemented for the purpose of examining the capacity for concurrent and multifaceted change within individuals.

The interventions were extraordinarily effective at producing positive outcomes across their targeted dimensions, yet a key question remains: To what extent were the effects produced by these interventions associated with neurally-instantiated changes within the brain? Evidence of changes in the functional organization of brain activity or in indices of anatomical function and efficiency would provide much-desired support for the notion that the intervention effects observed were due to real physiological alterations in nervous system function rather than superficial effects based on demand characteristics, motivation, or testing. The present research explores the effects of these multifaceted intervention studies on brain anatomy and function.

Intervention-induced changes in resting-state brain function were discovered amongst three key regions: one involved in self-referential processing and mind-wandering (the posterior cingulate cortex), one involved in executive processes (the middle temporal gyrus), and another associated with interoception and salience processing (the insula). Using a novel dynamic functional connectivity approach, intervention effects were also uncovered within brain function during a mindful-breathing sustained attention task, such that individuals spent a greater proportion of the task in a functional connectivity state reflective of focused attention following the intervention. Finally, the intervention program was also able to produce anatomical changes: cortical thickness within insular cortex increased as a result of the intervention.

Together, these findings provide converging support for results obtained from more narrowly focused intervention programs, reveal an association between many functional changes within the brain and improvements in dispositional mindfulness, and demonstrate the efficacy of the interventions at inducing changes in brain anatomy and function.