This preliminary fMRI study examined whether state mindfulness (decentering and curiosity, measured by the Toronto Mindfulness Scale) in 24 mothers was associated with neural responses while viewing their own 3-month-old infants in negative (arm-restraint) vs. positive (peekaboo) affect contexts, and whether those neural patterns predicted parental stress and mindful parenting.
Higher decentering was linked to increased left-lateralized activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (paracingulate gyrus), superior frontal gyrus, frontal pole, and precuneus; curiosity mapped to a smaller cluster in the left frontal pole. Greater mPFC activation associated with decentering predicted lower parental stress (b = −0.47, R² = 0.22); no significant link to mindful parenting was found.
- Very small sample (n = 24), all mothers, mostly low-income and non-Hispanic white, limiting generalizability. - Decentering subscale had poor internal consistency (α = 0.46), reducing reliability of those neural associations. - State mindfulness was assessed retrospectively after scanning, not in real time, and the study is not preregistered.
These early findings suggest that cultivating momentary decentering—observing thoughts and feelings without over-identifying with them—may engage prefrontal regulatory circuits that buffer parenting stress. Mindfulness-based parent interventions targeting decentering could be a worthwhile focus, but replication in larger samples is needed before changing practice.
