FUNCTIONAL BRAIN CONNECTIVITY COMPARISON OF EXPERT AND NOVICE MEDITATORS, FOLLOWING EXPOSURE TO NEGATIVE SOCIO-EMOTIONAL EVENTS

The elderly are known to better control their emotional experiences. Unlike younger adults, older populations often prioritize socio-emotional interactions over other goals and show a positivity bias in emotion perception. In parallel, multiple studies on expert meditators have reported different behaviors and patterns of brain activity during cognitive and emotional tasks or resting-states compared to novices. The exact mechanisms are however not well known. Here, we investigated empathy for suffering and affective resilience in elderly using the SoVT-Rest, a novel paradigm with low cognitive load and high ecological validity for various clinical applications.