engaged in significant at home practice also exhibited reduced production of an important inflammatory
molecule in the blood, the cytokine IL-6, across the TSST (see again
. Moreover, increasing time
spent practicing was correlated with reductions in IL-6 stress responses. At least in this study sample,
changes in cortisol response to the TSST did not seem to be associated with meditation effects on stress-
induced inflammation. On the other hand, increased practice time was associated with reduced autonomic
nervous system responses to the TSST and autonomic function during the TSST, in turn, predicted IL-6 levels
after the stressor (unpublished data). Also important was the observation that cortisol and immune responses
to stress measured before the beginning of compassion meditation did not predict the extent to which people
would go on to practice the meditation program (
)
. Taken together these findings suggest that the
practice of compassion meditation may have reduced the level of stress perceived by individuals exposed to
the TSST, as indexed by reduced autonomic reactivity, which in turn led to reductions in inflammation, all
consistent with multiple lines of evidence suggesting that autonomic responses to stress play an important role
in modulating inflammation
.
Whether these effects of compassion meditation practice on autonomic, neuroendocrine and immune
responses to social stress would be apparent in other age groups, or in populations with medical or psychiatric
illness, remains unknown. Interestingly, however, in a recent study of 71 adolescents in state foster care,
amount of compassion meditation practice during a six-week training period was associated with reductions in
resting-state inflammation, as indexed by salivary concentrations of the acute phase reactant, c-reactive
protein (CRP) (
These findings are especially encouraging given that levels of CRP were high in
this population at the start of the study, consistent with the high rate of early life trauma in children placed in
foster care in the United States, and consistent with replicated associations between early life adversity and
elevated CRP
. Whether these meditation-induced reductions in inflammation would persist after training
and/or translate to long-term protection against illness is one of the most important unanswered questions in
the arena of compassion and endocrinology/immunology.
Summary and Future Directions
The data supporting a role for endocrine factors in the building blocks of human compassion are strong,
especially for oxytocin, although the role for these hormonal factors in the types of universal compassion
espoused by world spiritual traditions is less clear. Nor is it definitively understood if and how the oxytocin
system is involved in aspects of social cognition that are related to compassion such as empathy or
perspective-taking, or in the processes by which empathy may be translated into compassion. Significant
epidemiological data also support the notion that prosocial emotions and behaviors closely linked to
compassion offer real mental and physical health benefits. It is less clear whether training in compassion can
convert these associational findings into tools with therapeutic potential, although preliminary results are
promising in this regard. It will be essential for future studies to map out the pathways whereby increasing
compassionate thoughts and actions produces health-relevant changes in endocrine and immune function. For
example, a challenge for researchers going forward will be to explore if, and how, compassion meditation-
induced changes in oxytocin function are related to changes in HPA axis and immune responses to the types
of stressful situations that often impair empathy and even more often promote ill health.
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