Status:
COMPLETED
Evaluating Multivariate MRI Maps of Body Awareness
Lead Sponsor:
University of California, San Francisco
Collaborating Sponsors:
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Mind and Life Institute, Hadley, Massachusetts
Conditions:
Attention
Eligibility:
All Genders
25-65 years
Brief Summary
Meditation skills, or paying attention to internal mental states, are thought to improve people's health. This study is developing a new brain measure of meditation skills, called the EMBODY Task, usi...
Detailed Description
The investigators are developing a new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task (the EMBODY Task) to measure mental states during meditation using pattern recognition or machine learning tech...
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion
- Healthy adults, 25-65 years of age.
- Meditators will be affiliated with meditation centers that are based in the Vipassana tradition or Zen traditions. In the past 5 years, meditators will have a consistent practice in mindfulness of body practices, where consistent practice is defined as practicing for at least 90 minutes in a typical week. They will also have had at least 14 days of total silent retreat practice in the past 5 years. At least half of total practice time as reported by the participants will be engaged in mindfulness of body practices (e.g., breath meditation, body scan, mindfulness of emotions, mindful yoga, walking meditation).
- Non-meditator control group. Within the past 3 years, participants will not have engaged in regular meditation (including from courses such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy), yoga, or other mind-body practice (such as Tai Chi, Feldenkrais, sensory awareness, or related practices), defined as more than 20 minutes of practice at least two times per week. If there is experience with mind-body practices prior to the past 3 years, it should not include an extended period of consistent practice (such as 20 min daily practice for a year or more) or a period of intensive practice longer than 7 days (e.g., 10-day silent retreat).
Exclusion
- Participants who endorse:
- being smokers;
- chronic or recurrent bronchial or pulmonary disease requiring medical attention;
- having been diagnosed with sleep apnea;
- a history of an upper or lower respiratory tract infection in the 6 weeks preceding the study;
- pregnancy;
- diseases that restrain chest or abdominal breathing, such as ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus, chronic abdominal pain, chronic liver or kidney diseases,
- can not fit comfortably in the MRI scanner.
- potentially confounding medical conditions that impact breathing (e.g.,asthma, congestive heart failure, and emphysema that are not well-controlled), could impact attention to the breath (e.g., chronic pain conditions that are not well-managed), or impact neural functioning (e.g., multiple sclerosis, neurological diseases, brain injury);
- currently experiencing a mental health condition (e.g., anxiety, depression, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder) or past severe mental illness such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or severe substance abuse disorder.
- use of psychotropic medications in the past year
- current use of medications that potentially can affect the respiratory system or the interoceptive focus in the past week (including narcotics, benzodiazepines); if the research assistant is unclear about a specific medication, the physician on the study (Dr. Rick Hecht) will be asked and will decide;
- health behaviors that could affect respiration (e.g., DSM-IV diagnosis of substance use disorder, use of major recreational drugs in the past year-heroin, cocaine, etc.);
- any high-level training in a field that could impact body awareness and is not associated with mind-body practices (e.g., professional athletes or dancers, marathon runners);
- lack of ability to speak and read English fluently (instructions and questionnaires will be in English only and foreign language translations will have to await future studies);
- For participants who consent to the fMRI study, exclusion criteria include contra-indications for safety and data quality in the MRI scanner (see MRI screening form): presence of ferromagnetic metal on or in the body, pregnancy, movement disorder which prevents lying still in the scanner, claustrophobia, braces, and corrected vision that is not within +/- 8.
Key Trial Info
Start Date :
June 1 2016
Trial Type :
OBSERVATIONAL
Allocation :
ACTUAL
End Date :
July 11 2019
Estimated Enrollment :
16 Patients enrolled
Trial Details
Trial ID
NCT03344081
Start Date
June 1 2016
End Date
July 11 2019
Last Update
September 16 2021
Active Locations (1)
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1
Osher Center for Integrative Medicine
San Francisco, California, United States, 94117