Emotional Stress, Mindfulness, Social Cognition, Stress, Psychological
Conditions
Brief summary
The present study will investigate the effects of a mindfulness training on emotion regulation and social cognition, using several psychological, behavioral, psychophysiological and neuroimaging methods.
Detailed description
The aim of the present study is to evaluate the impact of a mindfulness intervention, particularly the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), on the capacities of emotion regulation and social cognition, in caring/helping professions which are vulnerable to stress. In the context of a longitudinal intervention study, a randomized controlled trial, the efficacy of the MBSR to increase the capacity for self-emotion regulation, empathic attunement, and compassion capacities will be measured. For doing this, several psychological, behavioral, psychophysiological and neuroimaging brain measurements will be used.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALMindfulness group
8 week program
BEHAVIORALReading group
8 week program
Sponsors
Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 55 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Healthy volunteers: Men or women * Right-handed * Normal or corrected-to-normal visión * German as a first language * No history of neurological or psychiatric problems, or use of controlled medication that might interfere with emotion or attention. * No symptoms of claustrophobia * Written informed consent form to participate in the study and neuro-imaging experiment.
Exclusion criteria
* Chemical dependence, including nicotine and alcohol * Dementia or psychotic condition. * Depression or use of antidepressants * Pregnant or breast-feeding women * Prior MBSR class or regularly practicing mindfulness meditation (or yoga) for three or more months. * Non-controlled severe medical disease that might interfere with the performance of the study, such as neoplasias, cardiopathies, digestive pathologies, diabetes mellitus type I or type II * Neoplasias in the central nervous system * Tremor or dystonia in cephalic segment that hinders the performance of the MRI study (tremor equal to or higher than 3 in each corporal segment, according to the UPDRS scale) * Fulfillment of any criterion of contraindication for the MRI exam (for instance, metallic implants, claustrophobia, pregnancy, use of pacemaker; intracranial aneurism clip; cochlear implants). * Presence of odontological devices that might disturb the magnetic field or any sources of variation of the magnetic susceptibility * Any other conditions the investigator might deem problematic for the inclusion of the volunteer in a trial of this nature will also be considered.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Activation changes in emotions related brain regions. Measured by significant changes in the BOLD (blood oxygenated level dependent) signal from task based functional magnetic resonance imaging. | first acquisition period during 3 weeks before the intervention, second acquisition period during 3 weeks after the intervention. |
| Changes in resting state functional connectivity within brain networks. Measured by significant changes in intrinsic functional connectivity parameters, estimated from the resting state BOLD signal, during functional magnetic resonance imaging. | first acquisition period during 3 weeks before the intervention, second acquisition period during 3 weeks after the intervention. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Behavioural tasks: mind-wandering task | first acquisition period during 3 weeks before the intervention, second acquisition period during 3 weeks after the intervention. | Changes in mind-wandering task, measured as changes in task-unrelated thoughts. |
| Changes in personality functioning. | first acquisition period during 3 weeks before the intervention, second acquisition period during 3 weeks after the intervention. | Significant changes in levels of personality functioning measured by the operationalized psychodynamic diagnosis scale. |
| Experience Sampling of emotional tolerance | first acquisition period during 3 weeks before the intervention, last acquisition period during 3 weeks after the intervention. And during the intervention period everyday. | Significant changes in self-reported capacity for emotion tolerance. |
| Changes in psychophysiological measurements of stress (sympathetic component) | first acquisition period during 3 weeks before the intervention, second acquisition period during 3 weeks after the intervention. | Activation changes in psychophysiological stress parameters using Skin Conductance Response (measured as significant changes in tonic and phasic response levels) during an emotion regulation task. |
| Changes in resting state functional connectivity between inter-networks connectivity. | first acquisition period during 3 weeks before the intervention, second acquisition period during 3 weeks after the intervention. | Changes between brain networks connectivity (including DMN, fronto-parietal and salience networks), measured as significant changes in inter-networks connectivity parameters estimated from the temporal correlation of intrinsic functional connectivity networks. |
| Changes in psychophysiological measurements of stress (vagal component) | first acquisition period during 3 weeks before the intervention, second acquisition period during 3 weeks after the intervention. | Activation changes in psychophysiological stress parameters using Heart Rate Variability (power analysis of high frequency sub-bands of heart rate spectrum), during an emotion regulation task. |
| Behavioural tasks: empathy test. | first acquisition period during 3 weeks before the intervention, second acquisition period during 3 weeks after the intervention. | Changes in empathy test, measured as changes in levels of cognitive and affective empathy. |
| Changes in social functioning | first acquisition period during 3 weeks before the intervention, second acquisition period during 3 weeks after the intervention. | Significant changes in the interpersonal competence questionnaire self-reported scale. |
| Changes in self-reported affective states | first acquisition period during 3 weeks before the intervention, second acquisition period during 3 weeks after the intervention. | Significant changes in self-reported levels of negative and positive affects measured by the PANAS scale. |
| Changes in regional brain morphometry in stress processing related areas. Measured by significant changes in regional grey matter density estimated from structural magnetic resonance imaging. | first acquisition period during 3 weeks before the intervention, second acquisition period during 3 weeks after the intervention. | — |
Countries
Germany
Contacts
Primary ContactIsabel Dziobek, Professor, PhD.
Backup ContactSimon Guendelman, MD.
Outcome results
None listed