Mindfulness, Mood, Stress, Working Memory
Conditions
Keywords
Emotional reactivity, Cognitive flexibility
Brief summary
The overall goal of the outlined study is to scrutinize and to promote mindfulness via new technologies using a combination of smartphone-based assessment and micro-interventions, fMRI and real-time fMRI-neurofeedback.
Detailed description
The overall goal of the outlined study is to scrutinize and to promote mindfulness via new technologies using a combination of smartphone-based assessment and micro-interventions, fMRI and real-time fMRI-neurofeedback. More specifically, we aim to i) evaluate whether smartphone-based micro-interventions affect mindfulness, stress, and mood, ii) evaluate whether mindfulness, its neural substrate, and related mental and physiological functions can be modified by training volitional control over brain activity by means of real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging neurofeedback (RT-fMRI-NF), iii) differentiate neural activation patterns during mindfulness vs. mind wandering.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALMindfulness
Subjects are provided with smartphone-based mindfulness intervention.
Subjects are provided with contingent RT-fMRI-NF of their own brain activity.
OTHERSham RT-fMRI-NF
Subjects are provided with sham RT-fMRI-NF of brain activity of previously recorded subject.
BEHAVIORALMind Wandering
Subjects are provided with smartphone-based mind wandering intervention.
Sponsors
University of Basel
Korea University
University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
SEQUENTIAL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Outcomes Assessor)
Intervention model description
A combination of sequential (mindfulness vs. mind wandering intervention) and parallel design (contingent vs. non-contingent RT-fMRI-NF)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
MALE
Age
18 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Right-handedness * Ability to participate in study procedures
Exclusion criteria
* Color-Blindness * Present or past psychological or psychiatric therapy * Presence of cardiovascular disease * History of major cerebral injury * Medical MRI contraindication
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Subjective mood assessed by Multidimensional Mood State Questionnaire | Daily, during smartphone-based micro-interventions (duration: 10 days); on 1 day, which is the laboratory assessment day (scheduled 1 day subsequent to the last smartphone-based micro-intervention days) | Subjective mood, assessed via Multidimensional Mood State Questionnaire (MDMQ) |
| Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) Signal assessed by MRI | On 1 day, which is the laboratory assessment day (scheduled 1 day subsequent to the last of the 10 smartphone-based micro-intervention days) | Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal assessed via functional magnetic resonance imaging |
| Subjective stress reactivity assessed by Visual Analog Scale | Daily, during smartphone-based micro-interventions (duration: 10 days); on 1 day, which is the laboratory assessment day (scheduled 1 day subsequent to the last smartphone-based micro-intervention days) | Subjective stress reactivity, assessed via Visual Analog Scale (VAS) |
| State mindfulness assessed by State Mindfulness Scale | Daily, during smartphone-based micro-interventions (duration: 10 days); on 1 day, which is the laboratory assessment day (scheduled 1 day subsequent to the last smartphone-based micro-intervention days) | State mindfulness, assessed via State Mindfulness Scale (SMS) |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Working Memory assessed by N-back task test | On 1 day, which is the laboratory assessment day (scheduled 1 day subsequent to the last of the 10 smartphone-based micro-intervention days) | Assessed via N-back task (visual single-3-back with letters as stimuli) |
| Emotional reactivity assessed by emotion recognition task | On 1 day, which is the laboratory assessment day (scheduled 1 day subsequent to the last of the 10 smartphone-based micro-intervention days) | Assessed via emotion recognition task |
| Cognitive flexibility assessed by computer version of Wisconsin card sorting Task test | On 1 day, which is the laboratory assessment day (scheduled 1 day subsequent to the last of the 10 smartphone-based micro-intervention days) | Assessed via computer version of Wisconsin card sorting task (WCST) |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Respiration Signal assessed by sensor | On 1 day, which is the laboratory assessment day (scheduled 1 day subsequent to the last of the 10 smartphone-based micro-intervention days) | Assessed via sensor |
| Subjective stress reactivity assessed by Perceived Stress Scale test | On 1 day, which is the laboratory assessment day (scheduled 1 day subsequent to the last of the 10 smartphone-based micro-intervention days) | Assessed via Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) |
| Heart rate assessed by sensor | On 1 day, which is the laboratory assessment day (scheduled 1 day subsequent to the last of the 10 smartphone-based micro-intervention days) | Assessed via sensor |
| Trait mindfulness assessed by Mindful Attention Awareness Scale | On 1 day, which is the laboratory assessment day (scheduled 1 day subsequent to the last of the 10 smartphone-based micro-intervention days) | Assessed via Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) |
Countries
South Korea, Switzerland
Outcome results
None listed