Imaging Cerebral and Sub-cerebral Correlates of Meditative States
- Conditions
- Stress
- Registration Number
- NCT01262404
- Lead Sponsor
- Boston University
- Brief Summary
Three groups of subjects are trained to practice mindfulness meditation, compassion meditation, or attend a health training control class. Individuals from each group will undergo structural and functional brain imaging before and after training. The hypothesis is that the compassion meditation group will show the largest changes in brain structure and function. In a second series of experiments, the subjects practicing a Tibetan meditation practice will be undergo MRI thermometry imaging to construct detailed three dimensional temperature maps of their bodies before, during, and after they perform this practice.
- Detailed Description
Structural (MRI) Imaging will be used to measure changes in cortical thickness in the pre and post training groups. Function (fMRI) Imaging will be used to measure changes in cortical and sub-cortical responses to a series of affectively controlled visual images, presented during scanning. MRI Thermometry Imaging will be used to construct three dimensional temperature maps of subjects while performing meditation in the scanner.
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- UNKNOWN
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 58
- Age 18-65 for the mindfulness-compassion study
- Prior training in gtummo meditation for the gtummo study
- Previous experience with meditation for the mindfulness-compassion study
Study & Design
- Study Type
- OBSERVATIONAL
- Study Design
- Not specified
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
Boston University Dept. of Cognitive and Neural Systems
🇺🇸Boston, Massachusetts, United States