Changes in Perception and Cognition During a Meditation Retreat

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Healthy Volunteers
• Interventions: Behavioral: 10 days intensive meditation retreat; Behavioral: Waiting for a 10 days intensive meditation retreat

• Registration Number: NCT04449913
• Lead Sponsor: Hospices Civils de Lyon

Brief Summary

This study aims at assessing neuro-behavioral changes occuring during an intensive ten days meditation retreat. The investigator will study changes in tactile, auditory and pain perceptions as well as changes in cognitive and affective mental contents and their neural markers, as measured by self-reports, EEG event-related potentials, and functional connectivity of resting state fMRI. He will recruit healthy participants with a prior meditation experience. They will be randomly assigned to two groups, one active group who will undergo measurements just before, during and 3 weeks after the retreat. The other group will serve of control for task habituation, control participants will undergo the same measurements, equally spaced in time, but before the retreat. The main hypothesis is that meditation training strengthens meta-awareness, attention capacities resulting in enhanced bodily- and self-awareness during sensory perception and emotion regulation during pain.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2020-06-24
• Study First Submitted QC: 2020-06-24
• Study First Posted: 2020-06-29
• Study Start: 2020-10-02
• Primary Completion: 2021-04-10
• Study Completion: 2021-04-10
• Status Verified: 2021-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2021-10-26
• Last Update Posted: 2021-10-27

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 58

Inclusion Criteria

• Age between 18 and 67
• Regular meditation practice (at least 20 minutes 3 times a week) arising from a formal teaching (buddhist tradition, MBSR, mindfulness) for at least one year.
• Having taken part to at least one intensive retreat (more than six hours of sitting meditation a day, during at least two days) in the past.
• Affiliated to french social security
• Motivated to take part in the study
• Having signed an informed consent
• Normal or corrected vision
• Sufficient mastering of French to be able to understand correctly written and auditory instructions

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Exclusion Criteria

• neurological or psychiatric antecedents
• chronical pain or any other medical condition giving rise to acute pain or sensitivity to pain.
• Motor or sensory deficit in the hands
• severe auditory loss
• regularly taking medical drugs acting on the central nervous system
• regularly taking opioids or antidepressant drugs
• alcohol consumption above the safety threshold recognized by the French healthy agency (10 drinks a week, 2 drinks a day, 5 drinks for special occasions)
• drugs consumption (except tabacco) qualified as addictive according to medical criteria (https://www.drogues.gouv.fr/comprendre/l-essentiel-sur-les-addictions/qu-est-ce-qu-une-addiction)
• alcohol or drug consumption the day before or the day of experiment and during the full duration of the retreat
• being pregnant, breastfeading or having given birth less than 6 months ago
• Will be excluded from the fMRI task only, participants presenting contraindication to a MRI scan : being claustrophobic, body mass index over 30, people, having a pacemaker or an insuline pump, metallic prothesis, intracranial clip, neurosensory stimulator, in-body defibrillator, cochlear implants, ocular or brain feromagnetic bodies close to nervous structures, neurosurgery stunts, dental brace.

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Active group	10 days intensive meditation retreat	10 days intensive meditation retreat
Control group	Waiting for a 10 days intensive meditation retreat	Waiting for a 10 days intensive meditation retreat

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
changes in matched forces (Newtons) during a force-matching task.	at least 3 weeks after the end of the retreat	Bodily awareness following meditation training could impact the attenuation of real tactile sensations during self-generated touch. Measurement of pressure force will be done through a force-matching paradigm.
changes in EEG an auditory evoked response called the mismatch negativity (microVolt)	at least 3 weeks after the end of the retreat	Moment-to-moment monitoring following meditation training could downregulate the automatic formation of perceptual habits. Measurement of auditory evoked potentials will be done through Biosemi 64 electrodes EEG net during an auditory oddball task.
changes in EEG pain-related evoked responses (microVolt)	at least 3 weeks after the end of the retreat	Moment-to-moment monitoring and emotion regulation following meditation training could downregulate pain catastrophizing. Measurement pain-related evoked potentials will be done through Biosemi 64 electrodes EEG net during a pain characterization task.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Changes in perceived pain intensity during a pain paradigm	at least 3 weeks after the end of the retreat	Moment-to-moment monitoring and emotion regulation following meditation training could regulate the cognitive-affective pain amplificatory processes. Scales ranging from no intensity or unpleasantness, to highest pain intensity or unpleasantness experienced in life will be used during a pain characterization task.
Changes in perceived pain unpleasantness during a pain paradigm.	7 days later	Moment-to-moment monitoring and emotion regulation following meditation training could regulate the cognitive-affective pain amplificatory processes. Scales ranging from no intensity or unpleasantness, to highest pain intensity or unpleasantness experienced in life will be used during a pain characterization task.
Changes in BOLD functional connectivities at rest and during mindfulness meditation within and between the salience, default mode and executive brain networks	at least 3 weeks after the end of the retreat	Moment-to-moment monitoring following meditation training could regulate different attention related brain networks. Brain structural anatomy will be recorded in a 3-Tesla fMRI scaner during rest, and BOLD signal activation during rest and meditation states.
Changes in macroscale functional organization of brain BOLD activity at rest or in meditation	at least 3 weeks after the end of the retreat	Moment-to-moment monitoring following meditation training could regulate different attention related brain networks. Brain structural anatomy will be recorded in a 3-Tesla fMRI scaner during rest, and BOLD signal activation during rest and meditation states.
Changes in macroscale functional organization of brain BOLD activity in meditation	at least 3 weeks after the end of the retreat	Moment-to-moment monitoring following meditation training could regulate different attention related brain networks. Brain structural anatomy will be recorded in a 3-Tesla fMRI scaner during rest, and BOLD signal activation during rest and meditation states.
Changes in experiential thought sampling thoughout the meditation retreat.	every day from day 1 to day 10 of the retreat	Moment-to-moment monitoring of thougts and emotions during intensive meditation training could regulate mind-wandering and mood. Different scales of thoughts content, emotional valence and awareness of them will be recorded

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Centre de Recherche en Neuroscience de Lyon; 🇫🇷 Bron, France