NCT01833104

Plasticity of the Compassionate Brain

A Longitudinal Study on the Trainability of Socio-affective and Cognitive Functions and Abilities.

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 332 (actual)
• Sponsor: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 20 Years – 55 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of the study is to look at the long term effects of a complex socio-affective mental training program on a neuroscientific-, hormonal-, behavioral-, biological, and subjective measures-level. The training protocol consists of a variety of meditation and other mental health techniques, which are trained over the period of 3-9 months (13 weeks per Module; 1-3 Modules)

Detailed description

The ReSource Project is a unique, large-scale study on the effects of mental training techniques. Over a period of three to nine months, participants practice a wide range of mental exercises that are designed to enhance attentional control, body- and self-awareness, emotion regulation, self-care, compassion, empathy, and perspective taking. Overall, the aim of the training is to improve mental health and social skills. It may reduce stress, improve mental clarity, increase life satisfaction, and lead to a better understanding of others' views, values, and actions. The ReSource Project is a secular program developed by a team of experienced meditation teachers, scientists, and psychotherapists. Over the last decades, isolation, stress, and psychological tensions have been steadily increasing in our society. Mental training can alter stress responses, physical health, resilience, attention, perception, emotional experience, and social behavior. Evidence for these results is based on previous studies showing behavioral changes, as well as observed changes in brain function and structure. Moreover, health factors, such as peripheral autonomic responses, stress hormones, and immune parameters were significantly changed after training. The ReSource Project consists of three consecutive modules: called "Presence", "Perspective", and "Affect". The Presence Module trains mindful attention to internal mental and physical processes. The Perspective Module focuses on socio-cognitive abilities, such as insight into the nature of the mind and self, and also the ability to assume the perspective of others. The Affect Module focuses on constructive ways of dealing with difficult emotions, and works to cultivate prosocial motivations and positive emotions such as compassion. In contrast to most previous studies of just a few months, the ReSource Project will be conducted over a period of 3-9 months for three experimental cohorts (cohorts start in a shifted design; 2 cohorts train over a period of 9 months (all 3 Modules in different orders, 13 weeks per Module), 1 cohort trains over 3 months (only the Affect Module)), and will cover a wide range of practices intended to enhance cognitive and socio-affective skills. 2 retest control cohorts account for the effects of repeated testing.

Conditions

• Healthy Subjects

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Presence - Perspective - Affect	PRESENCE: Cultivate attentional skills \& interoceptive body awareness. 2 exercises: "Breathing Meditation" \& "Body Scan". PERSPECTIVE: Focus on cognitive aspects of compassion; take perspectives on thoughts, the self, \& other people; observe more macroscopic dynamics within oneself, your inner "parts"; do not fully identify with them / be aware of their transiency; strengthen the ability to detach from one's own perspective, take the perspectives of others, trying to understand their thoughts, motives, feelings. 2 exercises: "Observing-thoughts Meditation" \& "Perspective Dyad". AFFECT: Cultivate emotional/motivational aspects of compassion; cultivate a sense of benevolence, love, care, "opening the heart" for oneself and others; work with obstacles, e.g. fear, anger or sadness ("emotion acceptance"); pro-social motivations as an alley towards loving / benevolent feelings and as a consequence of them. 2 exercises: "Loving-kindness Meditation" \& "Affect Dyad".
BEHAVIORAL	Presence - Affect - Perspective.	As specified above however the order is interchanged between the cohorts TC1 and TC2.
BEHAVIORAL	Affect	AFFECT: Cultivate emotional/motivational aspects of compassion; cultivate a sense of benevolence, love, care, "opening the heart" for oneself and others; work with obstacles, e.g. fear, anger or sadness ("emotion acceptance"); pro-social motivations as an alley towards loving / benevolent feelings and as a consequence of them. 2 exercises: "Loving-kindness Meditation" \& "Affect Dyad".

Timeline

• Start date: 2013-01-01
• Primary completion: 2016-02-01
• Completion: 2016-02-01
• First posted: 2013-04-16
• Last updated: 2016-12-14

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: Germany