Wisconsin Center for the Neuroscience and Psychophysiology of Meditation
Condition: Mindfulness; Compassion; Meditation; Mental Health; Asthma
MeSH terms: Asthma
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The Wisconsin Center for the Neuroscience and Psychophysiology of Meditation will be a highly
      focused center dedicated to novel and cutting edge research on the mechanisms by which
      meditation works. The core set of hypotheses for this Center focus on the mechanisms of two
      common meditation practices: Mindfulness Meditation (MM) and Loving-Kindness/Compassion
      Meditation (LKM-CO), both taught in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). The
      investigators will study both Long-Term Meditators (LTMs) as well as meditation-naïve
      participants (MNPs). The latter group will be randomly assigned to MBSR, a rigorously matched
      comparison intervention called the Health Enhancement Program (HEP; MacCoon et al., 2012), or
      to a Wait List (WL) control group. This will give us a comprehensive view of changes that are
      produced by meditation practices per se, changes generically associated with interventions
      designed to promote well-being, and changes that might be effects of repeating testing
      protocols across multiple occasions. In addition, the inclusion of both novice and
      experienced meditators provides a wide range of practice experience that will provide
      critical information on dose-related effects, information that is lacking in the research
      literature today.

      Each of the projects is focused on examining the brain mechanisms and peripheral biological
      correlates of meditation. Project 1 (Davidson) will examine the impact of the explicit use of
      mindfulness and loving-kindness/compassion strategies on emotion regulation, specifically
      neural, biobehavioral and hormonal indices of reactivity to and recovery from pictures of
      human suffering and flourishing. Project 2 (Rosenkranz) will investigate the brain to
      periphery pathways through which psychological factors contribute to the expression of asthma
      symptoms. In addition, it will examine the efficacy of meditation training in reducing the
      inflammatory response to an allergen in asthmatic individuals by reducing the reactivity of
      emotion-related neural circuitry. Project 3 (Tononi) will examine whether the previously
      reported increase in gamma oscillations during Non-REM (NREM) sleep in meditators is
      associated with changes in sleep mentation (Ferrarelli et al. 2013). In addition, project 3
      will examine relations between meditation-induced changes in brain activity during sleep and
      brain activity and cognitive function during wakefulness.
    


Intervention name(s): Intensive Meditation Practice; Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction; Health Enhancement Program
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Long term meditators complete three days of of mindfulness or compassion/loving kindness meditation at T2 and T3 (one meditation type per visit).; 8 week class designed to enhance well-being through training in mindfulness.; 8 week class designed to enhance well-being through training in physical activity, functional movement, music therapy and nutrition.
Other intervention name(s): MBSR; HEP
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Factorial Assignment
Masking: Single (Investigator)
Primary purpose: Basic Science
Keywords: Mental Health; Asthma; Mindfulness; Compassion; Meditation