Metta Meditation Training on Prosocial Behavior

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of the study is to look at the impact of a metta meditation training on prosocial behavior and socio-affective brain responses. The training involves an 8-week, online administration of guided metta meditation practices aimed at generating feelings of kindness and compassion for other people. The study examines how participants respond to thinking about familiar others and strangers using behavioral and brain-imaging measures. This study will be important for understanding how people develop the capacity to be prosocial towards other individuals, which is a key component of adaptive social behavior.

Official Title
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Identifying Neural Correlates of Altruism

Conditions
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Social Behavior

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Metta meditation


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Is a medically healthy individual Lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area and is able to travel to Georgetown University Exclusion Criteria: Has experience with meditation Has any MRI contraindication (e.g. metal in the body, cardiac pacemaker, cannot lie still, etc.) Has any neurological disease Has a current psychiatric disorder Is pregnant or planning to become pregnant Is on medication that affects the central nervous system (e.g. psychotropic drugs)

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 55 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Basic Science
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Metta meditation<br>Eight-week, guided metta meditation training that is administered online | Behavioral: Metta meditation<br>* Administered 5 days per week for 8 weeks.<br>* Other names: Loving-kindness meditation;|
| No Intervention: Wait-list<br>Eight-week wait-list control with no training | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Social Discounting | During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, participants will complete a social discounting task. Participants will choose whether to forgo various amounts of money to give to another person. Behavioral and brain responses will be analyzed to assess social discounting in each participant. | 8 weeks | 
| Affective Brain Responses to Familiar and Unfamiliar Others | During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, participants will view images of people who they know and people who they do not know. Affective brain response patterns will be analyzed to assess responding in each participant. | 8 weeks | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| State Affect Rating | Participants will complete the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) questionnaire. This self-report scale includes 20 items that are rated on a 5-point scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much). Positive and negative self-reported affect will be quantified for each participant. | 8 weeks | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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healthy subjects, prosocial, metta meditation, fMRI