Metta Meditation Training on Prosocial Behavior
Identifying Neural Correlates of Altruism
2 other identifiers
interventional
67
1 country
1
Brief Summary
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.
Trial Health
Trial Health Score
Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach
participants targeted
Target at P50-P75 for not_applicable
Started Sep 2018
Typical duration for not_applicable
1 active site
Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.
Trial Relationships
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Study Timeline
Key milestones and dates
Study Start
First participant enrolled
September 25, 2018
CompletedFirst Submitted
Initial submission to the registry
March 27, 2019
CompletedFirst Posted
Study publicly available on registry
March 29, 2019
CompletedPrimary Completion
Last participant's last visit for primary outcome
May 14, 2021
CompletedStudy Completion
Last participant's last visit for all outcomes
May 14, 2021
CompletedJune 16, 2021
July 1, 2020
2.6 years
March 27, 2019
June 15, 2021
Conditions
Keywords
Outcome Measures
Primary Outcomes (2)
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 Outcomes (1)
State Affect Rating
8 weeks
Study Arms (2)
Metta meditation
EXPERIMENTALEight-week, guided metta meditation training that is administered online
Wait-list
NO INTERVENTIONEight-week wait-list control with no training
Interventions
Administered 5 days per week for 8 weeks.
Eligibility Criteria
You may qualify if:
- Is a medically healthy individual
- Lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area and is able to travel to Georgetown University
You may not qualify if:
- 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)
Contact the study team to confirm eligibility.
Sponsors & Collaborators
Study Sites (1)
Georgetown University
Washington D.C., District of Columbia, 20007, United States
MeSH Terms
Conditions
Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)
Study Officials
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Abigail A Marsh, PhD
Georgetown University
Study Design
- Study Type
- interventional
- Phase
- not applicable
- Allocation
- RANDOMIZED
- Masking
- NONE
- Purpose
- BASIC SCIENCE
- Intervention Model
- PARALLEL
- Sponsor Type
- OTHER
- Responsible Party
- SPONSOR
Study Record Dates
First Submitted
March 27, 2019
First Posted
March 29, 2019
Study Start
September 25, 2018
Primary Completion
May 14, 2021
Study Completion
May 14, 2021
Last Updated
June 16, 2021
Record last verified: 2020-07
Data Sharing
- IPD Sharing
- Will not share