Dynamic Neural Systems Underlying Social-emotional Functions in Older Adults (Dynamo)

University of California San Francisco (UCSF)

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Meditation; EEG; fMRI; Older Adults; Loneliness; Digital Intervention; Emotions

Treatments: Behavioral: intervention; Other: No Interventions; Behavioral: waitlist control

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT05645835

22-37461

R00AG065457 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

K99AG065457 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Assess the impact of a remote, app-delivered digital meditation intervention on emotional well-being of lonely older adults. Neuroimaging, electrophysiological (EEG), and autonomic physiology will be used to assess the neural correlates of the intervention. EEG and autonomic physiology will be collected while participants watch 30 min of an awe-inspiring movie. fMRI and autonomic physiology will be collected in the context of a social exploration/exploitation task.

Enrollment: 75 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 60 to 120 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 60 years of age or older
• English language fluency
• Naive to meditation practices (not actively meditating more than one hour per month and/or meditation practice for less than a year in their entire life-time)
• No MRI contra-indications
• Cognitively healthy (no diagnosis of dementia, stroke, developmental disorders, or major systemic diseases that may impact cognitive function)

Exclusion criteria

• Below 60 years of age
• Not fluent in English
• Active meditator (meditating more than one hour per month and/or meditation practice for more than a year in their entire life-time).
• Presence of a severe psychiatric (e.g. schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, PTSD), neurological (epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, dementia, multiple sclerosis), or developmental disorder (e.g. autism)
• Systemic disease (e.g. major recent surgeries, cancer)
• Claustrophobia
• Contraindications for MR safety (e.g. metal in body, cochlea implants)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

75 participants in 3 patient groups

intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will engage with the digital meditation app delivering the intervention 15 min a day, five days, a week for 6 weeks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: intervention

waitlist control

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will be randomized to a waitlist group for six weeks. The waitlist control group will then be able to use the meditation app for six weeks as the primary intervention group

Treatment:

Behavioral: waitlist control

Baseline physiology

Other group

Description:

A subset of participants will not participate in the intervention. Only baseline fMRI and EEG data will be collected in these participants.

Treatment:

Other: No Interventions