Effect of Brief Mindfulness and Relaxation Inductions on Anxiety, Affect and Brain Activation in Athletes

National Taiwan Normal University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Electroencephalography; Affect; State Anxiety

Treatments: Behavioral: Relaxation (RI); Behavioral: Mindfulness induction (MI)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05452629

PACNL_JT_MI_EEG

Details and patient eligibility

About

The athlete population has a high risk of suffering from mental health problems (e.g., anxiety), especially for athletes with individual sports. As such, various forms of mental training were used to maintain the mental health of athletes, such as mindfulness training or relaxation training. However, differences pertaining to the electrophysiological mechanisms resulting from both mental training in athletes are unknown. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine the differential effects between the brief mindfulness induction (MI) and relaxation induction (RI) on state anxiety, affect and the activation of the brain in track and field athletes.

Full description

The purposes of this study are: (1) examining the effect of brief mindfulness induction (MI) and relaxation induction (RI) on anxiety and affect in athletes with individual sports, (2) and we sought to identify the different brain activity (i.e., theta, alpha) changes between MI and RI using EEG. In the present study, subjects were contrasted using a within-subject comparison across MI, RI, and control condition. According to past works on the comparison of mindfulness and psychological skill training, we hypothesized that MI and RI would both improve anxiety and affect, compared with control condition. Furthermore, we also hypothesized that RI would elicit greater theta power (i.e., more cognitive control) than MI. In addition, when compared with control condition, participants might be elicited greater alpha power during the MI and RI.

Enrollment: 35 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 25 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. track and field athletes with regular training
2. right-handedness
3. no history of neurological illness
4. no regular training experience in mindfulness or relaxation interventions

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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35 participants in 3 patient groups

Mindfulness Induction

Experimental group

Description:

A brief and single session of mindfulness practice for 30-minute.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mindfulness induction (MI)

Relaxation Induction

Experimental group

Description:

A brief and single session of self-directed relaxation for 30-minute.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Relaxation (RI)

Control Condition

No Intervention group

Description:

Open thinking.