Novel in Vivo Synaptic Imaging in Experienced Meditators (app311_med)

May 14, 2026 updated by: Yale University
To utilize positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to characterize the distribution of (aka [11C]APP311at the Yale PET Center) in cortical and subcortical areas in experienced meditators compared to non-meditating controls.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

The investigators will conduct a PET study of the novel SV2A imaging tracer [11C]UCB-J in participants, to characterize the distribution of [11C]UCB-J in cortical and subcortical areas in experienced meditators compared to non-meditating controls. A total of up to 20 subjects will complete the study. Subjects will undergo one PET scan with [11C]UCB-J. Each subject will also undergo one MRI scan for anatomical identification of brain regions.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
40

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Connecticut
      • New Haven, Connecticut, United States, 06519
        • Yale University PET Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

28 years to 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 28-70 years
  • Voluntary, written, informed consent
  • Physically healthy by medical history, physical, ECG and laboratory examinations
  • At least 10 years and 5,000 hours of regular meditation practice
  • For females, non-lactating, no longer of child-bearing potential or agree to practice effective contraception during the study, as well as a negative serum pregnancy (β-HCG) test at screening, and negative urine pregnancy on PET scanning days.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • A history of significant psychiatric, medical (e.g., cardiovascular, renal) or neurological (e.g., cerebrovascular, seizure, traumatic brain injury) illness that is unstable and/or might affect the study objectives.
  • Current or history of substance dependence (e.g., alcohol, nicotine, opiates, sedative hypnotics, etc.)
  • Subjects with history of prior radiation exposure for research purposes within the past year such that participation in this study would place them over FDA limits for annual radiation exposure. This guideline is an effective dose of 5 rem received per year.
  • Subjects with current, past or anticipated exposure to radiation in the work place within one year of proposed research PET scans that in combination with the study tracer would result in a cumulative exposure that exceeds recommended exposure limits.
  • Medical contraindications to participation in a magnetic resonance imaging procedure (e.g., ferromagnetic implants/foreign bodies, claustrophobia, cardiac pacemaker, prosthetic valve, otologic implant, etc.)
  • History of a bleeding disorder or are currently taking anticoagulants (such as Coumadin, Heparin, Pradaxa, Xarelto).
  • Medications that effect SV2A binding (e.g., levetiracetam).

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Meditators
A PET study of the novel SV2A imaging tracer [11C]UCB-J in participants, to characterize the distribution of [11C]UCB-J in cortical and subcortical areas in experienced meditators compared to non-meditating controls. Subjects will undergo one PET scan with [11C]UCB-J and one MRI scan for anatomical identification of brain regions.
Drug: Radiotracer
A novel SV2A imaging tracer which is used in conjunction with positron emission tomography scans.
Other Names:
  • [11C]APP311
  • [11C]UCB-J
Active Comparator: Non-meditating controls
Meditators compared to non-meditating controls. Subjects will undergo one PET scan with [11C]UCB-J and one MRI scan for anatomical identification of brain regions.
Drug: Radiotracer
A novel SV2A imaging tracer which is used in conjunction with positron emission tomography scans.
Other Names:
  • [11C]APP311
  • [11C]UCB-J

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Binding Potential Using Synaptic Density
Time Frame: Up to 6 months
Imaging data was analyzed using kinetic modeling approaches to quantitate total tracer binding, volume of distribution, and binding potential, specifically voxel-by-voxel compartment model fitting with the arterial input function. Positron emission tomography (PET) images will be registered to the subject's T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images, and then registered to an magnetic resonance template. Gray matter regions of interest are determined by combining a predefined set of regions, defined on the template (FreeSurfer) with the gray matter segmentation mask (FAST algorithm in FSL). This process will permit direct, automatic determination of outcome values. Partial volume correction will also be applied to account for atrophy. Magnetic resonance (MR) image analyses will be done by standardized methods. Values reported for each region represent the binding potential. Binding potential is a unitless measure.
Up to 6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Evaluating the Correlation Between Data Collected From Meditation Questionnaires and Synaptic Vesicle Glycoprotein 2 (SV2A) Binding
Time Frame: Up to 3 months
Meditation assessments collected from participants, containing mindfulness and attention measures, will be correlated with synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2 (SV2A) binding data, collected during a positron emission tomography scan in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex. Data presented here is the correlation between Meditation years to SV2A availability.
Up to 3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Yale University

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: David Matuskey, MD, Yale University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
April 21, 2022

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
April 1, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
April 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
June 7, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
June 13, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
June 14, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
June 10, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
May 14, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 2000030601
  • 1R21AT011575-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

Yes

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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