Time, Touch, Attention and the Autonomic Nervous System

August 13, 2018 updated by: Wake Forest University

The Impact of Interpersonal Mindful Compassion on Autonomic Nervous System Function

The purpose of this study is to describe the onset, duration and dose-response of interpersonal mindful compassion on respiratory rate and heart rate variability in healthy adults in order to prepare for research evaluating the impact of this intervention in patient populations and to prepare for basic research investigating the CNS mechanisms for observed effects.

Previous research has found that mindfulness meditation, including mindful compassion, results in autonomic changes in the practitioner. Emerging neuroscience of dyadic interactions suggests that through the effects of mirror neuron isopraxis, one person's physiologic state may be mirrored by another. However, no research has directly evaluated the impact of one person's mindful compassion on another person's autonomic activity. This study paves the way for an entirely new avenue of research inquiry.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

20

Phase

  • Not Applicable

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

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 40 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Healthy subjects age 18 - 40

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Taking beta blocker medication

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 10 minutes reading
Other: Reading while extending loving kindness
The practitioner sits in a room with the participant, pretending to read, while extending loving kindness to the participant.
Experimental: 20 minutes touch
Other: Interpersonal Mindful Compassion with Touch
A practitioner lightly touches the participant on the hands, arms, shoulders, lower legs and feet while extending loving kindness to the participant.
Experimental: 20 minutes reading
Other: Reading while extending loving kindness
The practitioner sits in a room with the participant, pretending to read, while extending loving kindness to the participant.
Experimental: 10 minutes touch
Other: Interpersonal Mindful Compassion with Touch
A practitioner lightly touches the participant on the hands, arms, shoulders, lower legs and feet while extending loving kindness to the participant.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Change in Heart Rate Variability from pre-intervention period to intervention period
Time Frame: continuous monitoring for 10 min before intervention and during 10 or 20 minute intervention
continuous monitoring for 10 min before intervention and during 10 or 20 minute intervention
Change in Respiratory Rate from pre-intervention period to intervention period
Time Frame: continuous monitoring for 10 minutes before intervention and during 10 or 20 minute intervention
continuous monitoring for 10 minutes before intervention and during 10 or 20 minute intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Perceived Stress, Relaxation, Peacefulness
Time Frame: baseline, after a 10 minute rest period, before 10 or 20 minute intervention, immediately after intervention, 20 minutes after intervention
baseline, after a 10 minute rest period, before 10 or 20 minute intervention, immediately after intervention, 20 minutes after intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Wake Forest University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Kathi J Kemper, MD, Wake Forest University Health Sciences

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

February 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2011

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 30, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 2, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

September 5, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 15, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 13, 2018

Last Verified

August 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB00015699 (Other Identifier: JHSPH IRB)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

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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