Brain and Mindfulness (MEDITATION)

September 15, 2025 updated by: Hospices Civils de Lyon

The Impact of Meditation Practice on Attention and Emotion Regulation :Studies on Neural Correlation in Brain Imagery and Biomarkers of Stress and Inflammation

The main aim of this project is to explore the neuro-anatomical and -physiological correlates of meditation on attention and emotion-regulation. By investigating this, our scientific goal is to more generally identify the mechanisms and biomarkers of health and mental well-being. Therefore, the investigators use non-invasive imaging like Magneto-EncephaloGraphy (MEG), ElectroEncephaloGraphy (EEG), functional and anatomic Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI; including Diffusion tensor - DTI). These brain measures will then be linked to behavioral measurements. Experimental methods (i.e., simple computer tasks) will be used to measure attention, conscious perception and regulation of pain and emotion.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

169

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

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

Study Locations

  • France
      • Bron, France, 69500
        • Le Vinatier

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

21 years to 66 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age : 25-70
  • Being affiliated to a social security system.
  • Motivated to participate in this study.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Medication acting on the central nervous system
  • Opioids, Antidepressive Agents.
  • Actual or previous neurological or psychiatric illnesses
  • Chronic pain or any other medical condition which is related to pain or an increased sensitivity to pain.
  • Not having a personal or family history of epilepsy
  • Alcohol or drugs consumption 2 days before or during the study.

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: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: 1. Participants without meditation experience
Novices. Note that there is no meditation intervention in this study but that the two groups differ in their lifetime meditation experience.
Other: Magneto-encephalography (MEG)
Magneto-encephalography
Other: Electro-encephalography (EEG)
Electro-encephalography
Other: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Other: Anatomical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (aMRI)
Anatomical Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Other: Meditation
Meditation
Other: 2. Participant with a significant meditation experience
Experts : > 5000 hours of practice during their life. Note that there is no meditation intervention in this study but that the two groups differ in their lifetime meditation experience.
Other: Magneto-encephalography (MEG)
Magneto-encephalography
Other: Electro-encephalography (EEG)
Electro-encephalography
Other: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Other: Anatomical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (aMRI)
Anatomical Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Other: Meditation
Meditation
Other: 3. Participants without meditation experience
Novices. There is no meditation intervention during the study but the investigators investigate the effects of meditation by comparing 2 groups who differ in their life time meditation experience (i.e., novices vs. experts).
Other: Magneto-encephalography (MEG)
Magneto-encephalography
Other: Electro-encephalography (EEG)
Electro-encephalography
Other: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Other: Anatomical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (aMRI)
Anatomical Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Other: 4. Participant with a significant meditation experience
Experts : > 5000 hours of practice during their life. There is no meditation intervention during the study but the investigators investigate the effects of meditation by comparing 2 groups who differ in their life time meditation experience (i.e., novices vs. experts).
Other: Magneto-encephalography (MEG)
Magneto-encephalography
Other: Electro-encephalography (EEG)
Electro-encephalography
Other: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Other: Anatomical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (aMRI)
Anatomical Magnetic Resonance Imaging

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Anatomical MRI scan
Time Frame: Day 1
Brain structure
Day 1
Functional MRI scan
Time Frame: Day1
Brain activation: Haemodynamic response - BOLD signal.
Day1
EEG
Time Frame: Day 1
Event-related potential fields : amplitude in fT and latency in ms. Oscillations : power spectral density and time-frequency oscillations in fT^2/Hz
Day 1

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Behavioral measure : Accuracy of the performed task actions
Time Frame: Day 1
Participants will perform behavioral computer tasks in which accuracy and speed is important. Performance behavior will be measured in this task: Accuracy of the performed task actions: number of errors and hits
Day 1
Psychophysics: Pain threshold
Time Frame: Day 1
Pain threshold: The threshold of pain or pain threshold is the point along a curve of increasing perception of a stimulus at which pain begins to be felt. The temperature in degrees Celcius at which heat becomes painful for a recipient.
Day 1
Psychophysiology : Respiration
Time Frame: Day 1
Respiration rate: breaths/minute
Day 1
Subjective experience of the participant
Time Frame: Day 1
Day 1
Studies biomarkers of inflammation
Time Frame: Day 1
area of the inflamed site in mm^2, obtained by automatic image processing of a photography
Day 1
Behavioral measure : Speed of the performed task actions
Time Frame: Day 1
Participants will perform behavioral computer tasks in which accuracy and speed is important. Performance behavior will be measured in this task: Speed of the performed task actions: in ms.
Day 1
Psychophysiology : Heart
Time Frame: Day 1
Heart Rate: pulses/minute
Day 1
Psychophysiology : Heart rate variability
Time Frame: Day 1
Heart rate variability (HRV): Using an electrocardiogram, the variation in the beat-to-beat interval; measured in ms.
Day 1
Psychophysiology : Muscles
Time Frame: Day 1
Electromyography (EMG): Recording the electrical activity produced by muscles; measured in mV.
Day 1
Psychophysiology : Eyes
Time Frame: Day 1
Eye gaze position: relative to center of the screen, in imm
Day 1
Psychophysiology : Pupillar response
Time Frame: Day 1
Pupillar response: pupil diameter, in mm.
Day 1
Electrogastrogram
Time Frame: Day 1
Recording the electrical signals that travel through the stomach muscles and control the muscles' contractions (waves/minute)
Day 1

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Hospices Civils de Lyon

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Sandrine SONIE, MD, Le Vinatier

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)

March 19, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 16, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

October 16, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 8, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 12, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

April 18, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

September 19, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 15, 2025

Last Verified

September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 69HCL16_0678

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

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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