Skip to main content
OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT03894930

Metta Meditation Training on Prosocial Behavior

The purpose of the study is to look at the impact of a metta meditation training on prosocial behavior and socio-affective brain responses. The training involves an 8-week, online administration of guided metta meditation practices aimed at generating feelings of kindness and compassion for other people. The study examines how participants respond to thinking about familiar others and strangers using behavioral and brain-imaging measures. This study will be important for understanding how people develop the capacity to be prosocial towards other individuals, which is a key component of adaptive social behavior.

Completed

Looking for future studies?

Notify Me

Key information

Conditions

Social Behavior Behavior

Age range

18 year–55 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Georgetown University

Washington D.C., District of Columbia, 20007, United States

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Is a medically healthy individual
  • Lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area and is able to travel to Georgetown University

Exclusion criteria

  • Has experience with meditation
  • Has any MRI contraindication (e.g. metal in the body, cardiac pacemaker, cannot lie still, etc.)
  • Has any neurological disease
  • Has a current psychiatric disorder
  • Is pregnant or planning to become pregnant
  • Is on medication that affects the central nervous system (e.g. psychotropic drugs)

Treatment and study plan

Metta meditation

Behavioral

Administered 5 days per week for 8 weeks.

Other names: Loving-kindness meditation

Primary outcomes

  1. Social Discounting

    Time frame: 8 weeks

    During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, participants will complete a social discounting task. Participants will choose whether to forgo various amounts of money to give to another person. Behavioral and brain responses will be analyzed to assess social discounting in each participant.

  2. Affective Brain Responses to Familiar and Unfamiliar Others

    Time frame: 8 weeks

    During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, participants will view images of people who they know and people who they do not know. Affective brain response patterns will be analyzed to assess responding in each participant.

Secondary outcomes

  1. State Affect Rating

    Time frame: 8 weeks

    Participants will complete the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) questionnaire. This self-report scale includes 20 items that are rated on a 5-point scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much). Positive and negative self-reported affect will be quantified for each participant.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Georgetown University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Identifying Neural Correlates of Altruism

Important dates

Study start
2018
Primary completion
2021
Study completion
2021
First posted
Mar 29, 2019
Registry last updated
Jun 16, 2021

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Related clinical trials

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.