Objective This study’s objective was to evaluate the effect of two common components of meditation (mindfulness and slow breathing) on potential mechanistic pathways. Methods 102 combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were randomized to: 1) the body scan mindfulness meditation (MM), 2) slow breathing (SB) with a biofeedback device, 3) mindful awareness of the breath with an intention to slow the breath (MM+SB), or 4) sitting quietly (SQ). Participants had six weekly one-on-one sessions with 20 minutes of daily home practice. The mechanistic pathways and measures were: 1) Autonomic Nervous System: hyperarousal symptoms, heart-rate (HR), heart-rate variability (HRV); 2) Frontal Cortex Activity: Attentional Network Task (ANT) conflict effect and event-related negativity, and intrusive thoughts; and 3) Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis: awakening cortisol. PTSD measures were also evaluated. Results Meditation participants had significant but modest within-group improvement in PTSD and related symptoms although there were no between-group effects. Perceived impression of PTSD symptom improvement was greater in the meditation arms compared to controls. Resting respiration decreased in the meditation arms compared to SQ. For the mechanistic pathways 1) Subjective hyperarousal symptoms improved within-group (but not between-group) for MM, MM+SB, and SQ while HR and HRV did not; 2) Intrusive thoughts decreased in MM compared to MM+SB and SB while the ANT measures did not change; and 3) MM had lower awakening cortisol within-group but not between-group. Conclusion Treatment effects were mostly specific to self-report rather than physiological measures. Continued research is needed to further evaluate mindfulness meditation’s mechanism in people with PTSD.

Objective This cross-sectional study evaluated event-related potentials (ERPs) across three groups: naïve, novice, and experienced meditators as potential physiological markers of mindfulness meditation competence. Methods Electroencephalographic (EEG) data was collected during a target tone detection task and a Breath Counting task. The Breath Counting task served as the mindfulness meditation condition for the novice and experienced meditator groups. Participants were instructed to respond to target tones with a button press in the first task (Tones), and then ignore the primed tones while breath counting. The primary outcomes were ERP responses to target tones, namely the N2 and P3, as markers of stimulus discrimination and attention, respectively. Results As expected, P3 amplitudes elicited by target tones were attenuated within groups during the Breath Counting task in comparison to the Tones task (p < .001). There was a task by group interaction for P3 (p = .039). Both meditator groups displayed greater change in peak-to-trough P3 amplitudes, with higher amplitudes during the Tones condition and more pronounced reductions in P3 amplitudes during the Breath Counting meditation task in comparison to the naïve group. Conclusions Meditators had stronger P3 amplitude responses to target tones when instructed to attend to the tones, and a greater attenuation of P3 amplitudes when instructed to ignore the same tones during the Breath Counting task. This study introduces the idea of identifying ERP markers as a means of measuring mindfulness meditation competence, and results suggest this may be a valid approach. This information has the potential to improve mindfulness meditation interventions by allowing objective assessment of mindfulness meditation quality.

People with severe speech and physical impairments may benefit from mindfulness meditation training because it has the potential to enhance their ability to cope with anxiety, depression, and pain and improve their attentional capacity to use brain-computer interface systems. Seven adults with severe speech and physical impairments—defined as speech that is understood less than 25% of the time and/or severely reduced hand function for writing/typing—participated in this exploratory, uncontrolled intervention study. The objectives of this study were to describe the development and implementation of a six-week mindfulness meditation intervention and to identify feasible outcome measures in this population. The weekly intervention was delivered by an instructor in the participant's home, and participants were encouraged to practice daily using audio recordings. The objective adherence to home practice was 10.2 minutes per day. Exploratory outcome measures were an n-back working memory task, the Attention Process Training-II Attention Questionnaire, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Perceived Stress Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and a qualitative feedback survey. There were no statistically significant pre-post results in this small sample, yet administration of the measures proved feasible and qualitative reports were overall positive. Obstacles to teaching mindfulness meditation to persons with SSPI are reported, and solutions are proposed.

To determine if mindfulness meditation (MM) in older adults improves cognition and, secondarily, if MM improves mental health and physiology, 134 at least mildly stressed 50–85 year olds were randomized to a six-week MM intervention or a waitlist control. Outcome measures were assessed at baseline and two months later at Visit 2. The primary outcome measure was an executive function/attentional measure (flanker task). Other outcome measures included additional cognitive assessments, salivary cortisol, respiratory rate, heart rate variability, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CESD), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness (NEO) personality traits, and SF-36 health-related quality of life. 128 participants completed the study though Visit 2 assessments. There was no significant change in the primary or other cognitive outcome measures. Even after statistical adjustment for multiple outcomes, self-rated measures related to negative affect and stress were all significantly improved in the MM intervention compared to wait-list group (PANAS-negative, CESD, PSS, and SF-36 health-related quality of life Vitality and Mental Health Component). The SF-36 Mental Health Component score improved more than the minimum clinically important difference. There were also significant changes in personality traits such as Neuroticism. Changes in positive affect were not observed. There were no group differences in salivary cortisol, or heart rate variability. These moderate sized improvements in self-rated measures were not paralleled by improvements in cognitive function or physiological measures. Potential explanations for this discrepancy in stress-related outcomes are discussed to help improve future studies.

We created a standardized one-on-one mindfulness meditation intervention with six weekly 90-minute training sessions and home practice. The trainings included didactic instruction, discussion and guided meditations, and home-practice guided meditations and mindfulness exercises. Twenty-eight participants completed mindful awareness, nonjudgment, perceived stress, positive and negative affect, and credibility/expectancy scales before and after the intervention. There were no adverse events or unanticipated side effects. Participants’ mindful awareness and nonjudgment scores and perceived credibility of the intervention increased after the intervention, while negative affect and perceived stress decreased. There was no change in positive affect. Future research is needed comparing group versus one-on-one formats incorporating participant preference in the randomization, personality, and other predictors as measures.

Background and Objectives Social isolation is associated with a higher risk of dementia. We previously conducted and showed the efficacy of an intervention which uses conversation (the core component of social interactions) as a tool to enhance cognitive function. We now explore whether cognitive improvements through conversation-based intervention depend on an individual’s personality. Research Design and Methods We reexamined data from a 6-week randomized controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Number: NCT01571427) to determine whether conversation-based intervention effects were moderated by personality traits in 83 older adults (mean age = 80.51 years, 49 cognitively intact, 34 individuals with mild cognitive impairment). The intervention group participated in daily 30-min face-to-face semi-structured conversations with trained interviewers through a web-enabled system for 6 weeks. At baseline, psychosocial questionnaires and a neuropsychological battery were completed. Results Intervention group participants with high agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion exhibited significant improvements in language-based executive function tasks beyond changes in the control group (ps &lt; .05). An opposite pattern for delayed recall memory and working memory tasks emerged among highly extraverted participants (ps &lt; .05). Discussion and Implications Our exploratory findings suggest the adaptive role of personality traits in conversation-based cognitive interventions may be limited to tasks incorporating a language component, and offer initial evidence for personalized approaches to cognitive health in late life.

Conversation-based interventions have positive effects on cognitive health, though determining who benefits most is still unclear, and individuals’ personality may play a role. We utilized data from a 6-week randomized controlled trial to determine if conversation-based intervention effects were moderated by personality traits in 83 older adults (Mean age = 80.51 years, 49 cognitively intact, 34 with mild cognitive impairment). The intervention group participated in daily 30-minute face-to-face semi-structured conversations with trained interviewers for six weeks. Baseline psychosocial questionnaires and a neuropsychological battery were completed. Intervention group participants with high agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion exhibited significantly more improvement in language-based executive function tasks compared to a control group (ps<.05). An opposite pattern for delayed recall memory and working memory tasks emerged among highly extraverted participants (ps<.05). Findings suggest the adaptive role of personality traits in conversation-based cognitive interventions and offer evidence for personalized approaches to cognitive health in late life.

Many older adults express a lack of confidence in using technology and this can become a barrier to participating in technology heavy research. This presentation will introduce the face-to-face digital communication, electronic medication adherence tracking, and online recruitment technology used in the I-CONECT study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02871921). In particular, we will demonstrate how the project has simplified enterprise video conferencing for in-home use, removed obstacles related to remote hardware troubleshooting, and further discuss how it has been received by older adults who have participated thus far. Finally we will cover particular hurdles related to I-CONECT (e.g., targeting social isolated older adults, aiming to recruit 50% of participants being African American older subjects living in the Detroit Metropolitan area). Our experience indicates that such high tech gerontological research is feasible given a creative and solution-focused research approaches and multi-disciplinary team.