Neural mechanisms of meditation training in healthy and depressed adolescents: An MRI connectome study

健康和抑郁青少年冥想训练的神经机制：MRI 连接组研究

• 批准号: 10847000
• 负责人: Olga Tymofiyeva
• 金额: $ 8.15万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10847000
• 关键词: Adolescence; Adolescent; Affect; Age; Anhedonia; Attenuated; Brain; Brain region; Caring; Characteristics; Clinical; Clinical Trials; Compassion; Control Groups; Data; Depressed mood; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Disease; Emotional; Goals; Happiness; Health; Intervention; Knowledge; Literature; Love; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Maps; Measures; Mediating; Mediation; Meditation; Mental Depression; Methods; Mindfulness Training; Mission; Modeling; Outcome; Participant; Patient Self-Report; Phase; Population; Prefrontal Cortex; Prevention; Primary Care; Productivity; Public Health; Questionnaires; Randomized; Research; Sampling; Scanning; Severities; Symptoms; Techniques; Teenagers; Testing; Training; United States National Institutes of Health; Waiting Lists; Weight; Work; Youth; adolescent health; child depression; cohort; comparison control; connectome; depression prevention; depressive symptoms; design; disability; effective intervention; effectiveness study; expectation; experience; improved; indexing; innovation; mindfulness meditation; myelination; neural; neurodevelopment; neuromechanism; novel; pleasure; positive emotional state; prevent; putamen; recruit; relapse prevention; response; white matter

Project Summary/Abstract Meditation training is a promising technique that can help improve emotional health of adolescents and facilitate treatment of adolescent depression. However, there is a fundamental gap in understanding the neural reorganization that takes place as a result of meditation training. Continued existence of this gap represents an important problem because, until it is filled, design of more effective interventions is highly unlikely. The long- term goal is to establish safe and effective methods of promoting emotional health in adolescents. The objective here is to study adolescents undergoing meditation training by using MRI connectomics to map changes in node strength (integrated connectivity) of the putamen. The putamen is a region previously associated with meditation practice and attenuated shrinkage with age in Zen meditators on the one hand, and with love, compassion, anticipation of pleasure, and responses to increasing intensity of happiness on the other hand. The central hypothesis is that structural connectivity of the putamen with other brain regions will increase in adolescents with mediation training and, in turn, positively affect their emotional health. This innovative model is rooted in preliminary results and previous literature. The rationale for the proposed MRI connectomics approach is that regular engagement of the putamen is expected to increase myelination of the white matter tracks connecting it to other regions, which can be probed by using diffusion MRI. Guided by strong preliminary data, this hypothesis will be tested by pursuing two specific aims, which entail studying changes in the putamen node strength and emotional health measured as internalizing problems and depressive symptoms in 1) a cohort of healthy adolescents with a 12-week meditation training compared to waitlist controls (R61 phase) and 2) a cohort of adolescents with mild to moderate depression with a 12-week meditation training compared to waitlist controls (R33 phase). The “Go/No-Go Criterion” is a medium-large increase of the putamen node strength observed with meditation training in healthy adolescents in the R61 phase (Cohen's d>0.6). The optimization strategy for the R33 phase is based on the fact that anhedonia (diminished ability to experience pleasure) is a key characteristic of depression and preliminary results show that putamen structural connectivity is lower in adolescent depression. It is therefore expected that the mechanistic effect in the putamen will be amplified in the population of depressed adolescents, reflecting normalization of the putamen function. The proposed research is innovative, because it uses advanced MRI connectomics methods to map changes in brain networks of youth with meditation training and tests a novel mechanistic model. The proposed research is significant, because it is expected to greatly advance our understanding of the neural mechanism by which meditation improves emotional health of adolescents. Ultimately, such knowledge will inform treatment and prevention of adolescent depression.

项目总结/摘要 冥想训练是一种很有前途的技术，可以帮助改善青少年的情绪健康， 有助于治疗青少年抑郁症。然而，在理解神经系统方面存在着一个根本性的差距。 由于冥想训练而发生的重组。这一差距的持续存在表明， 这是一个重要问题，因为在填补空缺之前，设计更有效的干预措施是极不可能的。很长的- 长期目标是建立促进青少年情绪健康的安全有效的方法。的 本文的目的是通过使用MRI连接组学来研究接受冥想训练的青少年， 壳核的节点强度（整合连接性）的变化。壳核是一个 一方面，与冥想练习和禅宗冥想者随着年龄的增长而衰减的萎缩有关， 带着爱，同情，对快乐的期待，以及对幸福强度增加的反应， 另一只手核心假设是壳核与其他大脑区域的结构连接将 接受调解培训的青少年人数增加，反过来又对他们的情绪健康产生积极影响。这 创新模型植根于初步结果和以前的文献。拟定MRI的依据 连接组学方法的另一个优点是，壳核的定期参与预计会增加脊髓的髓鞘形成。 白色物质轨迹将其连接到其他区域，这可以通过使用扩散MRI来探测。指导 强有力的初步数据，这一假设将通过追求两个具体目标进行测试，这需要研究 壳核节点强度和情绪健康的变化被测量为内化问题， 抑郁症状在1）一个队列的健康青少年与12周的冥想训练相比， 候补对照组（R61期）和2）一组青少年轻度至中度抑郁症， 冥想训练与等待名单对照（R33阶段）相比。“去/不去标准”是一个中型-大型 在R61的健康青少年中观察到的冥想训练的壳核结强度增加 相（Cohen's d>0.6）。R33阶段的优化策略基于以下事实： （体验快乐的能力减弱）是抑郁症的一个关键特征，初步结果显示， 青少年抑郁症患者的壳核结构连接性较低。因此，预计 壳核的机械效应将在抑郁青少年人群中放大，反映出 壳核功能正常化。这项研究是创新的，因为它使用了先进的MRI。 连接组学方法来绘制冥想训练和测试的青年大脑网络的变化 机械模型这项研究意义重大，因为它有望大大推进我们的研究。 了解冥想改善青少年情绪健康的神经机制。 最终，这些知识将为青少年抑郁症的治疗和预防提供信息。