Mechanisms and predictors of change in APP-based mindfulness training for adolescents

Active Project Grant Awarded Last action

Award ID
R01AT011002
Recipient
Awarding agency
Obligated
$7,749,699

Award facts

Completion date 90% complete
Originally
Funding
  • $7,088,843.00 Federal
  • $660,856.00 Non-federal
Place of performance
Belmont, MA 02478, USA

Award details come from USAspending.gov.

Description

As the agency reported it.

Abstract
Mindfulness-based smartphone apps have surged in popularity in recent years. Headspace - among the most popular of these platforms - has over 42 million users. Recent surveys indicate that 11% of U.S. Adolescents have used mindfulness apps as a means of coping with anxiety or depressive symptoms, which increase substantially during the adolescent years. A growing body of research implicates rumination as being a transdiagnostic risk factor involved in the development of depression and anxiety in youth. Critically, mindfulness meditation has shown significant promise in targeting rumination, and ultimately improving depressive and anxiety symptoms. Mindfulness apps offer a convenient and cost-effective means for accessing mindfulness training, while being interactive and engaging for youth. Despite their growing popularity among teens, strikingly little research has been conducted on these apps. Two critical questions have yet to be addressed, which are strongly aligned with the nccih strategic plan: (1) what are the underlying neural and cognitive mechanisms that account for the beneficial effects of these apps and (2) for whom is APP-based mindfulness well-suited. To address these gaps, adolescents (ages 13-18) will be randomly assigned to an APP-delivered mindfulness course VS. An active control condition and will complete pre- and post-intervention resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri) scans to probe static and dynamic functional connectivity within - and between - brain networks strongly implicated in mindfulness training and rumination (i.e., default mode network and salience network). In addition, cognitive tasks will be administered at pre- and post-intervention to assess attentional control abilities putatively enhanced by mindfulness training. Finally, mindfulness skills and changes in rumination will be assessed via a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol developed in the PI's lab. First, we will test whether changes in (1) brain functional connectivity, (2) attentional control and (3) acquisition and use of mindfulness skills mediate between-group (i.e., APP VS. Control) differences in the reduction of rumination. Second, we will test whether a machine learning model incorporating baseline clinical, demographic, and psychosocial characteristics can be used to identify which adolescents are predicted to benefit from APP-based mindfulness training. Recent advances in machine learning allow for the development of algorithms predicting outcome at the individual level, as well as the integration of numerous predictors rather than relying on single variables that may, in isolation, have limited clinically-useful predictive value. Ultimately, such an algorithm may inform individual risk-benefit assessments that could be used to objectively communicate the probability of experiencing positive VS. Adverse outcomes to users prior to engaging with a mindfulness APP. Collectively, results are expected to advance (1) our understanding of the underlying mechanisms that account for the beneficial effects of APP-based mindfulness training and (2) our ability to predict which adolescents are well-suited to these increasingly popular apps.

Transactions

Action Federal Non-federal Date
Amendment $0 $0
Amendment $0 $0
Amendment $567,556 $0
Amendment $567,556 $0
Amendment Supplemental: neural and cognitive propensity for trait rumination in adolescents: a multimodal study with ecological momentary assessments and MRI $269,872 $0
Amendment $614,026 $0
Amendment Supplemental: neural and cognitive propensity for trait rumination in adolescents: a multimodal study with ecological momentary assessments and MRI $614,026 $0
Amendment $627,585 $0
Amendment $627,585 $0
Amendment $627,585 $0
Amendment $625,670 $0
Amendment $625,670 $0
Amendment $660,856 $0
Original award $660,856 $660,856
Show all 14

Subawards

Subrecipient Amount Awarded
Cambridge Public Health Commission This administrative supplement for R01 grant # 5R01AT011002-03 (PI: Christian A. Webb, PhD), in response to NOSI# NOT-OD-21-134, is to support candidate Diane… $253,872
Lawrence University Of Wisconsin Co-I Hilt has extensive expertise in adolescent rumination and in conducting clinical trials with mindfulness mobile applications in adolescents, in… $52,717
Cambridge Public Health Commission Throughout years one through five, Dr. Schuman-Olivier and the study staff at the Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) Center for Mindfulness and Compassion (CMC)… $433,616

Quick answers

Who received award R01AT011002?

R01AT011002 was awarded to The Mclean Hospital Corporation by National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (National Institutes of Health) on June 15, 2021.

How much is award R01AT011002 worth?

$7,749,699 has been obligated on R01AT011002: $7,088,843 in federal funding and $660,856 in non-federal funding.

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