The current study proposes to investigate, using advanced longitudinal analyses, the trajectory of change in attentional control as individuals progress through an 8-week mindfulness-inspired training (MIT) intervention. It also proposes to investigate coupled change throughout the intervention period between attentional control and emotional outcomes. Innovations of the proposed study are the: (a) hypothesis guided focus on attentional control, (b) focus on MIT effects in an age range older than usually studied, and (c) 14-week intensive micro-longitudinal study to permit the week-to-week observation of changes in attentional outcomes as well as select time-varying covariates such as emotion/mood and perceived mindfulness. Evidence suggests that attentional control, or individuals' ability to choose which stimuli in the environment they attend to and which they ignore, declines with older age. Studies from the past two decades suggest that in younger adults, mindfulness-based meditation practice results in greater attentional control. A very small body of recent literature suggests that mindfulness may have similar effects on attention in older age. Additionally, since mindfulness is known to improve some emotion-related outcomes, the coupling of attentional and emotional changes during the course of mindfulness training is an important question for understanding the mechanisms and breadth of mindfulness effects. Recruitment and facilities for the project are supported by the ReVitalize project, an ongoing community-based cognitive aging laboratory. Forty older adults (65+) participants will be randomized into either an MIT intervention group (N=20) or a retest-only control group (N=20). Weekly attentional and emotional assessment will occur for 14 weeks (3 weeks before, 8 weeks during, 3 weeks after treatment). The current study has two specific aims: 1) In our sample aged 65+, to determine the time course (dose- response trajectory) of change in attentional components such as cognitive control and sustained attention from MIT by measuring attention on a weekly basis for 3 weeks before, 3 weeks after, and during 8 weeks of MIT. 2) To investigate coupled (correlated) change in attentional performance, markers of emotion regulation, perceived mindfulness, and perceived mind wandering. It is hypothesized that MIT- treated elders will show larger improvements in attentional control than controls, and these will be coupled with concurrent improvements in mood and emotional control.
Changes in cognitive and emotional functioning in aging have potentially important public health implications; beyond the clinical disorders of dementia and depression, increased cognitive difficulties and negative mood symptoms may degrade quality of life. The proposed study examines changes in attentional performance and mood, and the interplay between the two, throughout the course of an 8-week mindfulness meditation program for adults aged 65 years and older. Results of this study may help guide future mindfulness intervention paradigms, which are low-cost, non-medicinal, have long-lasting effects, and can be widely disseminated to achieve public health goals of cognitive maintenance and improvement for older adults.
