One of the goals of my science cafe and blog is to humanize the science and the scientist. But I often get asked about all these studies I often quote. Who are these people? How do the researchers find these subjects?

It was probably a touch simpler to just interview some past study participants, but where’s the fun in that? So I took part in a meditation/anxiety study in February.

The study focused on emotion processing & anxiety and how these might change with mindfulness based stress reduction or cognitive-behavioral therapy i.e. how meditation affects anxiety.

The process was similar to the one shown in this vid (courtesy Science Friday)

Day 1 was relatively simple…just a phone screen making sure I was capable of taking part in the study. I’m not pregnant, I meet certain demographic criteria, I’m not currently in any other studies, yadda yadda.

Day 2 was a battery of tests. First I answered more in-depth general interview questions, not so different from the phone screen…a breeze. The interviewer commented “it’s good to have someone so emotionally healthy”. I guess I’m not a very anxiety riddled person.

Onto the neuro-cognition tests! Some were basic responsiveness to simple questions, others a little more telling of my experiences with anxiety. The responsiveness tests were intriguing, many asked questions liked how I associated certain words to myself and life (e.g. WEAK, STRONG, ANXIOUS, etc.).

Next step, answering questions about my past. That’s right, I had to detail 4 of the most embarrassing, humiliating, anxiety inducing moments of my life. Nothing quite like reliving some of those….especially on camera. That’s right, on CAMERA. It was a little difficult, but I managed to drag through.

About a week later, I returned for my fMRI. They had a digitized my stories (those humiliating ones) ready to be beamed into the MRI machine. I got strapped in…pretty much to the point of immobility. A set of buttons was attached to each of the digits of my right hand…I would use the buttons to gauge my reaction while in the machine.

So, I’m basically wheeled into this tiny space…now its time to watch a little TV (there was rig to project in video during the scan). They take some initial scans, the machine is quite exceptionally loud by the way (I had protective headphones on). Then the tests begin. In one set of tests, I react to people’s face (some nasty, some neutral, some nice). In another I react to my own humiliating stories, with each story broken up with affirming or negative thoughts (e.g. I AM WEAK, That doesn’t apply to me, etc.). The series of tests took about 1.5 hours…I must say they required a reasonable amount of focus. I was feeling somewhat spent afterward….had me question how an “abnormal” patient would handle the experience.

Overall, I have to say the experience was intriguing. I noticed how my reactions to the “angry” faces were all very similar, I sorta wanted to run out the machine at times. Also, I felt really good about myself after the tests….as if my self-esteem had grown a couple points.

The process was also fascinating…how detailed it was in the interview/testing phases. Even though I was paid $200, I have to imagine most would refuse such a rigorous process even with that kind of nugget, considering the time involved (close to 10 hours total). At this point, I do believe the study is ongoing. The intention was to bring everyone back at the end for a results reveal…I will update if that happens.

In case you’re curious, the study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, JWK Foundation and the Mind and Life Research Institute.