Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract/Objectives

With the rapidly aging population (by 2025, 20% of the population will be ≧65 years old), Taiwanese middle-aged and older adults are especially vulnerable to adverse impacts of multifaceted psychological stressors from workload, loneliness, or even bereavements, which poses a severe threat to senior’s mental health and even to the national welfare. Under such circumstances, the mindfulness-based intervention is designed to enhance the practitioner’s abilities to be present at the moment, accept things as they are, and act appropriately regarding the difficulties of daily life based on reality, improving their mental health mindfulness practitioners toward successful aging. However, beyond its efficacy in improving mental health, the mindfulness intervention in current Taiwan faces multiple challenges: insufficient trainers qualified, inaccurate mindfulness practices, and implicit mind shifting. Even though the booming mindfulness-assisted wearable devices are plausible solutions to facilitate mindfulness practices, most biofeedback devices cannot capture the subtle transitions of brain mental states during the mindfulness practices. Therefore, to achieve righteous mindfulness practices for the general middle-aged and elderly populations, we determine to build up a user-friendly platform for personalized mindfulness training based on concentration enhancement (with immersive virtual environments) and accurate real-time neuro-feedback (by disclosing neurophysiological mechanisms behind mindfulness practices).

Results/Contributions

To alleviate the psychological stress using accurate mindfulness practices, this research team will proudly present one novel integrated platform of Mindfulness with Intelligent Neuro-feedback and Disciplinary Virtual Reality (MINDVR) to assist mindfulness practitioners. The new platform originates from brain mechanisms by extracting temporal features based on spatial constraints and applying neuro-feedback with virtual reality (VR). We plan to recruit forty experienced mindfulness practitioners and sixty novice practitioners with an 8-week mindfulness intervention for training and testing in the current proposal. Specifically, the project will be initiated by differentiating mindfulness practices into four phases: mindfulness of breath, body scan, mindfulness of emotions, and compassion (subproject 1). Participants will participate in different stages of mindfulness practices and corresponding cognitive tasks (subproject 5), meanwhile performing the simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG)-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings to extract the brain locations and temporal features, correspondingly (subproject 2). The targeting EEG temporal biomarkers will be extracted using deep learning for improving the quality of mindfulness practices (subproject 3). After synchronizing the EEG signals and the physiological signals (e.g., heartbeat pulsation), we will integrate biomarkers into a VR environment for practitioners to self-regulate their mindful way of living (subproject 4). The research team will be collaborated with two highly recognized international scholars and be supported by well-known industrial partners toward benefiting the mental health of middle-aged and senior populations in integrated teamwork.

Keywords

MindfulnessAttentionEmotionMindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)Electroencephalography (EEG)Heart rate variability (HRV)Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)Virtual reality (VR) Deep learning

Contact Information

吳昌衛; 莊鈞翔
sleepbrain@tmu.edu.tw; ch.chuang@mx.nthu.edu.tw