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CompletedNot applicable

Beyond the Self and Back: Neuropharmacological Mechanisms Underlying the Dissolution of the Self

NCT03736980 · University of Zurich

Closed to entry
Status
Not accepting participants
Not applicable
Phase
140
Target enrolment
Study sites

What it is testing

Summary

The aim of the study is to identify neural signatures, behavioral and phenomenological expressions of self-related processes including: sense of agency, semantic distinction between self and other, selflessness (altruism), social agency, embodied self (interoception), perceptual functioning of dissolved self including hallucinations and crossmodal processing, and finally the mystical type dissolution of the self.

Summary as written by the trial’s own sponsor and published on ClinicalTrials.gov API v2. It is the sponsor’s description, reproduced unedited, not an assessment by this site.

What counts as success

Primary outcome measures

  • fMRI resting state activity (BOLD signal)

    Measured over 60 minutes

  • EEG measurement (ERPs)

    Measured over 60 minutes

A trial succeeds or fails on its primary outcome, declared in advance. Everything else it reports is secondary by definition.

Who can take part

Eligibility, as published

20 Years to 60 Years
Ages
All
Sex
Accepted
Healthy volunteers
Inclusion Criteria: * Healthy male and female volunteers at the age of 20-40 y (Group 1, 2 and 3) and 20-60 y (Group 4) * Willing and capable to give informed consent for the participation in the study after it has been thoroughly explained * Willing to refrain from drinking alcohol the day before testing session, from drinking alcohol and caffeinated drinks at the testing days and from consuming psychoactive substances 2 weeks before testing days and for the duration of the study. * Able and willing to comply with all study requirements * Informed consent form was signed Further inclusion criteria for the Study Group 4: * over 5000 hours of meditation experience (40 participants) * meditation naive (with no experience in meditation) or with a low experience in meditation (as a criterium the total amount of less than \<100 hours of meditation experience will be used) (40 participants) Exclusion Criteria: * Poor knowledge of the German language * Previous significant adverse response to a hallucinogenic drug * Participation in another study where pharmaceutical compounds will be given * Self or first-degree relatives with present or antecedent psychiatric disorders * History of head trauma or fainting * Recent cardiac or brain surgery * Current use of medication known to affect brain function (e.g. benzodiazepines, antihistamines, aspirin, beta blockers, theophylline, azetazolamide, etc.) * Concomitant therapy with potent inhibitors of cytochrome P-450 isoenzyme 3A4 (HIV protease inhibitors, macrolide antibiotics, azolederivative anti-infective agents) * Presence of major internal or neurological disorders (including sepsis, pheochromocytoma, thyrotoxicosis, drug-induced fibrosis, familiar or basilar artery migraine) * Cardiovascular disease (hypertonia, coronary artery disease, heart insufficiency, myocardial infarction within the past 6 months, coronary spastic angina) * Peripheral vascular disease (thromboangiitis obliterans, luetic arteritis, severe arteriosclerosis, thrombophlebitis, Raynaud's disease) * Liver or renal disease * Pregnant or breastfeeding women (a urine pregnancy test will be done for all women capable of bearing children) * Women of childbearing potential who are not using effective, established contraception, such as oral, injected or implanted hormonal methods of contraception, placement of an intrauterine device (IUD) or intrauterine system (IUS), barrier methods of contraception: condom or occlusive cap (diaphragm or cervical/vault caps) with spermicidal foam/gel/film/cream/suppository Further exclusion criteria for the Study Group 2, 3 and 4: * Inability to lie still for about 60 minutes (e.g. because of sneezing, itching, tremor, pain) * Metal parts in the body (piercings, brain aneurysm clip, implanted neural stimulator/cardiac pacemaker/defibrillator/Swan Ganz catheter/insulin pump, cochlear implant); metal shrapnel or bullet, ocular foreign body (e.g. metal shavings); current or previous job in metalworking industry * Claustrophobia The presence of any one of the above mentioned exclusion criteria will lead to exclusion of the subject.

On the registry

Contact the trial directly

This site does not enrol anyone and is not involved in this trial. To ask about taking part, use the sponsor’s own contact details on the official registry record, which is also where the most current version of everything above lives.

Before you do, the preparation checklist lists what a site will ask you on a first call and what is worth asking them. It is free and collects nothing.

NCT03736980 on ClinicalTrials.gov →

Last updated in the registry 2020-11-04. Registry records change; this page reflects the data build of 2026-08-25.

Related

Where this trial sits