The ReSource Project is a large-scale, multimethod, longitudinal study investigating the effects of different mental training practices on subjective experience, behavior, brain, and physiology. Over nine months, 180 participants underwent a structured curriculum with three separate modules training: (1) attention and interoceptive awareness; (2) loving kindness and prosocial motivation; and (3) cognitive perspective taking and metacognitive awareness. Such a modular approach allows researchers to investigate differential effects of specific mental exercises beyond global effects of meditation. The panel will present first findings from this study focusing on four main levels of observation: (1) daily subjective reports of affect, thought content, body awareness, and metacognition assessed before and after daily practice in different core exercises; (2) subcomponents of prosocial behavior identified in behavioral paradigms and self-reports; (3) autonomic measures of body awareness and self-regulation; and (4) neuronal correlates of cognitive perspective taking, empathic concern, and metacognition as assessed through a novel fMRI-task.
