Physiology of Liberation

After informed consent and eligibility screening, participants complete baseline questions about health, medication use, daily habits (including typical alcohol and nicotine use), well-being, and prior mindfulness or meditation experience. Participants then complete smartphone ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys about current context, appraisals, action tendencies, downstream cost, stress or activation, perceived recovery, and recent alcohol and nicotine use since the prior prompt (or since waking for the first daily prompt). EMA is delivered on 14 total days within an enrollment period of up to 4 weeks; the 14 days may be consecutive or divided into two 7-day measurement bursts. Alcohol and nicotine reports are collected after consent and may be analyzed as time-varying contextual variables or covariates in relation to EMA and physiological response and recovery; they also document whether scheduled measurements occurred within requested abstinence windows.

Depending on the active measurement wave, participants may be assigned non-invasive devices measuring heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, movement, sleep, skin signals, electroencephalography, or exploratory functional near-infrared spectroscopy signals. Device assignment follows the measurement plan, device availability and fit, and safety screening; not every participant receives every device. Device-specific safety restrictions may limit assignment to a particular device without excluding participation in other procedures.

In study waves with the randomized component, a computer-generated schedule assigns participants after consent to the mindfulness/attention-instruction condition or the no-instruction comparison. Allocation probabilities are specified before each study wave begins and are not determined by participant characteristics, study outcomes, or interim outcome analyses. Participants may receive one or more brief standardized mindfulness/attention-instruction sessions or time-matched no-instruction comparison sessions. Each session lasts approximately 1 to 10 minutes; the number, duration, and schedule of sessions are specified before each study wave begins and applied consistently within that wave. This randomized assignment is separate from observational comparisons based on prior mindfulness or meditation experience. The IRB protocol permits one optional re-enrollment no sooner than 6 months later, with new consent and screening; a re-enrolling participant is not counted again toward the cap of 100 unique participants.