ONEMIND (Optimized Neuroscience-Enhanced Mindfulness Intervention Design) was established at the University of California San Diego with the following mission: to develop, test, optimize, and disseminate high impact, integrative mindfulness interventions by translating discoveries from basic biobehavioral science into solutions for health and society. The UCSD ONEMIND research program focuses on the study Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) as a treatment for addiction, emotion dysregulation, and chronic pain, alone or in combination with other neuroscience-informed therapeutics like psychedelics, neurofeedback, neuromodulation, virtual reality, and wearable physiology-driven closed loop systems. ONEMIND is currently conducting clinical trials and mechanistic studies supported by more than $25 million in federal research grants.
ONEMIND aims to exert a transformative influence on healthcare by unifying and synergizing disparate research efforts focused on elucidating the efficacy and neural mechanisms of mindfulness and other integrative interventions. ONEMIND draws upon a broad base of expertise across campus and around the nation, cutting across disciplines including Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Primary Care, Anesthesiology, Data Science, Psychology, and Health, among others.
As a platform for supporting research, ONEMIND connect researchers and clinicians from across medicine, neuroscience, behavioral health, and data science to conduct pioneering investigations of integrative interventions that target cognitive, emotional, and neurobiological processes to improve physical and mental health. Following the NIH Stage model, ONEMIND conducts translational biobehavioral research to inform the treatment development process by integrating knowledge about basic mechanisms underlying health problems into new therapeutic application. We seek to understand not only whether given intervention works to produce clinical benefits, but also how it works: we conduct fundamental science to reveal the neural mechanisms of mind-body interventions. To do so, we leverage tools including electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), as well as autonomic psychophysiology, cognitive tasks, and high density ecological momentary assessment. We employ advanced data analytic strategies and multimodal machine learning approaches to test hypotheses and answer key research questions.
ONEMIND aims to promote an integrative behavioral health workforce to meet the needs of the Nation by advancing the evidence-based practice of mindfulness and its integration with other neuroscience-informed therapeutics. ONEMIND develops, tests, refines, and optimizes interventions for dissemination to health care providers, and provides training to support high quality, high fidelity implementation of novel treatment approaches vetted through science.
ONEMIND provides unparalleled research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as post-doctoral fellows, to get involved in the conduct of federally-funded research studies. Working under the tutelage of skilled Principal Investigators, trainees learn how to conduct and disseminate rigorous mind-body science to elucidate the efficacy and mechanisms of novel therapies. Alumni maintain strong ties as their careers progress, retaining access to the latest scientific discoveries and interventions emerging from ONEMIND, along with opportunities to participate in the development of others through mentoring and ongoing collaboration. In this way, ONEMIND fosters uniquely valuable, enduring relationships between accomplished and aspiring leaders, and supports an active, vibrant community of scholars and clinical scientists across the best universities of the world.
Ultimately, ONEMIND aims to advance a vision of a new model of healthcare, where experts in behavioral health and neuroscience work in tandem with medical providers to address the physical, psychological, and social needs of people afflicted by an array of disorders and illnesses. The synergy generated by such integrative efforts will alleviate suffering and promote human flourishing to a degree unrealized in previous eras of health care reforms.