Dynamic correlations between heart and brain rhythm during Autogenic meditation
Open Access
- 1 January 2013
- journal article
- Published by Frontiers Media SA in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
- Vol. 7, 414
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00414
Abstract
This study is aimed to determine significant physiological parameters of brain and heart under meditative state, both in each activities and their dynamic correlations. Electrophysiological changes in response to meditation were explored in 12 healthy volunteers who completed 8 weeks of a basic training course in autogenic meditation. Heart coherence, representing the degree of ordering in oscillation of heart rhythm intervals, increased significantly during meditation. Relative EEG alpha power and alpha lagged coherence also increased. A significant slowing of parietal peak alpha frequency was observed. Parietal peak alpha power increased with increasing heart coherence during meditation, but no such relationship was observed during baseline. Average alpha lagged coherence also increased with increasing heart coherence during meditation, but weak opposite relationship was observed at baseline. Relative alpha power increased with increasing heart coherence during both meditation and baseline periods. Heart coherence can be a cardiac marker for the meditative state and also may be a general marker for the meditative state since heart coherence is strongly correlated with EEG alpha activities. It is expected that increasing heart coherence and the accompanying EEG alpha activations, heart brain synchronicity, would help recover physiological synchrony following a period of homeostatic depletion.Keywords
This publication has 52 references indexed in Scilit:
- Alpha-band oscillations, attention, and controlled access to stored informationTrends in Cognitive Sciences, 2012
- Meditation-State Functional Connectivity (msFC): Strengthening of the Dorsal Attention Network and BeyondEvidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2012
- Granger Causality Analysis of Steady-State Electroencephalographic Signals during Propofol-Induced AnaesthesiaPLOS ONE, 2012
- α-Oscillations in the monkey sensorimotor network influence discrimination performance by rhythmical inhibition of neuronal spikingProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2011
- Breathing Awareness Meditation and LifeSkills Training Programs Influence Upon Ambulatory Blood Pressure and Sodium Excretion Among African American AdolescentsJournal of Adolescent Health, 2011
- BOLD signal in insula is differentially related to cardiac function during compassion meditation in experts vs. novicesNeuroImage, 2009
- Central and autonomic nervous system interaction is altered by short-term meditationProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009
- Attention regulation and monitoring in meditationTrends in Cognitive Sciences, 2008
- Regulation of the Neural Circuitry of Emotion by Compassion Meditation: Effects of Meditative ExpertisePLOS ONE, 2008
- The polyvagal perspectiveBiological Psychology, 2007