Dynamic correlations between heart and brain rhythm during Autogenic meditation

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.

Reorganization of the brain and heart rhythm during autogenic meditation

“…More dynamic aspects of this heart brain connection, windowing every 4 s during both baseline and meditation rather than 3 min herein, between heart coherence and EEG activities, especially for alpha band were thoroughly investigated elsewhere (Kim et al, 2013). Some investigators have asserted that MF/(LF + HF) ratio highly and sensitively represents emotional status (McCraty et al, 1995) rather than the conventional HRV index (Task-Force, 1996).…”

“…However, the conventional HRV index has not shown consistent findings for meditative states (Ditto et al, 2006a; Conrad et al, 2007; Phongsuphap et al, 2008; Wu and Lo, 2008b). It might be due to increases in RSA during slow breathing phase of meditation contributing to the sympathetic power with a range of 0.04–0.15 Hz rather than parasympathetic power of 0.15–0.4 Hz, both bandwidth defined by Task force (Task-Force, 1996; Eckberg, 1997; Heathers, 2012; Kim et al, 2013). …”

Entropic Approach to the Detection of Crucial Events

“…Another important physiological process is the dynamics of the heart and significant interest exists on the correlation between heart rate variability and brain activity [51][52][53]. However, the theoretical explanation of the correlation between these two important physiological processes remains a difficult problem due to their different frequency scales.…”

Terapia autógena: técnicas, fundamentos, aplicaciones en la salud y clínica y apoyo empírico

“…Por otra, hay una corriente más meditativa, más relacionada con la actitud del practicante de los métodos autógenos, donde lo que importa es la no interferencia ante las descargas autógenas, motores del cambio autorregulatorio del cerebro. Esta concepción está más en relación con la atención plena, tal como apuntan Narita, Morozuni y Yagi (1987) o Kim et al (2013), con un enfoque centrado en la maximización de procesos no intencionales, en el que se asientan la abreacción autógena o incluso la más desconocida técnica de movilización de la creatividad (Luthe, 1976).…”