Abstract
The underlying changes in heart coherence that are associated with reported EEG changes in response to meditation have been explored. We measured EEG and heart rate variability (HRV) before and during autogenic meditation. Fourteen subjects participated in the study. Heart coherence scores were significantly increased during meditation compared to the baseline. We found near significant decrease in high beta absolute power, increase in alpha relative power and significant increases in lower (alpha) and higher (above beta) band coherence during 3~min epochs of heart coherent meditation compared to 3~min epochs of heart non-coherence at baseline. The coherence and relative power increase in alpha band and absolute power decrease in high beta band could reflect relaxation state during the heart coherent meditation. The coherence increase in the higher (above beta) band could reflect cortico-cortical local integration and thereby affect cognitive reorganization, simultaneously with relaxation. Further research is still needed for a confirmation of heart coherence as a simple window for the meditative state.
Highlights
Integrative neurophysiological substrate for transforming human attention and emotion system during meditation process are beginning to be understood by combining both central and peripheral system, brain, and body (Braboszcz et al, 2010; Brankovic, 2013; Kim et al, 2013)
Self-regulation of attention is major component of meditation in which practitioners focus his/her attention on a particular physical/mental object in focused attention (FA) meditation and practitioners are instructed to allow any thought, feeling, or sensation to arise in consciousness while maintaining a nonreactive awareness to what is being experienced in open monitoring (OM) meditation (Lutz et al, 2008; Braboszcz et al, 2010)
Whereas the heart coherence and its dynamic correlation1 with EEG alpha band activity was investigated in the previous study (Kim et al, 2013), we focused on Autogenic meditation induced heart coherence changes and accompanied brain activity changes, especially, electroencephalography (EEG) power and coherence in the entire bandwidth from delta to gamma band
Summary
Integrative neurophysiological substrate for transforming human attention and emotion system during meditation process are beginning to be understood by combining both central and peripheral system, brain, and body (Braboszcz et al, 2010; Brankovic, 2013; Kim et al, 2013). EEG signatures of Autogenic meditation including power and functional connectivity, especially coherence, across all frequency band from delta to gamma throughout the brain was thoroughly explored in this study.
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