Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Short-term autonomic and cardiovascular effects of mindfulness body scan meditation

  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background: Recent research suggests that the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program has positive effects on health, but little is known about the immediate physiological effects of different components of the program.Purpose: To examine the short-term autonomic and cardiovascular effects of one of the techniques employed in mindfulness meditation training, a basic body scan meditation.Methods: In Study 1, 32 healthy young adults (23 women, 9 men) were assigned randomly to either a meditation, progressive muscular relaxation or wait-list control group. Each participated in two laboratory sessions 4 weeks apart in which they practiced their assigned technique. In Study 2, using a within-subjects design, 30 healthy young adults (15 women, 15 men) participated in two laboratory sessions in which they practiced meditation or listened to an audiotape of a popular novel in counterbalanced order. Heart rate, cardiac respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and blood pressure were measured in both studies. Additional measures derived from impedance cardiography were obtained in Study 2.Results: In both studies, participants displayed significantly greater increases in RSA while meditating than while engaging in other relaxing activities. A significant decrease in cardiac pre-ejection period was observed while participants meditated in Study 2. This suggests that simultaneous increases in cardiac parasympathetic and sympathetic activity may explain the lack of an effect on heart rate. Female participants in Study 2 exhibited a significantly larger decrease in diastolic blood pressure during meditation than the novel, whereas men had greater increases in cardiac output during meditation compared to the novel.Conclusions: The results indicate both similarities and differences in the physiological responses to body scan meditation and other relaxing activities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kabat-Zinn J:Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness. New York: Delacourt, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bishop SR: What do we really know about mindfulness-based stress reduction?Psychosomatic Medicine. 2002,64:71–83.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Grossman P, Niemann L, Schmidt S, Walach H: Mindfulnessbased stress reduction and health benefits. A meta-analysis.Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 2004,57:35–43.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Robert McComb JJ, Tacon A, Randolph P, Caldera Y: A pilot study to examine the effects of a mindfulness-based stress-reduction and relaxation program on levels of stress hormones, physical functioning, and submaximal exercise responses.Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2004,10:819–827.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Carlson LE, Speca M, Patel KD, Goodey E: Mindfulness-based stress reduction in relation to quality of life, mood, symptoms of stress and levels of cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) and melatonin in breast and prostate cancer outpatients.Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2004,29:448–474.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Robinson FP, Mathews HL, Witek-Janusek L: Psycho-endocrine-immune response to mindfulness-based stress reduction in individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus: A quasiexperimental study.Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2003,9:683–694.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Peng CK, Henry IC, Mietus JE, et al.: Heart rate dynamics during three forms of meditation.International Journal of Cardiology. 2004,95:19–27.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Delmonte MM: Physiological responses during meditation and rest.Biofeedback and Self-Regulation. 1984,9:181–200.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Barnes VA, Treiber FA, Davis H: Impact of Transcendental Meditation on cardiovascular function at rest and during acute stress in adolescents with high normal blood pressure.Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 2001,51:597–605.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Barnes VA, Treiber FA, Johnson MH: Impact of transcendental meditation on ambulatory blood pressure in African-American adolescents.American Journal of Hypertension. 2004,17:366–369.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Schneider RH, Alexander CN, Staggers F, et al.: A randomized controlled trial of stress reduction in African Americans treated for hypertension for over one year.American Journal of Hypertension. 2005,18:88–98.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Travis F, Olson T, Egenes T, Gupta HK: Physiological patterns during practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique compared with patterns while reading Sanskrit and a modern language.International Journal of Neuroscience. 2001,109:71–80.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Barnes VA, Treiber FA, Turner JR, Davis H, Strong WB: Acute effects of transcendental meditation on hemodynamic functioning in middle-aged adults.Psychosomatic Medicine. 1999,61:525–531.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Throll DA: Transcendental meditation and progressive relaxation: Their physiological effects.Journal of Clinical Psychology. 1982,38:522–530.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Wallace RK: Physiological effects of transcendental meditation.Science. 1970,167:1751–1754.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Woolfolk RL: Psychophysiological correlates of meditation.Archives of General Psychiatry. 1975,32:1326–1333.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Jevning R, Wilson AF, Smith WR, Morton ME: Redistribution of blood flow in acute hypometabolic behavior.American Journal of Physiology. 1978,235:R89-R92.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Bernardi L, Sleight P, Bandinelli G, et al.: Effect of rosary prayer and yoga mantras on autonomic cardiovascular rhythms: Comparative study.British Medical Journal. 2001,323:1446–1449.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Lehrer P, Sasaki Y, Saito Y: Zazen and cardiac variability.Psychosomatic Medicine. 1999,61:812–821.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Arambula P, Peper E, Kawakami M, Gibney KH: The physiological correlates of Kundalini Yoga meditation: A study of a yoga master.Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. 2001,26:147–153.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Lee MS, Kim BG, Huh HJ, et al.: Effect of Qi-training on blood pressure, heart rate and respiration rate.Clinical Physiology. 2000,20:173–176.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Schmidt T, Wijga A, Von Zur Muhlen A, Brabant G, Wagner TO: Changes in cardiovascular risk factors and hormones during a comprehensive residential three month kriya yoga training and vegetarian nutrition.Acta Physiologica Scandanavica. 1997,640(Suppl.):158–162.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Corby JC, Roth WT, Zarcone Jr. VP, Kopell BS: Psychophysiological correlates of the practice of Tantric Yoga meditation.Archives of General Psychiatry. 1978,35:571–577.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Takahashi T, Murata T, Hamada T, et al.: Changes in EEG and autonomic nervous activity during meditation and their association with personality traits.International Journal of Psychophysiology. 2005,55:199–207.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Kubota Y, Sato W, Toichi M, et al.: Frontal midline theta rhythm is correlated with cardiac autonomic activities during the performance of an attention demanding meditation procedure.Cognitive Brain Research. 2001,11:281–287.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Jevning R, Wallace RK, Beidebach M: The physiology of meditation: A review. A wakeful hypometabolic integrated response.Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 1992,16:415–424.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Porges SW, Bohrer RE: The analysis of periodic processes in psychophysiological research. In Cacioppo JT, Tassinary IG (eds),Principles of Psychophysiology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990, 708–753.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Houtveen JH, Rietveld S, de Geus EJ: Contribution of tonic vagal modulation of heart rate, central respiratory drive, respiratory depth, and respiratory frequency to respiratory sinus arrhythmia during mental stress and physical exercise.Psychophysiology. 2002,39:427–436.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Bernstein D, Borkovec, TD:Progressive Relaxation Training: A Manual for the Helping Professions. Champaign, IL: Research Press, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Rickards CA, Newman DG: A comparative assessment of two techniques for investigating initial cardiovascular reflexes under acute orthostatic stress.European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2003,90:449–457.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Hanson P, Slane PR, Rueckert PA, Clark SV: Squatting revisited: Comparison of haemodynamic responses in normal individuals and heart transplantation recipients.British Heart Journal. 1995,74:154–158.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Burgess HJ, Penev PD, Schneider R, Van Cauter E: Estimating cardiac autonomic activity during sleep: Impedance cardiography, spectral analysis, and Poincare plots.Clinical Neurophysiology. 2004,115:19–28.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Newlin DB, Levenson RW: Pre-ejection period: Measuring beta-adrenergic influences upon the heart.Psychophysiology. 1979,16:546–553.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Sherwood A, Allen MT, Obrist PA, Langer AW: Evaluation of beta-adrenergic influences on cardiovascular and metabolic adjustments to physical and psychological stress.Psychophysiology. 1986,23:89–104.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Berntson GG, Cacioppo JT, Binkley PF, et al.: Autonomic cardiac control. III. Psychological stress and cardiac response in autonomic space as revealed by pharmacological blockades.Psychophysiology. 1994,31:599–608.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Rowling JK:Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone [audiotape]. New York: Listening Library, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Akselrod S, Gordon D, Ubel FA, et al.: Power spectrum analysis of heart rate fluctuation: A quantitative probe of beat-to-beat cardiovascular control.Science. 1981,213:220–222.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Appel ML, Berger RD, Saul JP, Smith JM, Cohen RJ: Beat to beat variability in cardiovascular variables: Noise or music?Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 1989,14:1139–1148.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Thayer JF, Sollers III JJ, Ruiz-Padial E, Vila J: Estimating respiratory frequency from autoregressive spectral analysis of heart period.IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine. 2002,21:41–45.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology: Heart rate variability: Standards of measurement, physiological interpretation and clinical use.Circulation. 1996, 93:1043-1065.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Grossman P, Taylor EW: Toward undersanding respiratory sinus arrhythmia: Relations to cardiac vagal tone, evolution and biobehavioral functions.Biological Psychology. 2006, in press.

  42. Grossman P, Karemaker J, Wieling W: Prediction of tonic parasympathetic cardiac control using respiratory sinus arrhythmia: The need for respiratory control.Psychophysiology. 1991,28:201–216.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Blumenthal JA, Sherwood A, Babyak MA, et al.: Effects of exercise and stress management training on markers of cardiovascular risk in patients with ischemic heart disease: A randomized controlled trial.Journal of the American Medical Association. 2005,293:1626–1634.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. La Rovere MT, Bigger Jr. JT, Marcus FI, Mortara A, Schwartz PJ: Baroreflex sensitivity and heart-rate variability in prediction of total cardiac mortality after myocardial infarction. ATRAMI (Autonomic Tone and Reflexes After Myocardial Infarction) Investigators.Lancet. 1998,351:478–484.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Liao D, Cai J, Barnes RW, et al.: Association of cardiac autonomic function and the development of hypertension: The ARIC study.American Journal of Hypertension. 1996,9:1147–1156.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Singh JP, Larson MG, Tsuji H, et al.: Reduced heart rate variability and new-onset hypertension: Insights into pathogenesis of hypertension: The Framingham Heart Study.Hypertension. 1998,32:293–297.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Schneider RH, Staggers F, Alexander CN, et al.: A randomised controlled trial of stress reduction for hypertension in older African Americans.Hypertension. 1995,26:820–827.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Schneider RH, Alexander CN, Staggers F, et al.: Long-term effects of stress reduction on mortality in persons ≥55 years of age with systemic hypertension.American Journal of Cardiology. 2005,95:1060–1064.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Holmes DS, Solomon S, Cappo BM, Greenberg JL: Effect of Transcendental Meditation versus resting on physiological and subjective arousal.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1983,44:1245–1252.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  50. Barnes VA, Davis HC, Murzynowski JB, Treiber FA: Impact of meditation on resting and ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in youth.Psychosomatic Medicine. 2004,66:909–914.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  51. Barnes VA, Johnson MH, Treiber FA: Temporal stability of twenty-four-hour ambulatory hemodynamic bioimpedance measures in African American adolescents.Blood Pressure Monitoring. 2004,9:173–177.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Avenue, H3A 1B1, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Blaine Ditto Ph.D., Marie Eclache B.A. & Natalie Goldman B.A.

Authors
  1. Blaine Ditto Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marie Eclache B.A.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Natalie Goldman B.A.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Blaine Ditto Ph.D..

Additional information

This research was supported by a grant from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Québec.

About this article

Cite this article

Ditto, B., Eclache, M. & Goldman, N. Short-term autonomic and cardiovascular effects of mindfulness body scan meditation. ann. behav. med. 32, 227–234 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3203_9

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3203_9

Keywords

Search

Navigation