The Role of Heart Rate Variability in Mindfulness-Based Pain Relief.

ABSTRACT: Mindfulness meditation is a self-regulatory practice premised on sustaining nonreactive awareness of arising sensory events that reliably reduces pain. Yet, the specific analgesic mechanisms supporting mindfulness have not been comprehensively disentangled from the potential nonspecific factors supporting this technique. Increased parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity is associated with pain relief corresponding to a number of cognitive manipulations. However, the relationship between the PNS and mindfulness-based pain attenuation remains unknown. The primary objective of the present study was to determine the role of high-frequency heart rate variability (HF HRV), a marker of PNS activity, during mindfulness-based pain relief as compared to a validated, sham-mindfulness meditation

SUBMITTER: Adler-Neal AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6994350 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar - Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature