Differential effects of relaxation techniques on ultraweak photon emission.

BACKGROUND: Evidence has accumulated favoring the possible role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of many chronic diseases. Meditation is utilized as an adjunct to conventional medical treatment for several clinical conditions. A few studies suggest a role of long-term meditation in the control of the free-radical metabolism. Many techniques for recording reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been made available. However, most are invasive and none are applicable to all conditions. Attention has recently been drawn to spontaneous ultraweak photon emission (UPE). However, the application of this method in meditation studies is very limited. OBJECTIVE: The present study recorded spontaneous UPE at multiple anatomic locations of subjects with long-term experience in transcendental meditation (TM) and compared this with a group that practiced other meditation techniques (OMT) and with subjects having no meditation experience. METHODS: The study examined the anatomic pattern of UPE of 20 subjects practicing TM, compared to 20 subjects practicing OMT, and 20 control subjects with no experience in meditation. Subjects were men who were reported to be healthy and nonsmokers. Meditation was not practiced on the day prior to recording. UPE was recorded in a dark room, using a highly sensitive, cooled photomultiplier system designed for manipulation in three directions. The protocol for the multisite registration of UPE included recording 12 anatomic locations, including the anterior torso, head, neck, and hands. RESULTS: Data demonstrated emission intensities in the TM and OMT groups that were 27% and 17% lower, respectively, compared to the control group. The decrease was recorded at all anatomic locations. The percent emission contribution of each location to total emission was very similar for the three groups. CONCLUSIONS: Data supported the hypothesis that persistent meditation resulted in decreased UPE. However, the determination of oxidation levels as the source of group differences needs to be verified further to confirm our hypothesis.

Anatomic characterization of human ultra-weak photon emission in practitioners of transcendental meditation(TM) and control subjects.

BACKGROUND: Research on human ultra-weak photon emission (UPE, biophoton emission) has raised the question whether a typical human emission anatomic percentage distribution pattern exists in addition to individual subject overall anatomic summation intensity differences. The lowest UPE intensities were observed in two subjects who regularly meditate. Spectral analysis of human UPE has suggested that ultra-weak emission is probably, at least in part, a reflection of free radical reactions in a living system. It has been documented that various physiologic and biochemical shifts follow the long-term practice of meditation and it is inferred that meditation may impact free radical activity. OBJECTIVE: To systematically quantify, in subjects with long-term transcendental meditation (TM) experience and subjects without this experience, the UPE emission of the anterior torso, head and neck plus the hands in an attempt to document the differences by the two groups. SUBJECTS: Subjects were 20 men reported to be healthy and nonsmokers. Each of the subjects in the meditation group had practiced TM twice daily for at least the past 10 years. METHODS: UPE in 20 subjects was recorded in a dark room using a highly sensitive, cooled photomultiplier system designed for manipulation in three directions. The protocol for multisite registration of spontaneous emission includes recording of 12 anatomic locations of anterior torso, head, and hands. RESULTS: Data demonstrate emission intensities that are lower in TM practitioners as compared to control subjects. The percent contribution of emission from most anatomic locations was not significantly different for TM practitioners and control subjects. Exceptions are the contributions of throat and palm. CONCLUSION: In subjects with long-term TM experience, the UPE emission is different from control subjects. Data support the hypothesis that free radical reactions can be influenced by TM.

Effects of a color filter used in auriculomedicine on ultraweak photon emission of the human body.

CONTEXT: The human body emits ultraweak photons. It has been demonstrated that feedback regulation of ultraweak photon emission from the hand is detectable utilizing gelatin color filters in complete darkness. Color filters are commonly utilized in auriculomedicine diagnostic procedures based on the radial artery vascular autonomic signal. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the possibility of an effect by a dark-adapted red filter on (1) local ultraweak human photon emission using different anatomic locations, and (2) on systemic photon emission using one location for red filter exposure and another for photon emission recording. DESIGN: Photon emission of abdomen, forehead, palm, and dorsum of the hand was recorded before and after the presence of a red filter. In addition, photon emission of forehead and dorsum of the hand was recorded before, during, and after the presence of the red filter close to the palm. In both instances, the filter was dark-adapted and placed in close proximity to, but not touching the skin of the dark-adapted subject. A low-noise, end window photomultiplier for recording ultraviolet and visible (200-650 nm) photon emission (with a very low background count rate) and designed for manipulation in three directions was situated in a dark room. The technology was utilized to record spontaneous photon emission of the abdomen, forehead, palm, and dorsum of the hand of one human male subject. RESULTS: Data demonstrate that a dark-adapted subject responds in the total absence of light with a temporary increase in photon emission from the anatomic locations that had been exposed for 200 s at a distance of 3 cm to a dark-adapted red filter. Data from sequential time series suggest red filter initiation of a refractory emission reaction. Exposure of the palm to the red filter also evokes photon emission from the dorsum of the same hand and from the forehead. This response could be registered immediately after the beginning of the exposure. The stimulated emission is followed by a slow decrease of emission in the period after exposure to the filter. CONCLUSION: Data suggest that red filter-stimulated photon emission response is systemic and rapid. Data imply an exchange of information vis-à-vis light from both hand and red filter. The mechanism of such interaction is currently speculation only.

Effect of meditation on ultraweak photon emission from hands and forehead.

BACKGROUND: Various physiologic and biochemical shifts can follow meditation. Meditation has been implicated in impacting free radical activity. Ultraweak photon emission (UPE, biophoton emission) is a constituent of the metabolic processes in a living system. Spectral analysis showed the characteristics of radical reactions. OBJECTIVES: Recording and analysing photon emission in 5 subjects before, during and after meditation. METHODS: UPE in 5 subjects who meditated in sitting or supine positions was recorded in a darkroom utilising a photomultiplier designed for manipulation in three directions. RESULTS: Data indicated that UPE changes after meditation. In 1 subject with high pre-meditation values, UPE decreased during meditation and remained low in the postmeditation phase. In the other subjects, only a slight decrease in photon emission was found, but commonly a decrease was observed in the kurtosis and skewness values of the photon count distribution. A second set of data on photon emission from the hands before and after meditation was collected from 2 subjects. These data were characterised by the Fano factor, F(T), i.e. variance over mean of the number of photoelectrons observed within observation time T. All data were compared to surrogate data sets which were constructed by random shuffling of the data sets. In the pre-meditation period, F(T) increased with observation time, significantly at time windows >6 s. No such effect was found after meditation, when F(T) was in the range of the surrogate data set. CONCLUSIONS: The data support the hypothesis that human photon emission can be influenced by meditation. Data from time series recordings suggest that this non-invasive tool for monitoring radical reactions during meditation is useful to characterise the effect of meditation. Fano factor analysis demonstrated that the time series before meditation do not represent a simple Poisson process. Instead, UPE has characteristics of a fractal process, showing long-range correlations. The effect of meditation waives out this coherence phenomenon, suggesting a weaker and less ordered structure of UPE. In general, meditation seems to influence the complex interactions of oxidative and anti-oxidative reactions which regulate photon emission. The reason for the statistical changes between pre- and post-meditation measurements remains unclear and demands further examination.

Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials in response to laterally directed skull taps.

In recent years it has been demonstrated that loud clicks generate short latency vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP). It has also been demonstrated that midline forehead skull tap stimulation evokes similar VEMP. In the present study, the influence of skull tap direction on VEMP was studied in 13 normal subjects and in five patients with unilateral vestibular loss. Gentle skull taps were delivered manually above each ear on the side of the skull. The muscular responses were recorded over both sternocleidomastoid muscles using skin electrodes. Among the normals, laterally directed skull taps evoked "coordinated contraction-relaxation responses", i.e. skull taps on one side evoked a negative-positive "inverted" VEMP on that side and a positive-negative "normal" VEMP on the other side. Among patients with unilateral vestibular function loss, skull taps above the lesioned ear evoked similar coordinated contraction-relaxation responses. However, skull taps above the healthy ear did not evoke that type of response. These findings suggest that laterally directed skull taps activate mainly the contralateral labyrinth.

Bone conduction hearing on the teeth of the lower jaw.

Bone conduction stimulation of the teeth of the lower jaw initiates auditory sensations. However the lower jaw is only loosely coupled to the skull by the temporo-mandibular joint. Therefore the 'classical' bone conduction pathway involving skull vibration transmission entirely along bone to the temporal-petrous bone requires further consideration. Bone conduction hearing thresholds to stimulation at the forehead and at the teeth of the upper and lower jaw were determined in human subjects. Thresholds on the teeth were better than those on the forehead and there was no difference between the thresholds measured following stimulation of the upper and lower teeth. Experiments in guinea-pigs provided evidence that vibration of the teeth leads to transmission of the audio-frequency vibrations by means of soft tissue, through skull foramina, into the skull cavity (brain and CSF) and from there by fluid channels directly into inner ear fluids, exciting the cochlea.

Effects of static forehead and forearm muscle tension on total respiratory resistance in healthy and asthmatic participants.

The impact of static muscle tension on total respiratory resistance (TRR) was examined. Participants (24 healthy, 24 asthmatic) performed biofeedback-assisted sequences of tensing (15 s) and relaxing (20 s) forehead and forearm muscles. Muscle tension levels were 40% or 80% of the maximum individual force. Oscillatory TRR, electromyograms, ventilation, heart period, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia were recorded. Baseline TRR did not change over the session as a whole. Decreases in TRR during forehead tension in both groups were accompanied by increases in end-expiratory volume, which could have mediated TRR changes. During forearm tension, decreases in TRR with minimal ventilation changes were only observed in healthy participants, whereas asthmatic patients revealed marked increases in respiratory volume and flow. These results indicate that static muscle activity and TRR are negatively related. Ventilatory changes can exaggerate or diminish evidence for this relationship.

[Comparison of temperatures from 7 points in the patients under intraperitoneal hyperthermic perfusion].

We measured the temperatures from 7 points in the patients under intraperitoneal hyperthermic perfusion (IPHP), associated with induced hypothermia. The temperatures from the 7 points were as follows, pulmonary artery blood temperature (PAT), bladder temperature (BT), sole deep body temperature (ST), forehead deep body temperature (FT), external aural cannal temperature (EAT), esophageal temperature (ET), and rectal temperature (RT). We studied the relationship between PAT and the other 6 temperatures. During IPHP, DT rose up to nearly 40 degrees C, and we considered it very useful to judge the temperatures of the other intra-abdominal organs, which were in contact with the perfusate of IPHP. Judging from the difference of PAT and ST, ST was found useful to estimate the degree of insufficiency of the peripheral circulation. We calculated the correlation coefficients with PAT among the four points, and the order of the correlation coefficients was EAT > ET > FT > RT. EAT showed the highest correlation coefficient with PAT (r = 0.981), and we considered EAT can be a substitute for PAT during IPHP. ET also showed a high correlation with PAT (r = 0.959), but it showed an unusual rise in a case of hydrothorax with hot perfusate for IPHP. Therefore, ET cannot be used solely as a substitute for PAT, but ET can be used as a marker to find a complication of IPHP, hydrothorax.

Betel chewing increases the skin temperature: effects of atropine and propranolol.

Although betel chewing produces sweating, facial flush and a warm sensation of the body, objective documentation of the temperature effect has not been available. In this report, the skin temperature of the ear and forehead was recorded before and during betel chewing in healthy betel chewers. Betel chewing produced a mean temperature increase of 2 degrees C and 0.5 degree C, respectively, for the ear and forehead. This hyperthermic response was almost completely abolished by atropine and partially inhibited by propranolol. The present data suggest that both sympathetic and parasympathetic mechanisms are involved in the skin thermal response to betel chewing.

The role of EMG awareness in EMG biofeedback learning.

Underlying most research on biofeedback learning is a theoretical model of the processes involved. The current study tested a prediction from the Awareness Model: High initial EMG awareness should facilitate response control during EMG biofeedback training. Seventy-two undergraduates were assessed for forehead EMG awareness by asking them to produce target responses from 1.0 to 5.0 microV every 15 s for 16 trials. Based on this assessment, two groups (high and low awareness) were trained for 64 trials to produce these target levels with either EMG biofeedback, practice (no feedback), or noncontingent EMG feedback. A transfer task was identical to the initial assessment. During training, the biofeedback group deviated less from target than the practice and noncontingent groups. The biofeedback group was the only group to improve from initial EMG awareness activity. During transfer, only the low awareness biofeedback group remained below initial EMG awareness level. These findings can be interpreted in terms of the Two-Process Model.

The effect of stress imagery on arousal and its implications for biofeedback of the frontalis muscles.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the frontal muscles of the forehead during the imagination of an individualized stress situation reflect general arousal. Physiological arousal and subjective feelings of tension were measured during a stress and a relaxing imaginative situation, utilizing a counterbalanced design. Frontalis EMG during stress imagination was raised and was paralleled by more reported tension, elevated skin conductance, and trends toward increments in heart rate and respiration rate. The raised frontalis EMG can be seen as a consequence of the greater effort spent in the stress imaginative situation than in the relaxing one. This experiment supports an important assumption of the clinical application of frontalis EMG biofeedback to stress-related disorders. Other assumptions still remain to be examined.

Is frontalis activity a reliable indicator of the activity in other skeletal muscles?

Multichannel integrated action-potential recordings (called electromyometrograms of EMMGs) from 10 individuals with various functional symptoms and disorders were selected for statistical examination to obtain evidence bearing on the topic in question. Each EMMG recorded the action-potential levels from four regions simultaneously via four channels of integrating differential amplifiers. The subjects sat quietly, awake and alert, with eyes open and head erect. Electrodes were placed over antagonistic muscle groups in the following regions: (1) forehead, (2) jaw-throat, (3) right forearm, (4) left leg. Successive 1-minute action-potential levels from each of these regions were sued to calculate within-subject correlations (r) and predictabilities (r 2 and R2) among the different regions. Mean and median correlations (r) and predictabilities (r 2 and R 2) for each of the following pairs of regions were found to be weak: (1) forehead and jaw-throat, (2) forehead and forearm, (3) forehead and leg, (4) jaw-throat and forearm, (5) jaw-throat and leg, (6) forearm and leg. The findings support the statement that the frontalis or any of the other regions measured are poor indicators of the amount of activity elsewhere in the skeletal musculature of awake and alert individuals. When combined with basic principles of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, the findings also support the statement that there is probably no portion of the skeletal musculature that can be used to quantify the activity in other portions.

A comparison of skin temperature and EMG training for primary dysmenorrhea.

Eleven female volunteers completed a 6-month treatment program consisting of a 2-month baseline phase, 2 months of biofeedback training (X number of sessions = 12.9), and 2 months of follow-up data collection. Subjects were assigned to one of two treatment groups: skin temperature training or EMG training of the frontalis muscle. Self-report data were gathered by means of the Symptom Severity Scale. Results, which were analyzed according to a 2 X 3 (treatment X phase) split-plot factorial design, indicate a highly significant overall treatment effect (F = 19.32 p less than .001). There was no significant difference between treatments (F = .47) and no significant interaction effect (F = 1.74).