The Mathematical Characterization of the Complexity Matching during a Healing Circle Meditation.

The aim of the study is to evaluate the complexity matching between the HRVs of the group of Healers and the Healee during the various stages of the meditation protocol by employing a novel mathematical approach based on the H-rank algorithm. The complexity matching of heart rate variability is assessed before and during a heart-focused meditation in a close non-contact healing exercise. The experiment was conducted on a group of individuals (eight Healers and one Healee) throughout the various phases of the protocol over a ~75-minute period. The HRV signal for the cohort of individuals was recorded using high resolution HRV recorders with internal clocks for time synchronization. The Hankel transform (H-rank) approach was employed to reconstruct the real-world complex time series in order to measure the algebraic complexity of the heart rate variability and to assess the complexity matching between the reconstructed H-rank of the Healers and Healee during the different phases of the protocol. The integration of the embedding attractor technique was used to aid in the visualization of reconstructed H-rank in state space across the various phases. The findings demonstrate the changes in the degree of reconstructed H-rank (between the Healers and the Healee) during the heart-focused meditation healing phase by employing mathematically anticipated and validated algorithms. It is natural and thought-provoking to contemplate the mechanisms causing the complexity of the reconstructed H-rank to come closer; it can be explicitly stated that the purpose of the study is to communicate a clear idea that the H-rank algorithm is capable of registering subtle changes in the healing process, and that there was no intention of delving deep to uncover the mechanisms involved in the HRV matching. Therefore, the latter might be a distinct goal of future research.

Following the Rhythm of the Heart: HeartMath Institute's Path to HRV Biofeedback.

This paper outlines the early history and contributions our laboratory, along with our close advisors and collaborators, has made to the field of heart rate variability and heart rate variability coherence biofeedback. In addition to the many health and wellness benefits of HRV feedback for facilitating skill acquisition of self-regulation techniques for stress reduction and performance enhancement, its applications for increasing social coherence and physiological synchronization among groups is also discussed. Future research directions and applications are also suggested.

Emotion regulation after acquired brain injury: a study of heart rate variability, attentional control, and psychophysiology.

Primary objective: To examine the efficacy of heart rate variability biofeedback (HRV-BF) to treat emotional dysregulation in persons with acquired brain injury. Design: A secondary analysis of a quasi-experimental study which enrolled 13 individuals with severe chronic acquired brain injury participating in a community-based programme. Response-to-treatment was measured with two HRV resonance indices (low frequency activity [LF] and low frequency/high frequency ratio [LF/HF]). Main outcome: Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-informant report (emotional control subscale [EC]). Results: Results show significant correlation between LF and EC with higher LF activity associated with greater emotional control; the association between LF/HF pre-post-change score and EC is not statistically significant. A moderation model, however, demonstrates a significant influence of attention on the relation between LF/HF change and EC when attention level is high, with an increase in LF/HF activity associated with greater emotional control. Conclusions: HRV-BF is associated with large increases in HRV, and it appears to be useful for the treatment of emotional dysregulation in individuals with severe acquired brain injury. Attention training may enhance an individual's emotional control.

Heart Rate Variability and Cognitive Bias Feedback Interventions to Prevent Post-deployment PTSD: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Introduction: There is a long history of pre-deployment PTSD prevention efforts in the military and effective pre-deployment strategies to prevent post-deployment PTSD are still needed. Materials and Methods: This randomized controlled trial included three arms: heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB), cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I), and control. The hypothesis was that pre-deployment resilience training would result in lower post-deployment PTSD symptoms compared with control. Army National Guard soldiers (n = 342) were enrolled in the Warriors Achieving Resilience (WAR) study and analyzed. The outcome was PTSD symptom severity using the PTSD Checklist - Military version (PCL) measured at pre-deployment, 3- and 12-month post-deployment. Due to the repeated measures for each participant and cluster randomization at the company level, generalized linear mixed models were used for the analysis. This study was approved by the Army Human Research Protection Office, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System Institutional Review Board (IRB), and Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System IRB. Results: Overall, there was no significant intervention effect. However, there were significant intervention effects for subgroups of soldiers. For example, at 3-months post-deployment, the HRVB arm had significantly lower PCL scores than the control arm for soldiers with no previous combat zone exposure who were age 30 and older and for soldiers with previous combat zone exposure who were 45 and older (unadjusted effect size -0.97 and -1.03, respectively). A significant difference between the CBM-I and control arms was found for soldiers without previous combat zone exposure between ages 23 and 42 (unadjusted effect size -0.41). Similarly, at 12-months post-deployment, the HRVB arm had significantly lower PCL scores in older soldiers. Conclusion: Pre-deployment resilience training was acceptable and feasible and resulted in lower post-deployment PTSD symptom scores in subgroups of older soldiers compared with controls. Strengths of the study included cluster randomization at the company level, use of iPod device to deliver the resilience intervention throughout the deployment cycle, and minimal disruption of pre-deployment training by using self-paced resilience training. Weaknesses included self-report app use, study personnel not able to contact soldiers during deployment, and in general a low level of PTSD symptom severity throughout the study. In future studies, it would important for the study team and/or military personnel implementing the resilience training to be in frequent contact with participants to ensure proper use of the resilience training apps.

Exploring a 1-Minute Paced Deep-Breathing Measurement of Heart Rate Variability as Part of a Workers' Health Assessment.

Low heart rate variability (HRV) is related to health problems that are known reasons for sick-leave or early retirement. A 1-minute-protocol could allow large scale HRV measurement for screening of health problems and, potentially, sustained employability. Our objectives were to explore the association of HRV with measures of health. Cross-sectional design with 877 Dutch employees assessed during a Workers' Health Assessment. Personal and job characteristics, workability, psychological and mental problems, and lifestyle were measured with questionnaires. Biometry was measured (BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol). HRV was assessed with a 1-minute paced deep-breathing protocol and expressed as mean heart rate range (MHRR). A low MHRR indicates a higher health risk. Groups were classified age adjusted for HRV and compared. Spearman correlations between raw MHRR and the other measures were calculated. Significant univariable correlations (p < 0.05) were entered in a linear regression model to explore the multivariable association with MHRR. Age, years of employment, BMI and waist circumference differed significantly between HRV groups. Significant correlations were found between MHRR and age, workability, BMI, waist circumference, cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood-pressure and reported physical activity and alcohol consumption. In the multivariable analyses 21.1% of variance was explained: a low HRV correlates with aging, higher BMI and higher levels of reported physically activity. HRV was significantly associated with age, measures of obesity (BMI, waist circumference), and with reported physical activity, which provides a first glance of the utility of a 1-minute paced deep-breathing HRV protocol as part of a comprehensive preventive Workers' Health Assessment.

Problem solving, biofeedback, and severe brain injury: The moderating role of positive affect.

OBJECTIVE: To examine how positive affect influences ability to benefit from heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback treatment for individuals with severe brain injury. METHOD: Secondary data analysis of a nonrandomized experimental study that assessed the efficacy of biofeedback treatment for executive dysfunction in 13 individuals with chronic severe brain injury. RESULTS: Bivariate correlations between the predictors (levels of HRV and positive affect) and the outcome (change in Category Test errors) showed large effect sizes for higher levels of HRV coherence (r = -.495, p = .085) but not for positive affect (r = .069, p = .824). Although positive affect had a negligible effect on Category Test improvements by itself, positive affect played a moderating role that complemented the effect of HRV coherence. HRV coherence had a stronger effect on Category Test performance among those participants who demonstrated higher positive affect. A regression model was fit that included main effects for HRV coherence and positive affect, as well as their interaction. The interaction term was significant in a 1-tailed test (b = -3.902, SE = 1.914, p = .072). CONCLUSIONS: Participants who had the most positive emotions made the most gains in the HRV biofeedback training and performed better posttreatment on a test designed to measure problem-solving ability. Results indicate that positive affect can improve cognition, specifically mental flexibility and abstract thinking. Addressing factors that shape negative affect such as irrational beliefs and self-doubt is an important target for therapeutic intervention even in those with severe, chronic deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record

Correlation between Changes in Local Earth's Magnetic Field and Cases of Acute Myocardial Infarction.

The impact of changes in the geomagnetic field on the human body remains the subject of studies across the world, yet there is no consensus. Current studies are observing effects that require further work by researchers in order to find out the mechanisms that would allow a proper assessment of the correlations between the Earth's magnetic field variations and changes in human organisms. The main purpose of this study was to investigate possible correlations between the strength of time-varying aspects of the local Earth's magnetic field and incidence of myocardial infarctions. Study participants included 435 males and 268 females who had diagnosis of myocardial infarction during the period of 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016 and attended the Department of Cardiology at the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LUHS), Kauno klinikos. Time varying magnetic field data was collected at the magnetometer site located in Lithuania. After mathematical analysis, the results support the hypothesis that the Earth's magnetic field has a relationship between the number of acute myocardial infarction with ST segment elevation (STEMI) cases per week and the average weekly geomagnetic field strength in different frequency ranges. Correlations varied in different age groups as well as in males and females, which may indicate diverse organism sensitivity to the Earth's magnetic field.

Long-Term Study of Heart Rate Variability Responses to Changes in the Solar and Geomagnetic Environment.

This long-term study examined relationships between solar and magnetic factors and the time course and lags of autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses to changes in solar and geomagnetic activity. Heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded for 72 consecutive hours each week over a five-month period in 16 participants in order to examine ANS responses during normal background environmental periods. HRV measures were correlated with solar and geomagnetic variables using multivariate linear regression analysis with Bonferroni corrections for multiple comparisons after removing circadian influences from both datasets. Overall, the study confirms that daily ANS activity responds to changes in geomagnetic and solar activity during periods of normal undisturbed activity and it is initiated at different times after the changes in the various environmental factors and persist over varying time periods. Increase in solar wind intensity was correlated with increases in heart rate, which we interpret as a biological stress response. Increase in cosmic rays, solar radio flux, and Schumann resonance power was all associated with increased HRV and parasympathetic activity. The findings support the hypothesis that energetic environmental phenomena affect psychophysical processes that can affect people in different ways depending on their sensitivity, health status and capacity for self-regulation.

New Frontiers in Heart Rate Variability and Social Coherence Research: Techniques, Technologies, and Implications for Improving Group Dynamics and Outcomes.

Concepts embraced by the term coherence have been identified as central to fields such as quantum physics, physiology, and social science. There are different types of coherence, although the term always implies a harmonious relationship, correlations and connections between the various parts of a system. A specific measure derived from heart rate variability (HRV) provides a measure of physiological coherence. Another type of coherence, social coherence, relates to the harmonious alignment between couples or pairs, family units, small groups, or larger organizations in which a network of relationships exists among individuals who share common interests and objectives. A high degree of social coherence is reflected by stable and harmonious relationships, which allows for the efficient flow and utilization of energy and communication required for optimal collective cohesion and action. Social coherence requires that group members are attuned and are emotionally connected with each other, and that the group's emotional energy is organized and regulated by the group as a whole. A number of studies are reviewed which have explored various types of synchronization in infants, pairs and groups, indicating that feelings of cooperation, trust, compassion and increased prosocial behaviors depends largely on the establishment of a spontaneous synchronization of various physiological rhythms between individuals. This article discusses a new application using HRV monitoring in social coherence research and the importance of physiological synchronization in group developmental processes and dynamics. Building on the extensive body of research showing that providing feedback of HRV coherence level at the individual level can improve self-regulation, we suggest the following hypotheses: (1) providing feedback of individual and collective HRV coherence and the degree of heart rhythm synchronization will increase group coherence, and heart rhythm synchronization among group members. (2) Training in techniques to increase group coherence and heart rhythm synchronization will correlate with increased prosocial behaviors, such as kindness and cooperation among individuals, improved communication, and decreases in social discord and adversarial interactions. (3) Biomagnetic fields produced by the heart may be a primary mechanism in mediating HRV synchronization among group members. Data supporting each of the hypothesis is discussed.

Identification of a Group's Physiological Synchronization with Earth's Magnetic Field.

A new analysis technique for the evaluation of the degree of synchronization between the physiological state of a group of people and changes in the Earth's magnetic field based on their cardiac inter-beat intervals was developed and validated. The new analysis method was then used to identify clusters of similar synchronization patterns in a group of 20 individuals over a two-week period. The algorithm for the identification of slow wave dynamics for every person was constructed in order to determine meaningful interrelationships between the participants and the local magnetic field data. The results support the hypothesis that the slow wave rhythms in heart rate variability can synchronize with changes in local magnetic field data, and that the degree of synchronization is affected by the quality of interpersonal relationships.

Synchronization of Human Autonomic Nervous System Rhythms with Geomagnetic Activity in Human Subjects.

A coupling between geomagnetic activity and the human nervous system's function was identified by virtue of continuous monitoring of heart rate variability (HRV) and the time-varying geomagnetic field over a 31-day period in a group of 10 individuals who went about their normal day-to-day lives. A time series correlation analysis identified a response of the group's autonomic nervous systems to various dynamic changes in the solar, cosmic ray, and ambient magnetic field. Correlation coefficients and p values were calculated between the HRV variables and environmental measures during three distinct time periods of environmental activity. There were significant correlations between the group's HRV and solar wind speed, Kp, Ap, solar radio flux, cosmic ray counts, Schumann resonance power, and the total variations in the magnetic field. In addition, the time series data were time synchronized and normalized, after which all circadian rhythms were removed. It was found that the participants' HRV rhythms synchronized across the 31-day period at a period of approximately 2.5 days, even though all participants were in separate locations. Overall, this suggests that daily autonomic nervous system activity not only responds to changes in solar and geomagnetic activity, but is synchronized with the time-varying magnetic fields associated with geomagnetic field-line resonances and Schumann resonances.

Heart rate variability: Pre-deployment predictor of post-deployment PTSD symptoms.

Heart rate variability is a physiological measure associated with autonomic nervous system activity. This study hypothesized that lower pre-deployment HRV would be associated with higher post-deployment post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Three-hundred-forty-three Army National Guard soldiers enrolled in the Warriors Achieving Resilience (WAR) study were analyzed. The primary outcome was PTSD symptom severity using the PTSD Checklist - Military version (PCL) measured at baseline, 3- and 12-month post-deployment. Heart rate variability predictor variables included: high frequency power (HF) and standard deviation of the normal cardiac inter-beat interval (SDNN). Generalized linear mixed models revealed that the pre-deployment PCL*ln(HF) interaction term was significant (p<0.0001). Pre-deployment SDNN was not a significant predictor of post-deployment PCL. Covariates included age, pre-deployment PCL, race/ethnicity, marital status, tobacco use, childhood abuse, pre-deployment traumatic brain injury, and previous combat zone deployment. Pre-deployment heart rate variability predicts post-deployment PTSD symptoms in the context of higher pre-deployment PCL scores.

Biofield Physiology: A Framework for an Emerging Discipline.

Biofield physiology is proposed as an overarching descriptor for the electromagnetic, biophotonic, and other types of spatially-distributed fields that living systems generate and respond to as integral aspects of cellular, tissue, and whole organism self-regulation and organization. Medical physiology, cell biology, and biophysics provide the framework within which evidence for biofields, their proposed receptors, and functions is presented. As such, biofields can be viewed as affecting physiological regulatory systems in a manner that complements the more familiar molecular-based mechanisms. Examples of clinically relevant biofields are the electrical and magnetic fields generated by arrays of heart cells and neurons that are detected, respectively, as electrocardiograms (ECGs) or magnetocardiograms (MCGs) and electroencephalograms (EEGs) or magnetoencephalograms (MEGs). At a basic physiology level, electromagnetic activity of neural assemblies appears to modulate neuronal synchronization and circadian rhythmicity. Numerous nonneural electrical fields have been detected and analyzed, including those arising from patterns of resting membrane potentials that guide development and regeneration, and from slowly-varying transepithelial direct current fields that initiate cellular responses to tissue damage. Another biofield phenomenon is the coherent, ultraweak photon emissions (UPE), detected from cell cultures and from the body surface. A physiological role for biophotons is consistent with observations that fluctuations in UPE correlate with cerebral blood flow, cerebral energy metabolism, and EEG activity. Biofield receptors are reviewed in 3 categories: molecular-level receptors, charge flux sites, and endogenously generated electric or electromagnetic fields. In summary, sufficient evidence has accrued to consider biofield physiology as a viable scientific discipline. Directions for future research are proposed.

Heart Rate Variability: New Perspectives on Physiological Mechanisms, Assessment of Self-regulatory Capacity, and Health risk.

Heart rate variability, the change in the time intervals between adjacent heartbeats, is an emergent property of interdependent regulatory systems that operates on different time scales to adapt to environmental and psychological challenges. This article briefly reviews neural regulation of the heart and offers some new perspectives on mechanisms underlying the very low frequency rhythm of heart rate variability. Interpretation of heart rate variability rhythms in the context of health risk and physiological and psychological self-regulatory capacity assessment is discussed. The cardiovascular regulatory centers in the spinal cord and medulla integrate inputs from higher brain centers with afferent cardiovascular system inputs to adjust heart rate and blood pressure via sympathetic and parasympathetic efferent pathways. We also discuss the intrinsic cardiac nervous system and the heart-brain connection pathways, through which afferent information can influence activity in the subcortical, frontocortical, and motor cortex areas. In addition, the use of real-time HRV feedback to increase self-regulatory capacity is reviewed. We conclude that the heart's rhythms are characterized by both complexity and stability over longer time scales that reflect both physiological and psychological functional status of these internal self-regulatory systems.

La variabilidad de la frecuencia cardiaca, o modificación de los intervalos de tiempo entre los latidos consecutivos del corazón, es una propiedad emergente de los sistemas reguladores interdependientes que opera sobre diferentes escalas temporales para adaptarse a los retos ambientales y psicológicos. Este artículo revisa brevemente la regulación nerviosa del corazón y ofrece nuevas perspectivas sobre los mecanismos subyacentes al ritmo de muy baja frecuencia de la variabilidad de la frecuencia cardiaca. Se analiza la interpretación de los ritmos de la variabilidad de la frecuencia cardiaca en el contexto del riesgo para la salud y la valoración de la capacidad autorregulatoria fisiológica y psicológica. Los centros reguladores cardiovasculares de la médula espinal y del bulbo raquídeo integran entradas de centros cerebrales superiores con entradas de sistemas cardiovasculares aferentes para ajustar la frecuencia cardiaca y la tensión arterial por vías eferentes simpáticas y parasimpáticas. También hablamos sobre el sistema cardiaco nervioso intrínseco y las vías de conexión corazón-cerebro, a través de las cuales la información aferente puede influir sobre la actividad en las áreas subcortical, frontocortical y de la corteza motora. Además, se revisa el uso de retroalimentación de variabilidad de la frecuencia cardiaca a tiempo real para aumentar la capacidad autorreguladora. Concluimos que los ritmos cardiacos se caracterizan tanto por su complejidad como por su estabilidad sobre escalas temporales más largas que reflejan los estados funcionales tanto fisiológicos como psicológicos de estos sistemas internos autorreguladores.

A healthy heart is not a metronome: an integrative review of the heart's anatomy and heart rate variability.

Heart rate variability (HRV), the change in the time intervals between adjacent heartbeats, is an emergent property of interdependent regulatory systems that operate on different time scales to adapt to challenges and achieve optimal performance. This article briefly reviews neural regulation of the heart, and its basic anatomy, the cardiac cycle, and the sinoatrial and atrioventricular pacemakers. The cardiovascular regulation center in the medulla integrates sensory information and input from higher brain centers, and afferent cardiovascular system inputs to adjust heart rate and blood pressure via sympathetic and parasympathetic efferent pathways. This article reviews sympathetic and parasympathetic influences on the heart, and examines the interpretation of HRV and the association between reduced HRV, risk of disease and mortality, and the loss of regulatory capacity. This article also discusses the intrinsic cardiac nervous system and the heart-brain connection, through which afferent information can influence activity in the subcortical and frontocortical areas, and motor cortex. It also considers new perspectives on the putative underlying physiological mechanisms and properties of the ultra-low-frequency (ULF), very-low-frequency (VLF), low-frequency (LF), and high-frequency (HF) bands. Additionally, it reviews the most common time and frequency domain measurements as well as standardized data collection protocols. In its final section, this article integrates Porges' polyvagal theory, Thayer and colleagues' neurovisceral integration model, Lehrer et al.'s resonance frequency model, and the Institute of HeartMath's coherence model. The authors conclude that a coherent heart is not a metronome because its rhythms are characterized by both complexity and stability over longer time scales. Future research should expand understanding of how the heart and its intrinsic nervous system influence the brain.

Cardiac coherence, self-regulation, autonomic stability, and psychosocial well-being.

The ability to alter one's emotional responses is central to overall well-being and to effectively meeting the demands of life. One of the chief symptoms of events such as trauma, that overwhelm our capacities to successfully handle and adapt to them, is a shift in our internal baseline reference such that there ensues a repetitive activation of the traumatic event. This can result in high vigilance and over-sensitivity to environmental signals which are reflected in inappropriate emotional responses and autonomic nervous system dynamics. In this article we discuss the perspective that one's ability to self-regulate the quality of feeling and emotion of one's moment-to-moment experience is intimately tied to our physiology, and the reciprocal interactions among physiological, cognitive, and emotional systems. These interactions form the basis of information processing networks in which communication between systems occurs through the generation and transmission of rhythms and patterns of activity. Our discussion emphasizes the communication pathways between the heart and brain, as well as how these are related to cognitive and emotional function and self-regulatory capacity. We discuss the hypothesis that self-induced positive emotions increase the coherence in bodily processes, which is reflected in the pattern of the heart's rhythm. This shift in the heart rhythm in turn plays an important role in facilitating higher cognitive functions, creating emotional stability and facilitating states of calm. Over time, this establishes a new inner-baseline reference, a type of implicit memory that organizes perception, feelings, and behavior. Without establishing a new baseline reference, people are at risk of getting "stuck" in familiar, yet unhealthy emotional and behavioral patterns and living their lives through the automatic filters of past familiar or traumatic experience.

Electrophysiology of Intuition: Pre-stimulus Responses in Group and Individual Participants Using a Roulette Paradigm.

This study used electrophysiological measures of pre-stimulus effects that can occur prior to an unknown future event as an indicator of nonlocal intuition. Intuition in this context is considered as a process by which information normally outside the range of conscious awareness is detected at the cellular level by the heart, the brain, and the autonomic nervous system. This study extends the findings of previous experiments demonstrating that aspects of our physiology can respond to an emotionally engaging stimulus before it is actually experienced. The study evaluated a revised version of a roulette protocol, which included two pre-stimulus segments and included an analysis of the individual participant's data over eight separate trials in addition to a group-level analysis. We also assessed the potential effects of the moon phase on the pre-stimulus response outcomes and participant winning and amount won ratios. Data were collected under controlled laboratory conditions from 13 participants in 8 separate sessions using a modified version of a gambling paradigm protocol based on roulette. Half of the experimental sessions were conducted during the full moon phase and half during the new moon phase. Within each trial a total of three segments of physiological data were assessed. There were two separate pre-stimulus periods, pre-bet (4 sec) and postbet (12 sec), and a post-result period (6 sec). Participants were told that they were participating in a gambling experiment and were given an initial starting kitty and told they could keep any winnings over the course of 26 trials for each of the eight sessions. The physiological measures included the electrocardiogram (ECG), from which cardiac inter-beat-intervals (heart rate variability, HRV) were derived, and skin conductance. Before the participants participated in the first session, they completed the Cognitive Styles Index questionnaire, which assesses analytical vs intuitive styles. Overall, the results indicate that the revised protocol provides an effective objective measure for detecting a pre-stimulus response, which reflects a type of nonlocal intuition. We found significant differences between the win and loss responses in the aggregated physiological waveform data during both pre-stimulus segments, which provides important information about nonlocal intuition. On average, we detected a significant pre-stimulus response starting around 18 seconds prior to participants knowing the future outcome. Interestingly, there was not a strong overall relationship between the pre-stimulus responses and the amount of money the participants won or lost. We also found a significant difference in both pre-stimulus periods during the full moon phase but not in the new moon phase. The results suggest that the protocol is a reliable means of prompting physiological detection of pre-stimulus effects and can be used in future studies investigating aspects of nonlocal intuition. The findings also suggest that if participants had been able to become more attuned to their internal physiological responses, they would have performed much better on the betting choices they made.

Intuitive Intelligence, Self-regulation, and Lifting Consciousness.

This article explores the role of the heart in emotional experience, as well as how learning to shift the rhythms of the heart into a more coherent state makes it possible to establish a new inner baseline reference that allows access to our heart's intuitive capacities and deeper wisdom. The nature and types of intuition and the connection between intuition and compassionate action are discussed. It is suggested that increased effectiveness in self-regulatory capacity and the resultant reorganization of memories sustained in the neural architecture facilitates a stable and integrated experience of self in relationship to others and to the environment, otherwise known as consciousness. The implications of meeting the increasingly complex demands of life with greater love, compassion, and kindness, thereby lifting consciousness, are considered.

Utilizing heartbeat evoked potentials to identify cardiac regulation of vagal afferents during emotion and resonant breathing.

The importance of the bi-directional communication between the heart and brain has been known for over 100 years (Lane et al. in NeuroImage 44:213-222, 2009a, Psychosom Med 2:117-134, 2009b) and plays an important role in many of the prominent theories of psychophysiology today. Utilizing heartbeat evoked potentials (HEPs), we sought to determine whether heart rate variability (HRV) was related to the strength of the connection between the heart and brain. We also hypothesized that differing emotion states would result in differing amplitudes of HEPs. Participants were induced into emotional states with an autobiographical script of their happiest and saddest memory. HEPs were also recorded during diaphragmatic breathing at six breaths per minute. The evoked potentials during the emotional conditions, especially negative emotion were most attenuated. We believe that the signal from the heart to the brain may be filtered by central limbic structures affecting the level of the signal at the cortex. It also appears that HRV affects the strength of HEPs, especially during resonant breathing. Significant neurocardiac gender differences were also present across all conditions. The results of this study support the theory and speculation of many authors who believe vagal afferents play a role in brain function.