Lumma Anna-Lena, Kok Bethany E, Singer Tania
Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1A, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1A, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2015 Jul;97(1):38-45. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.04.017. Epub 2015 Apr 30.
Meditation is often associated with a relaxed state of the body. However, meditation can also be regarded as a type of mental task and training, associated with mental effort and physiological arousal. The cardiovascular effects of meditation may vary depending on the type of meditation, degree of mental effort, and amount of training. In the current study we assessed heart rate (HR), high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) and subjective ratings of effort and likeability during three types of meditation varying in their cognitive and attentional requirements, namely breathing meditation, loving-kindness meditation and observing-thoughts meditation. In the context of the ReSource project, a one-year longitudinal mental training study, participants practiced each meditation exercise on a daily basis for 3 months. As expected HR and effort were higher during loving-kindness meditation and observing-thoughts meditation compared to breathing meditation. With training over time HR and likeability increased, while HF-HRV and the subjective experience of effort decreased. The increase in HR and decrease in HF-HRV over training was higher for loving-kindness meditation and observing-thoughts meditation compared to breathing meditation. In contrast to implicit beliefs that meditation is always relaxing and associated with low arousal, the current results show that core meditations aiming at improving compassion and meta-cognitive skills require effort and are associated with physiological arousal compared to breathing meditation. Overall these findings can be useful in making more specific suggestions about which type of meditation is most adaptive for a given context and population.
冥想通常与身体的放松状态相关联。然而，冥想也可被视为一种心理任务和训练，与心理努力和生理唤醒有关。冥想对心血管系统的影响可能因冥想类型、心理努力程度和训练量的不同而有所差异。在本研究中，我们评估了三种在认知和注意力要求上有所不同的冥想过程中的心率（HR）、高频心率变异性（HF-HRV）以及努力程度和喜爱程度的主观评分，这三种冥想分别是呼吸冥想、慈爱冥想和观想法。在“资源项目”（一项为期一年的纵向心理训练研究）的背景下，参与者每天进行每种冥想练习，持续3个月。正如预期的那样，与呼吸冥想相比，慈爱冥想和观想法过程中的心率和努力程度更高。随着时间的推移，经过训练，心率和喜爱程度增加，而高频心率变异性和努力的主观体验则下降。与呼吸冥想相比，慈爱冥想和观想法在训练过程中心率的增加和高频心率变异性的下降更为明显。与冥想总是放松且与低唤醒相关的固有观念相反，目前的结果表明，与呼吸冥想相比，旨在提高同情心和元认知技能的核心冥想需要付出努力，并且与生理唤醒有关。总体而言，这些发现有助于针对特定情境和人群，就哪种冥想类型最具适应性提出更具体的建议。
