Heart rate dynamics in different levels of Zen meditation.
Caroline Peressutti, Juan M Martín-González, Juan M García-Manso, Denkô Mesa
International journal of cardiology November 5, 2010 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2009.06.058 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 19 |
| Population | Practitioners of Zen meditation (Zazen) with variable experience |
| Intervention | Zen meditation (Zazen) |
| Topics | Buddhism Meditation |
| Key findings | Shifts in respiratory sinus arrhythmia reflect different levels of practice among Zazen practitioners with variable experience. |
Abstract
The dynamic interactions among physiological rhythms imbedded in the heart rate signal can give valuable insights into autonomic modulation in conditions of reduced outward attention. Therefore, in this study we analyzed the heart rate variability (HRV) in different levels of practice in Zen meditation (Zazen). Nineteen subjects with variable experience took part in this study. In four special cases we collected both HRV and respiration data. The time series were analyzed in frequency domain and also using the Continuous Wavelet Transform, which detects changes in the time domain and in the frequency domain simultaneously. The shifts in the respiratory modulation of heart rate, or respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), reflect the different levels of practice among practitioners with variable experience in Zazen; in turn the modulation of the RSA may reflect changes in the breathing pattern as in the parasympathetic outflow related to the quality and focus of attention in each stage.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| AN ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC STUDY ON THE ZEN MEDITATION (ZAZEN) Zen priests and disciples of Zen sects of Buddhism | 1966 | Observational study | n = 48 |
| “Thinking about Not-Thinking”: Neural Correlates of Conceptual Processing during Zen Meditation Regular Zen practitioners and matched control subjects | 2008 | Observational cohort | |
| Individual Trait Anxiety Levels Characterizing the Properties of Zen Meditation Healthy adults who had not previously practiced any form of meditation | 2004 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Zen meditation, Length of Telomeres, and the Role of Experiential Avoidance and Compassion 20 Zen meditation experts and 20 healthy matched non-meditators | 2016 | Observational cohort | n = 40 |
| EEG dynamics of experienced Zen meditation practitioners probed by complexity index and spectral measure Experienced Zen meditation practitioners and matched controls | 2009 | Observational cohort | n = 46 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 15
- Mechanisms of Yogic Practices in Health, Aging, and Disease Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine A Journal of Translational and Personalized Medicine September 1, 2010
- Nonlinear analysis of heart rate variability signals in meditative state: a review and perspective BioMedical Engineering OnLine April 13, 2023
- Advanced and long-term meditation and the autonomic nervous system: A review and synthesis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews June 1, 2025
- Detection of Meditation-Induced HRV Dynamics Using Averaging Technique-Based Oversampled Feature Set and Machine Learning Classifiers IEEE Access 2023
- La Adherencia al Entrenamiento en Meditación Mindfulness con Registro en Papel y en Aplicación Móvil Clínica y Salud May 14, 2019
and 10 more in the library