Assessing Respiratory, Cardiac and Neural Interactions During Rest and Breath-Focus in Novice and Expert Meditation Practitioners

Expert meditators show a shift from reactive to proactive control over the connection between brain and body compared to novices. During breath-focused meditation, both groups slowed their breathing, but experts had the lowest rates and higher parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) tone. Information-flow analysis showed that novices' heart and breathing signals more strongly influenced brain alpha activity, whereas experts showed stronger top-down control from the brain to breathing, especially in frontal brain regions. Experts also showed a reduced ratio between alpha brain waves and heart rate during meditation. These results suggest that meditation training changes how the brain and body interact, consistent with predictive processing theories of interoception.

Study at a glance

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Breath-focused meditation is recognized for its potential to enhance autonomic regulation and attentional control. However, most research focuses on the study of isolated physiological domains, limiting the understanding of how neural and cardiorespiratory systems interact dynamically to support self-regulatory processes. Methods EEG, ECG, and respiratory activity were recorded in 54 participants (27 expert meditators, 27 novices) during periods of rest and breath-focused meditation. Respiratory rate, heart rate, and heart rate variability changes were assessed, as well as directional information flow computed between alpha-band neural oscillations, cardiac, and respiratory signals using transfer entropy. Additionally, cross-frequency dynamics were studied as proposed by a recent theory of brain-body coupling. Results Both groups exhibited reduced respiratory rates during meditation, with experts showing the lowest rates. Parasympathetic tone, assessed while controlling for respiratory confounds, was higher in experts across conditions. Transfer entropy analyses revealed distinct patterns of neurovisceral integration: novices demonstrated stronger bottom-up cardiac and respiratory influences on posterior cortical alpha activity, whereas experts showed enhanced top-down alpha to respiration coupling, particularly at frontocentral midline and right prefrontal sites. Cross-frequency ratio analyses revealed a reduction of the 8:1 harmonic alpha: heart rate ratio during meditation compared to rest in experts. Conclusions This study advances the understanding of how meditation expertise shapes dynamic brain-body interactions, emphasizing the experience resulting shift from reactive to proactive interoceptive control aligned with predictive processing theories. By integrating measures across physiological systems and their bidirectional interplay, these findings further enrich theoretical accounts of embodied cognition and autonomic regulation, and inform the development of novel tools to understand and facilitate meditation practices, such as combined neuro-and biofeedback protocols.