Mindfulness and Psychophysiology Flashcards
What part of the autonomic system does the SAM axis recruit?
The sympathetic nervous system
What is HRV and how does it relate to stress?
Heart Rate Variability: Is a vagal nerve-mediated marker of cardiac function
High HRV- Marker of parasympathetic nervous system. Reduced negative emotion and Low stress
Low HRV-High stress and Anxiety
What can HRV be used to study?
Stress, Chronic illness, Psychopathology
Recently: Attention regulation process
What did Luma et al find regarding differing mindfulness training?
HRV decreased in response to Love and kindness meditation and observing thoughts meditaion.
Azam et al found what regarding mindfulness on HRV?
Controls showed increased HRV but not Maladaptive perfectionists showing differing groups may react differently to interventions.
What did Braeken find with pregnant women?
Mindfulness group less anxiety and less HRV decline during pregnancy.
Infants less negative social behaviour
What were some of the issues of Bracken’s study?
Use of self reporting
What is sensory information filtering (Sensory Gaiting)?
Attenuation of neural responses to repeated stimuli
What 3 things should be noted about sensory gaiting?
It is a complex system
It is evaluated by repeatedly presenting a stimuli and measuring the degree of neural inhibition that occurs
Inhibition is just one possible process involved
What could mindfulness be seen as the opposite of according to Austin?
Habituation
What did Kasamatsu and Hirai note in their study?
That experienced Zen monks did not exhibit alpha blocking habituation
What happened when Becker and Shapiro tried to replicate Kasamatsu’s study?
No differences could be found.
However the studies were not exactly the same
What is the Acosutic Startle Reflex and how can we measure it and what can it tell us?
This is our physical reaction to loud noises, particularly concerned with the contractions in the orbiculares oculi muscle.
It is measured using electromyography attached to muscles (normally the face)
It can thus show if we habituate to a sound (usually by the 4th presentation)
How can we calculate the “intensity of Practice”?
Hours practiced- (Years practiced x 365)
What did Antonova find out regarding mindfulness and ASR?
Intensive practitioners showed less habituation
Moderate practice enhances habituation (practice effects on meditation may be non-linear)
What is Pre-Pulse Inhibition (PPI)?
PPI refers to the phenomena of a weak stimulus preceding a strong stimulus and lessening the startle reflex.
How can we measure PPI?
Via eye blinks when stimulus is presented auditory
Presenting prepulse one ear at a time (monaural) or both (binaural)
Binaural is more effective.
What did Kumari et al find regarding PPI and mindfulness?
PPI was no different between the groups.
However meditators were far more efficient at attentional tasks and reaction times
Why are we interested in habituation in mental health?
From a Buddhist background discontentment occurs due to habituation and a lack of appreciation of experiences.
Faster inhibition is related to searching for new highs and experiences and impulsivity.
Mindfulness allows us to experience things are fresh regardless of exposure leading to a more fulfilling life.
LaRowe et al.
What is the purpose of “smooth movement” and “Secadic movement”
These relate to movements of the eye that allow the image to stay centralised to the Fovea.
Smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM), can be measured by which two processes?
Compensatory catch up saccades
Intrusive anticipatory saccades
What did Kumari et al find with regards to SPEM?
Long term meditators were able to track moving images more efficiently than mediation naive individuals.
Less latency, less catch ups and less anticipatory saccades.
