Acute Effects of Slow-Paced Breathing on Measures of HRV in Hospitalized Patients With Bilateral COVID-19 Pneumonia: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Objective: Slow-paced breathing (SPB) with prolonged exhalation is assumed to stimulate vagal reflexes, which is represented by increased heart rate variability (HRV) values. However, most trials were conducted in healthy participants. We sought to evaluate the feasibility of SPB in hospitalized patients with confirmed bilateral COVID-19 pneumonia with major respiratory impairment and to investigate if SPB shows acute increasing effects on HRV measures in these severely ill patients with distinctly reduced vagal tone.

Sex differences in heart rate and heart rate variability responses to transcutaneous auricular vagal nerve stimulation in rats.

The identification of reliable biomarkers of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) responsiveness is a key challenge both at the clinical and preclinical level. Vagally-mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV), a surrogate measure of cardiac vagal efferent activity, is an ideal candidate. Yet, the effects of taVNS on vmHRV remain inconclusive, likely due to the high degree of heterogeneity in stimulation protocols (e.

Changes in Negative Emotions Across Five Weeks of HRV Biofeedback Intervention were Mediated by Changes in Resting Heart Rate Variability.

Resting heart rate variability (HRV) is typically higher in those with better emotional well-being. In the current study, we examined whether changes in resting HRV mediated changes in negative emotions during a 7-week clinical trial of HRV biofeedback. Younger and older adults were randomly assigned to one of two daily biofeedback practices for 5 weeks: (1) engage in slow-paced breathing to increase the amplitude of oscillations in heart rate at their breathing frequency (Osc+); or (2) engage in self-selected strategies to decrease heart rate oscillations (Osc-).