Controlled breathwork practices have emerged as potential tools for stress management and well-being. Here, we report a remote, randomized, controlled study (NCT05304000) of three different daily 5-min breathwork exercises compared with an equivalent period of mindfulness meditation over 1 month. The breathing conditions are (1) cyclic sighing, which emphasizes prolonged exhalations; (2) box breathing, which is equal duration of inhalations, breath retentions, and exhalations; and (3) cyclic hyperventilation with retention, with longer inhalations and shorter exhalations. The primary endpoints are improvement in mood and anxiety as well as reduced physiological arousal (respiratory rate, heart rate, and heart rate variability). Using a mixed-effects model, we show that breathwork, especially the exhale-focused cyclic sighing, produces greater improvement in mood (p < 0.05) and reduction in respiratory rate (p < 0.05) compared with mindfulness meditation. Daily 5-min cyclic sighing has promise as an effective stress management exercise.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895 | DOI Listing |
Background: Traditionally linked to essential physiological functions, the brainstem is now acknowledged for its role in cognition and dementia. Abnormal tau protein accumulation starts in the brainstem. Late life brainstem volume at baseline also predicts later Alzheimer's Disease conversion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine, PikeVille, KY, USA.
Background: Integrating humanoid robots, wearable sensors, and spatial technology into an intelligent dementia-friendly living space is crucial for tailoring personalized and supportive environments, thereby addressing the unique needs of individuals affected by dementia and maintaining quality of life.[1-10].
Methods: We programmed Pepper, a humanoid robot, for independent verbal communication to interact, tell jokes, and offer medications.
Alzheimers Dement
December 2024
Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine, PikeVille, KY, USA.
Background: Integrating humanoid robots, wearable sensors, and spatial technology into an intelligent dementia-friendly living space is crucial for tailoring personalized and supportive environments, thereby addressing the unique needs of individuals affected by dementia and maintaining quality of life.[1-10].
Methods: We programmed Pepper, a humanoid robot, for independent verbal communication to interact, tell jokes, and offer medications.
eNeuro
January 2025
Cognitive Psychology Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52 2333 AK, Leiden, Netherlands.
The brain attends to environmental rhythms by aligning the phase of internal oscillations. However, the factors underlying fluctuations in the strength of this phase entrainment remain largely unknown. In the present study we examined whether the strength of low-frequency EEG phase entrainment to rhythmic stimulus sequences varied with pupil size and posterior alpha-band power, thought to reflect arousal level and excitability of posterior cortical brain areas, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSensors (Basel)
December 2024
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.
The field of emotion recognition from physiological signals is a growing area of research with significant implications for both mental health monitoring and human-computer interaction. This study introduces a novel approach to detecting emotional states based on fractal analysis of electrodermal activity (EDA) signals. We employed detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), Hurst exponent estimation, and wavelet entropy calculation to extract fractal features from EDA signals obtained from the CASE dataset, which contains physiological recordings and continuous emotion annotations from 30 participants.
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