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. 2016 Feb 16:7:44.
doi: 10.3389/fphys.2016.00044. eCollection 2016.

Quantitative Assessment of Heart Rate Dynamics during Meditation: An ECG Based Study with Multi-Fractality and Visibility Graph

Anirban Bhaduri  1 , Dipak Ghosh  2
Affiliations

Quantitative Assessment of Heart Rate Dynamics during Meditation: An ECG Based Study with Multi-Fractality and Visibility Graph

Anirban Bhaduri et al. Front Physiol. .

Abstract

The cardiac dynamics during meditation is explored quantitatively with two chaos-based non-linear techniques viz. multi-fractal detrended fluctuation analysis and visibility network analysis techniques. The data used are the instantaneous heart rate (in beats/minute) of subjects performing Kundalini Yoga and Chi meditation from PhysioNet. The results show consistent differences between the quantitative parameters obtained by both the analysis techniques. This indicates an interesting phenomenon of change in the complexity of the cardiac dynamics during meditation supported with quantitative parameters. The results also produce a preliminary evidence that these techniques can be used as a measure of physiological impact on subjects performing meditation.

Keywords: ECG; MF-DFA; fractal; meditation; visibility graph.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Visibility Graph for time series X.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Heart Rate (BPM) time series before the Chi meditation.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Heart Rate (BPM) time series during Chi meditation, for the same subject.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Multi-fractal Spectrum during Chi meditation for the same subject.
Figure 5
Figure 5
P(k) vs. k for the Heart Rate (BPM) time series during Chi meditation.
Figure 6
Figure 6
log2P(k) vs. log2(1∕k) for the Heart Rate (BPM) time series during Chi meditation.
Figure 7
Figure 7
log2P(k) vs. log2(1∕k) for the Heart Rate (BPM) time series before Chi meditation.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Comparison of λpre and λmed calculated from the Heart Rate (BPM) series for the two meditation groups.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Comparison of MF-DFA Spectrum width calculated from the Heart Rate (BPM) series for the two meditation groups. We do not take cognizance for the Kundalini Yoga for MF-DFA as data size is too small.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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