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Development and validation of humming process to increase heart rate variability & attention for college students

March 2021
International Journal of Indian Psychology

Authors:

Wellness Space

Aim: The objective of the study was to compare the impact of daily 10 min humming practice for one week on heart-brain coherence and attention on college students. Methodology: The evidence indicates that increased heart-brain coherence facilitates better emotional regulation and thereby increases attention. Simple humming practice was identified as a method to increase the heart-brain coherence. Each student was assigned randomly to an experimental group or control group. The experimental group (n= 15) performed 10-minutes humming daily for 7 days and the control group (n=15) was not asked to do anything. 10-minute humming was simplified Bhramari practice with total breath duration of 13 seconds based on short training. SDMT (Symbol Digit Modalities Test) and Heart Brain Coherence (using Emwave Pro Device by HeartMath Inc.) was conducted for both the groups on Day 1 and Day 7. Statistical analysis was conducted using student-t test to understand the results. Results: For the experimental group, there was statistically significant improvement in both “Coherence” and “SDMT” score on Day 7 (compared to Day 1, p<.05). For control group, the change in both parameters was not statistically significant. Conclusions: The results confirm that a short duration humming practice just for one week can increase the heart-brain coherence and Heart Rate Variability and has a significant impact on increasing attention amongst the college students. These findings can be leveraged to facilitate better concentration and potentially increased performance for college students.

1 Change in SDMT scores for both groups and their standard deviation

…

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Research Paper

The International Journal of Indian Psychology

ISSN 2348-5396 (Online) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (Print)

Volume 9, Issue 1, January- March, 2021

DIP: 18.01.028/20210901, DOI: 10.25215/0901.028

http://www.ijip.in

terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which

permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly

cited.

Development and validation of humming process to increase

heart rate variability & attention for college students

Irani Fariburz Z

*, Trivedi Gunjan Y

, Sinha Neeta

ABSTRACT

Aim: The objective of the study was to compare the impact of daily 10 min humming practice

for one week on heart-brain coherence and attention on college students. Methodology: The

evidence indicates that increased heart-brain coherence facilitates better emotional regulation

and thereby increases attention. Simple humming practice was identified as a method to

increase the heart-brain coherence. Each student was assigned randomly to an experimental

group or control group. The experimental group (n= 15) performed 10-minutes humming

daily for 7 days and the control group (n=15) was not asked to do anything. 10-minute

humming was simplified Bhramari practice with total breath duration of 13 seconds based on

short training. SDMT (Symbol Digit Modalities Test) and Heart Brain Coherence (using

Emwave Pro Device by HeartMath Inc.) was conducted for both the groups on Day 1 and

Day 7. Statistical analysis was conducted using student-t test to understand the results.

Results: For the experimental group, there was statistically significant improvement in both

“Coherence” and “SDMT” score on Day 7 (compared to Day 1, p<.05). For control group,

the change in both parameters was not statistically significant. Conclusions: The results

confirm that a short duration humming practice just for one week can increase the heart-brain

coherence and Heart Rate Variability and has a significant impact on increasing attention

amongst the college students. These findings can be leveraged to facilitate better

concentration and potentially increased performance for college students.

Keywords: Heart Rate Variability, HRV, Coherence, Humming, Attention, College Students

Key Messages: Simple humming increases Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Increased HRV

influences emotional regulation, reduces stress and increases attention and focus. This study

demonstrated that compared to the control group (which did not do any humming), the

experimental group (practiced 10 mins humming daily for 7 days) demonstrated increased

HRV and a statistical increase in SDMT scores.

B.A. (Hons) Psychology, School of Liberal Studies, PDPU, Gujarat, India

Cofounder, Society for Energy & Emotions, Wellness Space, Ahmedabad, India

Assistant Professor, School of Liberal Studies, PDPU, Gujarat, India

*Responding Author

Received: October 12, 2020; Revision Received: February 14, 2021; Accepted: March 03, 2021

Development and validation of humming process to increase heart rate variability & attention for

college students

ue to the increasing prevalence of cell phone usage and a general increase in screen

time, there is a marked decrease in the attention span, especially in young adults and

students

. It gets challenging for students to concentrate for longer durations of

time as there are consecutive lectures held for around an hour each and this leads to mental

exhaustion. Studies have shown that guided breathing, exercising help in increasing focus

and cognition through changes in beat-to-beat variations in the heart’s signals (Heart Rate

Variability-HRV)

iii

. The increase in HRV, influenced by coherence between heart and the

brain signals, balances the nervous system and increases emotional regulation

Studies have shown that increased HRV (using techniques such as slow breathing or HRV

biofeedback, chanting or meditation) is linked to better cognitive function (attention &

focus)

vii

. This study explored if regular practice of humming (slow breathing, i.e. slow

inhalation followed by longer exhalation while making a humming sound during exhalation)

could increase HRV and thereby increase the focus and attention. This was based on a small

experiment when we found that humming generates significant increase in heart’s

oscillations (HRV) and hence it was used as a technique to increase the HRV.

Heart Rate Variability

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) refers to the successive interval between two heart beats (also

known as NN or RR intervals). It is indicative of the sympathetic and parasympathetic

activity of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). High HRV is seen as a sign of lower

anxiety levels and better emotional regulation.

viii

Low HRV represents prevalence of higher

sympathetic ANS activity and high HRV indicates higher parasympathetic activity

Decreased HRV indicates an imbalance in the ANS which helps serve as a non-invasive

indicator of Cardio Metabolic Diseases (CMDs)

xii

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. Research shows that HRV is

significantly associated with the blood flow in the ventromedial prefrontal region of the

brain and the Amygdala.

xiv

In both young and old adults higher HRV was associated with

medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala connectivity

xvi

. The Prefrontal cortex is said to be

related to higher attention and emotion regulation

xvii

xviii

xix

As discussed earlier, previous studies have demonstrated that chanting and HRV

biofeedback increase attention

xxi

xxii

. However, the research in the area explored longer

duration sessions (beyond 15 minutes) and over several weeks. This study explored if a

short daily practice (10 minutes) for just one week can influence HRV and increase attention

and focus. Moreover, the process of making humming sound has broader implications and

does not involve any religious mantra and could have a much broader acceptance, especially

amongst the students.

METHODOLOGY

Participants and Design

The study was conducted at an educational institute and the undergraduate students were

recruited to participate in a week-long study. The participants were randomly divided into

two groups (experimental & control) without informing them about the other group. The

written consent was taken from them to be a part of this study. The students on any regular

medication or with chronic disease or recent surgery were excluded from the study. The

average age of the subjects in the experimental group was 20.33 and the standard deviation

was ±1.11, for the control group the average age was 20.47 and the standard deviation was

±0.99. There were 6 males and 9 females in the control group and 5 males and 10 females in

the experimental group.

Development and validation of humming process to increase heart rate variability & attention for

college students

Protocol

Figure 1.1: The study design of the experimental group

Figure 1.2 The study design of the control group

The protocol is shown in Figure 1.1 and 1.2. Each student was randomly assigned to either

the experimental group or the control group. For both the groups the experiment was done

only with one student at a time. The experiment was conducted in an air-conditioned room

where the temperature was maintained at 25 degree centigrade. The measurements were

conducted between 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM and the participant did not consume any tea or

coffee two hours before the measurements.

Measurement tools

The symbol-digit modalities test (SDMT) is a symbol substitution neuropsychological test

that examines a person’s attention, concentration and speed of processing.

xxiii

xxiv

SDMT test

Development and validation of humming process to increase heart rate variability & attention for

college students

scores do not vary much by age, education, gender and income groupings in healthy

individuals

xxv

. Hence, for this study, the written version of the SDMT test was used to

measure attention and focus (concentration, speed of processing) for college students. The

intermediate measure, HRV, was used based on the data provided by Emwave Pro

(Achievement and Coherence parameters). These two parameters based on the output of the

Emwave Pro and have been used in several studies as measures of HRV

xxvi

xxvii

xxviii

The experimental group (Humming)

This group practiced 10 mins humming daily for one week (n=15). As shown in figure 1.1

after measuring the subject’s attention, focus and HRV on Day 1, they were requested to

practice simple humming for 10 mins daily for one week. Every day they would practise the

humming for 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes in the night at the same time every

day. After one week, the attention, focus and HRV measurements were repeated. Attention

and focus was measured using Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) and HRV was

measured using two parameters from Emwave Pro device

xxix

(Achievement and Coherence).

Breathe android application

xxx

(made by Jatra, Inc) was used to ensure consistency for each

participant. Day 1 and Day 7 measurements for HRV were conducted while the students

perform a slow guided breathing exercise of 10 seconds long breath for 5 minutes followed

by 13 seconds long simple humming for 5 minutes with the help of the “Breathe” mobile

application. HRV was measured using Emwave Pro device (Heartmath, Inc) and Coherence

and Achievement parameters from the software were noted into an Excel

document

xxxi

.Students were asked to practise this simple humming for 5 minutes each in the

morning and evening for 7 days. On the last day they were again tested for attention and

focus using the SDMT and then they were again asked to perform the breathing exercise and

simple humming while their Heart Brain coherence was measured.

The control group

As shown in figure 1.2 the control group was not introduced to any humming practice and

were not aware of the activities performed by the experimental group. This group was also

tested for attention and focus using the SDMT and their Heart Brain Coherence and

Achievement was measured for 5-minute paced breathing of 10 seconds on the first and

seventh day. They were not asked to do any specific activity for those 7 days.

Data Analysis

Each group’s data was tabulated in an Excel document with scores of SDMT and Coherence

and Achievement numbers from Emwave Pro device. Summary of the data showing mean

and standard deviation for each group is shown in Table 1. Statistical analysis for Student’s

T-Test was conducted using Excel feature and p-value is also highlighted in the table.

The SDMT is a test in which the subject substitutes the digit corresponding to a symbol and

they are scored on the number of correct substitutions done in a minute. It measures

cognitive performance namely attention, focus, short term memory.

xxxii

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The change in

the SDMT scores was analysed and Student’s T-Test was used to check for validity of the

data.

RESULTS

The results confirmed a statistically significant improvement in SDMT Score in the

Experiment group (n=15) after daily humming practice of 10 minutes duration for one week

based on Student’s T-Test with a p-value of 0.00 (<0.05). However, for control group

Development and validation of humming process to increase heart rate variability & attention for

college students

(n=15) there no significant change in the SDMT score (p-value=0.4, >0.05). Table 1.1

captures the SDMT scores of both groups before and after the intervention.

Table 1.1 Change in SDMT scores for both groups and their standard deviation

Mean

SDMT Score

Before

After

Before

After

p-Value

Experiment

Group*

52.00

58.80

10.04

11.50

0.00

Control Group

57.73

57.40

8.76

8.25

0.40

For control group, the paced breathing achievement and coherence scores did not have any

statistically significant changes (p-value=0.33 and 0.24 respective). Therefore, it can be

concluded that the HRV for this group did not change significantly during the week and this

could have resulted in no change in their SDMT scores (Table 1.2). It is important to add

here that the experimental design ensured the control group did not do any humming or any

other paced breathing activity during the week since that could have increased their HRV

and influenced the SDMT score.

Table 1.2 Change in HRV parameters for the control group

Mean

Measure

Activity

Before

After

Before

After

p-Value

Control Group -

Achievement

Humming

Control Group -

Achievement

Paced

Breathing

190.67

181.27

76.53

67.24

0.33

Control Group -

Coherence

Humming

Control Group -

Coherence

Paced

Breathing

3.35

3.08

1.33

1.20

0.24

For experiment group, the achievement score increased for both the humming and paced

breathing activities in a statistically significant manner (p=0.04 and 0.05 respectively, Table

1.3). Coherence for humming (the activity they performed for one week) increased in a

statistically significant manner (p=0.04) for the experiment group, however the breathing

coherence score showed an increase but it was not statistically significant (p=0.11)

Table 1.3 Change in HRV parameters for the experimental group

Mean

Measure

Activity

Before

After

Before

After

p-Value

Experimental Group -

Achievement*

Humming

199.47

234.87

96.56

70.16

0.04

Experimental Group -

Achievement*

Paced

Breathing

145.71

178.50

94.10

107.89

0.05

Experimental Group -

Coherence

Paced

Breathing

2.72

3.18

1.53

1.83

0.11

Experimental Group -

Coherence*

Humming

3.47

4.09

1.67

1.25

0.04

Development and validation of humming process to increase heart rate variability & attention for

college students

The results indicate that the prescribed daily humming may have contributed to the increase

of humming scores for “Coherence” and “Achievement” for the experiment group. The

group also increased the “Achievement” score for breathing while the “Coherence” for

breathing did not increase in a statistically significant manner. This increase in coherence

may have contributed to increased cognition (attention) as demonstrated by the increase in

the SDMT scores.

DISCUSSION

The study has demonstrated that a short practice of 10 minutes daily for just one week could

increase the attention and focus in the experiment group as demonstrated by increase in the

SDMT score. This increase was clearly not observed in the control group. The increase in

attention and focus is consistent with earlier findings however, the unique insight from this

study is that a short duration practice for a week also has a positive impact on cognition. A

previous study

xxxiv

in this area used Gayatri Mantra Chanting (daily 10 minutes) for 5 days.

Another study

xxxv

used biofeedback training for basketball players which had them breathe

at their resonant frequency and showed improvement in HRV, response time, concentration

etc. They were asked to practise for 20 minutes daily for 10 days. Compared to that, this

study leveraged a simpler and more neutral method to increase HRV in a short time by

introducing the participants to humming.

The findings can be incorporated into a routine where students can pursue this technique

daily during college days to enhance their focus and attention. It does not require any

external help so there is no dependence on any external device or guidance after a simple

training is completed. The limitation is that this work requires self-discipline which may

prevent a broad-based usage unless the individual chooses to prioritize this over other work.

Future work in this could explore a larger sample size with different demographics (e.g.

senior citizens, corporate employees). Future work can involve studies that focus on

comparison between humming and breathing.

CONCLUSION

The results confirm that a short duration humming practice just for one week to increase the

heart-brain coherence has a significant impact on increasing the attention amongst the

college students. The increase in coherence and cognition did not happen in the control

group that did not pursue the humming practice. These findings can be leveraged to increase

concentration and potentially increased performance for college students. The future work

in this area should explore different demographics with a larger sample size and could also

compare humming and breathing as an intervention.

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Development and validation of humming process to increase heart rate variability & attention for

college students

Acknowledgement

The author appreciates all those who participated in the study and helped to facilitate the

research process.

Conflict of Interest

The author declared no conflict of interest.

How to cite this article: Irani F. Z., Trivedi G. Y. & Sinha N. (2021). Development and

validation of humming process to increase heart rate variability & attention for college students.

International Journal of Indian Psychology, 9(1), 243-251. DIP:18.01.028/20210901,

DOI:10.25215/0901.028

ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.

Heart Rate Variability, Cortisol and Attention Focus During Shamatha Quiescence Meditation

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Full-text available

Feb 2017

Cognitive and motor performance measures are commonly employed in multiple sclerosis (MS) research, particularly when the purpose is to determine the efficacy of treatment. The increasing focus of new therapies on slowing progression or reversing neurological disability makes the utilization of sensitive, reproducible, and valid measures essential. Processing speed is a basic elemental cognitive function that likely influences downstream processes such as memory. The Multiple Sclerosis Outcome Assessments Consortium (MSOAC) includes representatives from advocacy organizations, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency (EMA), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), academic institutions, and industry partners along with persons living with MS. Among the MSOAC goals is acceptance and qualification by regulators of performance outcomes that are highly reliable and valid, practical, cost-effective, and meaningful to persons with MS. A critical step for these neuroperformance metrics is elucidation of clinically relevant benchmarks, well-defined degrees of disability, and gradients of change that are deemed clinically meaningful. This topical review provides an overview of research on one particular cognitive measure, the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), recognized as being particularly sensitive to slowed processing of information that is commonly seen in MS. The research in MS clearly supports the reliability and validity of this test and recently has supported a responder definition of SDMT change approximating 4 points or 10% in magnitude.

A one-year follow-up study of the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) and the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: An appraisal of comparative longitudinal sensitivity

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2015
BMC NEUROL

Neuropsychological batteries are infrequently used to assess cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis because they are time-consuming and require trained personnel. The Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) is suggested to be a useful screening tool to measure cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis patients and is more valid and reliable over time than the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). The purpose of this study was to evaluate which of these tests was more sensitive to cognitive impairment at one-year follow-up. A total of 237 patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis and 57 healthy controls underwent a complete neuropsychological assessment. One year later, we assessed 196 patients using the Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Tests. We also administered other executive function and prospective memory tests, together with fatigue and depression questionnaires. A total of 33.8% of patients were classified as cognitively impaired. The SDMT and the PASAT 3 seconds test (PASAT3) had a sensitivity of 0.809 and 0.783, respectively, thereby classifying patients as cognitively impaired. Analysis of 196 patients one year later showed 31.6% had cognitive impairment compared with 27.6% at the first assessment. The sensitivity to detect cognitive impairment after one year was 0.824 for SDMT and 0.796 for PASAT3. When the predictors were removed from the comparative standard battery, SDMT still showed a slightly higher sensitivity. Both SDMT and PASAT3 correlated significantly with all tests, but SDMT showed higher correlation values. Furthermore, SDMT was completed by all subjects while PASAT3 was completed by 86.9% of patients and 94.7% of controls. SDMT is simpler to administer than PASAT3 and may be slightly more sensitive to MS cognitive impairment. It could thus be a suitable test to assess cognitive impairment routinely in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

A healthy heart is not a metronome: an integrative review of the heart's anatomy and heart rate variability

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2014

Heart rate variability (HRV), the change in the time intervals between adjacent heartbeats, is an emergent property of interdependent regulatory systems that operate on different time scales to adapt to challenges and achieve optimal performance. This article briefly reviews neural regulation of the heart, and its basic anatomy, the cardiac cycle, and the sinoatrial and atrioventricular pacemakers. The cardiovascular regulation center in the medulla integrates sensory information and input from higher brain centers, and afferent cardiovascular system inputs to adjust heart rate and blood pressure via sympathetic and parasympathetic efferent pathways. This article reviews sympathetic and parasympathetic influences on the heart, and examines the interpretation of HRV and the association between reduced HRV, risk of disease and mortality, and the loss of regulatory capacity. This article also discusses the intrinsic cardiac nervous system and the heart-brain connection, through which afferent information can influence activity in the subcortical and frontocortical areas, and motor cortex. It also considers new perspectives on the putative underlying physiological mechanisms and properties of the ultra-low-frequency (ULF), very-low-frequency (VLF), low-frequency (LF), and high-frequency (HF) bands. Additionally, it reviews the most common time and frequency domain measurements as well as standardized data collection protocols. In its final section, this article integrates Porges' polyvagal theory, Thayer and colleagues' neurovisceral integration model, Lehrer et al.'s resonance frequency model, and the Institute of HeartMath's coherence model. The authors conclude that a coherent heart is not a metronome because its rhythms are characterized by both complexity and stability over longer time scales. Future research should expand understanding of how the heart and its intrinsic nervous system influence the brain.

Anxiety Disorders are Associated with Reduced Heart Rate Variability: A Meta-Analysis

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2014

Background: Anxiety disorders increase risk of future cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality, even after controlling for confounds including smoking, lifestyle, and socioeconomic status, and irrespective of a history of medical disorders. While impaired vagal function, indicated by reductions in heart rate variability (HRV), may be one mechanism linking anxiety disorders to CVD, prior studies have reported inconsistent findings highlighting the need for meta-analysis. Method: Studies comparing resting-state HRV recordings in patients with an anxiety disorder as a primary diagnosis and healthy controls were considered for meta-analysis. Results: Meta-analyses were based on 36 articles, including 2086 patients with an anxiety disorder and 2294 controls. Overall, anxiety disorders were characterized by lower HRV [high frequency (HF): Hedges’ g = −0.29. 95% CI: −0.41 to −0.17, p < 0.001; time domain: Hedges’ g = −0.45, 95% CI: −0.57 to −0.33, p < 0.001] than controls. Panic disorder (n = 447), post-traumatic stress disorder (n = 192), generalized anxiety disorder (n = 68), and social anxiety disorder (n = 90), but not obsessive–compulsive disorder (n = 40), displayed reductions in HF HRV relative to controls (all ps < 0.001). Conclusion: Anxiety disorders are associated with reduced HRV, findings associated with a small-to-moderate effect size. Findings have important implications for future physical health and well-being of patients, highlighting a need for comprehensive cardiovascular risk reduction.

The Symbol-Digit Modalities Test in Mild Cognitive Impairment: Evidence from Parkinson’s Disease Patients

Article

Mar 2018

Background: The evaluation process of the performance of the symbol-digit modalities test (SDMT) has focused much on numerical scores paying only little attention to the qualitative aspects of performance. Incorporating the gaze analysis technique, we aimed to investigate the performance of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients on the written SDMT task. Methods: Twelve patients with PD and normal cognition (PD-N), 11 with PD and mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI), and 13 healthy participants (NC) controlled for age, sex and education were recruited. Results: PD-MCI participants achieved significantly lower scores than NC and PD-N participants. Eye-movement parameters, however, did not differ among the study groups, and were not correlated with task performance. Conclusions: Impaired performance on the SDMT by PD-MCI participants despite relatively preserved oculomotor performance indicates that lower SDMT scores are not due - even in part - to visuomotor impairments otherwise seen in PD patients.

How heart rate variability affects emotion regulation brain networks

Article

Feb 2018

Heart rate variability is associated with amygdala functional connectivity with MPFC across younger and older adults

Article

May 2016
NEUROIMAGE

The ability to regulate emotion is crucial to promote well-being. Evidence suggests that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and adjacent anterior cingulate (ACC) modulate amygdala activity during emotion regulation. Yet less is known about whether the amygdala–mPFC circuit is linked with regulation of the autonomic nervous system and whether the relationship differs across the adult lifespan. The current study tested the hypothesis that heart rate variability (HRV) reflects the strength of mPFC–amygdala interaction across younger and older adults. We recorded participants' heart rates at baseline and examined whether baseline HRV was associated with amygdala–mPFC functional connectivity during rest. We found that higher HRV was associated with stronger functional connectivity between the amygdala and the mPFC during rest across younger and older adults. In addition to this age-invariant pattern, there was an age-related change, such that greater HRV was linked with stronger functional connectivity between amygdala and ventrolateral PFC (vlPFC) in younger than in older adults. These results are in line with past evidence that vlPFC is involved in emotion regulation especially in younger adults. Taken together, our results support the neurovisceral integration model and suggest that higher heart rate variability is associated with neural mechanisms that support successful emotional regulation across the adult lifespan.

Resting state connectivity of the medial prefrontal cortex covaries with individual differences in high-frequency heart rate variability

Article

Nov 2015
PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY

Resting high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) relates to cardiac vagal control and predicts individual differences in health and longevity, but its functional neural correlates are not well defined. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) encompasses visceral control regions that are components of intrinsic networks of the brain, particularly the default mode network (DMN) and the salience network (SN). Might individual differences in resting HF-HRV covary with resting state neural activity in the DMN and SN, particularly within the mPFC? This question was addressed using fMRI data from an eyes-open, 5-min rest period during which echoplanar brain imaging yielded BOLD time series. Independent component analysis yielded functional connectivity estimates defining the DMN and SN. HF-HRV was measured in a rest period outside of the scanner. Midlife (52% female) adults were assessed in two studies (Study 1, N = 107; Study 2, N = 112). Neither overall DMN nor SN connectivity strength was related to HF-HRV. However, HF-HRV related to connectivity of one region within mPFC shared by the DMN and SN, namely, the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex, an area with connectivity to other regions involved in autonomic control. In sum, HF-HRV does not seem directly related to global resting state activity of intrinsic brain networks, but rather to more localized connectivity. A mPFC region was of particular interest as connectivity related to HF-HRV was shared by the DMN and SN. These findings may indicate a functional basis for the coordination of autonomic cardiac control with engagement and disengagement from the environment.

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