Multimodal neuroimaging data from a 5-week heart rate variability biofeedback randomized clinical trial

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Cardiology

Background:

• Emotion regulation is crucial for mental well-being.
• Heart Rate Variability (HRV) biofeedback is a potential intervention for improving emotional control.
• Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying HRV biofeedback is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of HRV biofeedback on emotion regulation and associated neural changes.
• To compare the efficacy of increasing versus decreasing heart rate oscillations.
• To explore the impact of HRV biofeedback on cognitive function, emotional well-being, and biomarkers.

Main Methods:

• Randomized clinical trial (HRV-ER) with younger and older adults.
• Multi-modal neuroimaging: structural MRI, resting-state and task-based fMRI, PCASL, 1H MRS.
• Continuous physiological monitoring (BP, pulse, respiration, end-tidal CO2).
• 5-week HRV biofeedback intervention (increase or decrease oscillations).
• Post-intervention assessments including cognitive tests, questionnaires, and plasma biomarker analysis (amyloid, tau).

Main Results:

• HRV biofeedback intervention led to significant changes in brain activity during emotion regulation tasks.
• Improvements in psychological measures of emotional well-being were observed.
• Exploratory analyses revealed potential alterations in neuroimaging and biomarker data.

Conclusions:

• HRV biofeedback shows promise as an intervention for enhancing emotion regulation.
• The study provides comprehensive neuroimaging and physiological data for further research.
• Publicly available data facilitates broader scientific investigation into HRV biofeedback mechanisms.