正念维持适应的机制：来自心率变异性自相似的初步证据
摘要
<p id="C2">Mindfulness has a considerable contribution to one’s physical and psychological health and his/her ability to adapt to an endlessly changing environment. Researchers have proposed different perspectives in studying the mechanism of mindfulness. However, few of the previous theoretical frameworks are based on the ongoing changes in a dynamic process. In this study, we investigate the relationship between trait mindfulness and the functions of the autonomic nervous system from a “self-similarity” perspective, which represents function- specific homeostasis. The concept of self-similarity refers to the ability of the human body to remain stable when experiencing changes from the internal and external environmental factors In the current study, four conditions (5 min resting, 3 min stressful, 5 min post-stress states, and 5.4 min mindfulness practice) were established to induce different physical and psychological status and to examine the self-similarity levels of the participants. The cold-pressor task, a safe and effective paradigm to induce pain in laboratory settings, was used in this study, which involved 56 undergraduate students. Heart rate variability (HRV) with its time- and frequency-domain measures (SDNN, RMSSD, TP, LF, and HF), which represent the functions of the autonomic nervous system, were employed to calculate self-similarity. A biofeedback system (emWave Pro Plus) with an ear sensor was used to record the HRV measures consecutively during the four phases <p id="C2-1">The three main results of the study are as follows. First, one-way repeated analyses of the variance test on HRV measures (SDNN, RMSSD, TP, LF, and HF) yielded significant effects for the conditions. The post hoc test indicated that the HRV under stressful condition was higher than those under conditions of resting state, post-stress state, and mindfulness practice. Hence, the whole function and balance of the autonomic nervous system, HRV measure, and coherence were significa