[Influence of the practice of meditation on the cardiovascular response in the perception and cognitive reassessment emotiogenic stimulus].

This study examines the effects of meditation on cardiovascular activity during affective image processing. 22 meditators and 20 controls were shown affective images and were asked either to attend to the images or to down-regulate negative affect (for negative images) or to up-regulate positive affect (for positive images) while continuous cardiovascular activity were recorded. During natural viewing meditators manifested identical pre-stimulus total peripheral resistance (TPR) for all images, whereas controls exhibited greatest,pre-stimulus TPR for negative images and reduced it only in the emotion regulation condition. No between-group differences were revealed for natural viewing of positive images, whereas up-regulation was associated with greater cardiac activation in meditators. The results provide a contribution to the understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the beneficial influence of meditation on cardiovascular risk factors.