Journal
ASIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY
Volume 37, Issue -, Pages 20-25Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajp.2018.08.001
Keywords
OM chanting; Directional connectivity; fMRI; Meditation; Granger causality; Connectivity; Functional MRI
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Funding
- Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India [IFA12, LSBM 36]
- Innovative Young Biotechnologist award [BT/09/IYBA/2015/09]
- Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance Intermediate Clinical Fellowship [IA/CPHI/15/1/502026]
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OM chanting is an ancient technique of Indian meditation. OM chanting is associated with an experience of relaxation, changes in autonomic balance and deactivation of limbic brain regions. While functional localization is important, how brain regions interact with each other has been shown to underlie various brain functions. Therefore, in this study, we tested the hypothesis that there is reduced communication between deactivated regions during OM chanting. In order to do so, we employed multivariate autoregressive model (MVAR) based Granger causally to obtain directional connectivity between deactivated regions. fMRI scans of 12 right handed healthy volunteers (9 Men) from a previously published study was used in which participants performed OM chanting and a control condition in a block design. We found that outputs from insula, anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal cortices were significantly reduced in OM condition. Of interest is the reduction of outputs from these regions to limbic area amygdala. Modulation of brain regions involved in emotion processing and implicated in major depressive disorder (MDD) raises a potential possibility of OM chanting in the treatment of MDD.
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