禪坐之心肺交互作用與解壓研究

Abstract

諸多報導顯示，1980 年以來壓力相關症候受害者遽增；因此，禪坐在二十餘年前 已成為最受重視並廣為採用之舒壓養生方法之一，大多數修練者都可以驗證禪坐之於 舒解壓力的效能。本研究主要目的即經由心肺交互現象來探索其內在機制。 學界對於人類心血管循環系統與呼吸系統相互間的影響，已研究長達數十年；之 間發現這兩個系統並非獨立運作。如RSA（呼吸對心率進行調頻作用）即為眾所周知 的心肺交互現象。RSA 陳述心率變異與呼吸同步的情形，即，吸氣時心率增加、吐氣 時心率下降，因此人類的肺部可進行高效能的空氣交換。除了調頻現象，同步特性和 非線性之心肺交互作用，也成為研究焦點。 禪坐中的調息已被證實其對於自律神經系統平衡有相當功效（由心率變異HRV 分 析）。本研究的目的在於探討當心肺交互作用發生在禪坐時的相位同步和非線性交互 作用。 同步觀測圖分析對相位同步進行量化，有助於兩系統間如何相互調節的機制；另 一方面，時相高階頻譜分析工具用來研究兩系統間之非線性交互作用。本研究將包括 至少30 位年齡相似的受測者，其中實驗組為15 位具有禪坐經驗者，控制組15 位受 測者均無禪坐經驗。

It was reported that more people had been suffering the stress-related syndromes since 1980’s. Chan meditation thus became one of the most important and widely adopted approaches for stress management and health enhancement some twenty-five years ago, The efficacy of Chan meditation in stress relief has been proved by most practitioners. This research is aimed to explore the inside mechanisms via the cardiorespiratory-interaction phenomenon. The interaction between human cardiac and respiratory systems has been widely studied for many decades. It has been found that these two systems do not act independently; instead, they are coupled by some mechanisms. One well-known phenomenon of cardiorespiratory interaction is the frequency modulation of heart rate by respiration, which is known as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). RSA portrays the heart rate variability in synchrony with respiration, that is, the heart rate increases during inspiration and decreases during expiration. With RSA, human pulmonary air exchange can be more efficient. In addition to modulation, other cardiorespiratory interaction such as synchronization has been observed, and the nature of interaction like nonlinear coupling was proposed in recent years. Breathing regulation in Chan meditation has been demonstrated to be an effective approach for ANS (autonomic nerve system) balance accessed by HRV (heart rate variation). The aim of this research is to investigate such cardiorespiratory interaction during Chan meditation by analyzing the phase synchronization and nonlinear coupling between the circulatory and respiratory systems. Synchrogram analysis quantifying the phase synchronization may help studying the mutually regulating behavior between two systems. On the other hand, to investigate the nonlinear coupling between two systems, we develop the quantitative scheme based on the time-phase bispectral analysis. In this study, at least 30 subjects to be investigated include 15 experimental subjects with Chan-meditation experience and 15 control subjects in the same age range, yet, without any meditation experience.