DOES RELAXATION RESPONSE INHIBIT ACUTE STRESS?

该子项目是利用NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的许多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为中心，不一定是研究者所在机构。放松反应是指一组综合的生理变化，包括感知到的健康状态，脑电图（EEG）上的皮质激活减少，呼吸频率、血压、耗氧量和动脉血乳酸减少。这项由疾病控制和预防中心支持的研究探讨了放松反应如何抑制急性应激的生理变化。它测试了这样的假设：放松反应的分子介质将抵消与急性心理社会压力相关的生化和细胞变化。另一个目标是开发研究正常生理变化（如呼吸率和心率变化）对功能性磁共振图像影响的技术。假设是，在一个结构的子集，即髓质，下丘脑，杏仁核和喙前扣带皮层）的功能磁共振成像信号的变化将强烈相关的时间与呼吸功能的变化。另一个假设是，下丘脑的前下丘脑和外侧下丘脑的激活将与非线性心率和呼吸频率复杂性相关。在没有集中注意力或咒语的情况下，呼吸频率降低的影响只会激活放松反应激活的一部分区域。具体来说，预测是，边缘系统结构将不会被显着激活的这一任务在任何一组，但初级和次级运动皮层区域参与呼吸的意志控制将被激活。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The relaxation response designates a set of integrated physiologic changes that includes states of perceived well-being with reduced cortical activation on electroencephalograms (EEG) and reductions in respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen consumption and arterial blood lactate. This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supported study examines how the relaxation response inhibits the physiologic changes of acute stress. It tests the hypothesis that molecular mediators of the relaxation response will counteract the biochemical and cellular changes associated with acute psychosocial stress. An additional goal is to develop techniques for studying the effects of normal physiologic variation, such as changes in breathing rate and heart rate, on functional magnetic resonance images. The hypothesis is that in a subset of structures namely the medulla, hypothalamus, amygdala and rostral anterior cingulate cortex) the fMRI signal changes will strongly correlate temporally with changes in respiratory function. Another hypothesis is that activation in the insula and lateral hypothalamus will correlate with non-linear heart rate and respiration rate complexity. The effects of decreased respiratory rate without focused attention or mantra will activate only a subset of the regions activated by the relaxation response. Specifically, the prediction is that limbic structures will not be significantly activated by this task in either group, but that primary and secondary motor cortex regions involved in volitional control of breathing will be activated.