ArticleResearch square2026
Directional Brain Connectivity Changes Induced by Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback: A Spectral Dynamic Causal Modeling Study.
Article in Research square, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) is a non-pharmacological intervention that trains individuals to breathe at their cardiovascular resonance frequency to enhance autonomic regulation. While HRVB improves cardiovascular function across clinical conditions, the directional neural pathways through which it modulates the central autonomic network (CAN) remain poorly understood. Using a publicly available open-access dataset, we conducted a secondary analysis of effective (directional) neural connectivity (EC) data from 32 healthy participants randomized to an 8-week HRVB intervention (n = 15) or a video game Control intervention (n = 17). Pre- and post-intervention resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were analyzed using spectral dynamic causal modeling (DCM) combined with parametric empirical Bayes to examine group differences in EC changes (ΔEC). We also evaluated whether connectivity changes correlated with changes in peripheral autonomic regulation, indexed by the standard deviation of normal-to-normal intervals (ΔSDNN). Compared with the Control group, HRVB showed strong evidence (posterior-probability = 1) of increased ΔEC from the medial prefrontal cortex to the anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral thalamus post-treatment, along with reduced ΔEC from the right hippocampus to the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). Furthermore, the regression coefficient linking hippocampus-to-VLPFC ΔEC with ΔSDNN was more (posterior-probability = 1) negative in the HRVB group than in Controls, indicating an intervention-dependent association between autonomic changes and effective connectivity. These findings indicate that HRVB alters directional fronto-limbic communication within the CAN, providing a circuit-level framework for understanding how resonance breathing modulates central autonomic control.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.