Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
25 papers
This 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis pooled data from 223 studies to see if voluntary slow breathing (VSB) changes heart rate variability that reflects parasympathetic (vagal) control of the heart. The authors found that VSB increased vagally-mediated heart rate variability during breathing sessions, right after a single session, and after…
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is defined as more than 6 months of new, disabling physical and mental tiredness that is not relieved by rest. Up to about 85% of people with CFS report cognitive problems called “brain fog,” described as slow thinking, trouble focusing, confusion, forgetfulness, or a hazy mind.…
This clinical trial tested one session of deep and slow breathing (DSB) in 47 adults (22 older, 25 younger). After the single DSB session, high-frequency (HF) heart rate variability increased and self-reported state anxiety went down in both age groups. The rise in HF power was significantly larger in older…
This observational study tested Tibetan singing bowl sound meditation with 62 adults (mean age 49.7). After the session, people reported less tension, anger, fatigue, and depressed mood, and higher spiritual well-being. People who had never tried this meditation before showed a larger drop in tension than people who had experience.…
This review looked at studies in animals and people about how stress and the balance system (the vestibular system) affect each other. In many animal experiments, vestibular damage or stimulation turns on the body's stress system (the HPA axis) and short-term stress hormones help brain circuits adjust after vestibular loss.…
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, people took supplements containing the mushroom Hericium erinaceus for 12 weeks. The researchers gave three mental tests and found that only the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) showed a statistically significant improvement and less decline in the group taking the mushroom. The authors say compounds…
Spontaneous reports of vertigo or dizziness, as side-effect of certain drugs, received at our Pharmacovigilance Center, represented the 5% of all reports in 2012. Considering the high incidence of such an ADR for several drugs' classes, it can be speculated that under-reporting also affect vertigo and dizziness. Despite the fact…
The results suggested that CFS is associated with IFOF WM deficits which continue to deteriorate at an abnormal rate. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2016;44:1301-1311.
Binaural beats happen when two slightly different tones are played to each ear and you hear a third, pulsing tone at the difference between them. This review looked at 14 studies that measured brain activity after binaural-beat sounds. The results were mixed: some studies found brain activity that matched the…
This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study gave subanesthetic S‑ketamine to 24 healthy young people while recording fMRI and EEG at rest. After ketamine, fMRI showed less connectivity in the medial prefrontal cortex and more connectivity in left and right intraparietal (parietal) areas of the default mode network. EEG showed more…
This study tested whether people who are poor at hearing small pitch differences (congenital amusics) are worse at identifying emotions in speech. The researchers used normal speech, low-pass filtered speech (frequencies above ~500 Hz removed), and high-pass filtered speech (frequencies below ~4800 Hz removed). They found that worse pitch perception…
