Background Heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback has beneficial influence on perceived stress and emotion regulation. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of an HRV-biofeedback intervention on resting functional brain connectivity in healthy subjects. Methods The 8-week HRV biofeedback training was carried out in five sessions per week using a mobile app. A control group played jump‘n’run games instead of the training. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was conducted before and after the intervention in both groups. To compute resting state functional connectivity (RSFC), we defined regions of interest in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and a total of 260 independent anatomical regions for network-based analysis. Additionally, we estimated co-variations of dynamic functional connectivity of the VMPFC and temporal changes of HRV during the resting state recording in all participants before the intervention. Results Temporal changes of HRV co-varied with dynamic changes of prefrontal connectivity, especially to the middle cingulate cortex, left anterior insula, right amygdala, supplementary motor area, dorsal and ventral lateral prefrontal regions. The biofeedback group showed a drop in heart rate by 5.5 beats/min and an increased HRV by 33% after the intervention. Functional connectivity of the VMPFC increased mainly to the right anterior insula, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex after biofeedback intervention when compared to changes in the control group. Network-based statistic showed that biofeedback had an influence on a broad functional network of brain regions. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that increased vagal modulation induced by HRV-biofeedback is accompanied by changes in functional brain connectivity during resting state.

中文翻译：

---

心率变异性生物反馈对心脏调节和功能性大脑连接的影响

背景技术心率变异性（HRV）生物反馈对感知的压力和情绪调节具有有益的影响。在这项研究中，我们旨在调查HRV生物反馈干预对健康受试者的静止功能性大脑连接性的影响。方法使用移动应用程序，每周进行五次，共进行为期8周的HRV生物反馈训练。对照组玩跳高跑游戏而不是训练。两组均在干预前后进行了功能磁共振成像。为了计算静止状态功能连接性（RSFC），我们在腹内侧前额叶皮层（VMPFC）中定义了感兴趣的区域以及总共260个独立的解剖区域，用于基于网络的分析。另外，我们估计了干预前所有参与者静息状态记录期间VMPFC的动态功能连通性和HRV的时间变化的协变量。结果HRV的时间变化与前额叶连接的动态变化有关，尤其是到中扣带回皮质，左前岛，右杏仁核，辅助运动区，背侧和腹侧前额叶区域。干预后，生物反馈组的心率下降了5.5次/分钟，HRV上升了33％。与对照组相比，经生物反馈干预后，VMPFC的功能连接主要增加到右前岛，扣带前背皮层和背外侧前额叶皮层。基于网络的统计数据表明，生物反馈对大脑区域的广泛功能网络有影响。结论我们的结果表明，HRV-生物反馈引起的迷走神经调节增加，并伴随着静止状态下功能性大脑连接的改变。