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Introduction Anapanasati meditation is one of the techniques, practiced in the initial part of Vipassana in Theravada School of Buddhism. In this method, practitioners focus their entire attention on the incoming and outgoing breath. Study aims to observe effect of Anapanasati meditation and gender related differences on the electrophotonic imaging (EPI) parameters at physiological and psychophysiological level in long-term meditators and naive meditators. Methods The study consisted of 309 subjects: 199 long-term and 110 naive meditators. Subjects were divided into two groups, long-term meditators (LTM) practicing for 12 months or longer (mean months of practice 79.22 ± 49.10, daily 1.68 ± 1.02 h) and naive meditators (NM) practicing for the first time, for seven days daily for 2.30 h. A total 266 subjects were included in the analysis after excluding 43 outliers. Comparisons were between long-term meditators and naive meditators on EPI parameters: Activation Coefficient (AC, stress parameter), Integral Area (IA, general health parameter) and Integral Entropy (IE, disorderliness parameter). Result Comparison between groups yielded-less disorderliness (IE) at the psychophysiological level in NM group. The gender related results showed highly significant improvements in the health related parameter (IA) at the physiological and psychophysiological level in LTM and NM females compared to males. Conclusion The findings showed larger health related (IA) advantages in LTM and NM group at the physiological and psychophysiological level. Stress (AC) was LTM and NM females compared to males. Moreover, naive meditators also exhibited positive trends on parameters of EPI after seven days practice of meditation which was similar to LTM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Evaluation of elite athletes' psycho-physiological condition at various stages of preparation and in international competition. Design: Athletes were tested during training and participation in international competition using methods of galvanic skin response (GSR) and gas discharge visualization (GDV). Setting: Saint Petersburg Federal Research Institute of Physical Culture and Sport, Russia and Paralympic athletic training camp, Norway. Participants: Eighteen athletes from Russia's Skiing and Biathlon Paralympic Team. All athletes had some level of damage to their musculoskeletal system. Main outcome measures: Stress level (SL), energy potential (EP), and psycho-emotional tension (PET). Results: It was found that the higher the level of EP achieved by the athlete in the training period, the lower the SL in the competition time. The SL of an athlete recorded in the training period significantly correlates with the SL both before and at the time of competition. The PET and SL before the World Cup was negatively correlated to the results of skiing competitions. Conclusion: Evaluation of PET, EP, and SL through GSR and GDV offers a fast, highly precise, non-invasive method to assess an athlete's level of readiness during both training and at the time of competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this pilot study was to test autistic children, siblings and their parents using a biometric device based on the gas discharge visualization (GDV) technique in order to assess their psycho-emotional and physiological functional state based on the activity of the autonomic nervous system., Hypothesis: We hypothesize that the biometric assessment based on GDV will enable us: (1) to evaluate some specific features associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as well as to compare autistic children to their siblings and to controls; (2) to analyze the differences in individual values of parents of autistic children versus parents of normal children., Results: Out of total of 48 acupuncture points present on ten fingertips of both hands and associated to organs/organ systems, autistic children differed significantly from controls (p < 0.05) in 36 (images without filter) and 12 (images with filter), siblings differed significantly from controls (p < 0.05) in 12 (images without filter) and seven (images with filter), autistic children differed significantly (p < 0.05) from siblings in eight (images without filter) and one (images with filter), fathers of autistic children differed significantly (p < 0.05) from controls in 14 (images without filter) and three (images with filter) and mothers of autistic children differed significantly (p < 0.05) from controls in five (images without filter) and nine (images with filter) acupuncture points., Conclusions: All compared groups have shown significant difference on both psycho-emotional (images without filter) and physiological (images with filter) levels. However, the differences between autistic children and controls expressed on psycho-emotional level were the most significant as compared to the other groups. Therefore, the activity of the sympathetic autonomic nervous system is significantly altered in children with autism. The biometric method based on GDV is a promising step in autism research that may lead towards creating a disease profile and identify unique signature/biomarker for autism. Further work should involve more participants in order to augment our findings.