A new study from the Emory University School of Medicine shows gentle vibrations placed on the chest during mindfulness meditation may help people with trauma-related symptoms better sense and reconnect with their bodies through changes in the brain. The findings, published May 16 in Neuropsychopharmacology, point to a low-cost, noninvasive approach that may strengthen brain pathways tied to body awareness.
The study found sternal vibration, or vibration applied near the breastbone, was linked with changes in white matter pathways involved in interoception. Interoception is the brain's ability to sense and interpret signals from inside the body, such as breathing, heartbeat, gastric movements, muscle tension or discomfort.
For many people who have experienced trauma, especially those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dissociation, those internal signals can feel hard to access or overwhelming. Some may feel disconnected from their bodies, emotions or surroundings. That disconnection can make it harder to regulate emotions and may interfere with therapy.
"There is a global need for interventions that produce rapid and lasting relief for psychiatric disorders," says Negar Fani, PhD, ABPP, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine, principal investigator (PI) and senior author of the study. "Many people who have experienced trauma, particularly people with PTSD, have difficulties with interoception. These findings show, for the first time, that sternal vibration can produce neuroplasticity in interoceptive brain pathways in people with PTSD and dissociation."
The research is supported by a $3.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. It was conducted in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh.
The study included 116 trauma-exposed adults with PTSD and elevated dissociation. Participants completed MRI scans before and after eight mindfulness meditation sessions. Some participants received sternal vibration during meditation, while others completed mindfulness sessions without vibration.
The vibration was delivered through a small transducer worn near the breastbone. Sessions lasted about 20 minutes. The vibration was delivered either in sync with the participant's exhalation or in steady pulses.
Those who received the vibration reported improvements in body awareness. MRI findings also showed increased neurite density, a measure related to the structure of axons and dendrites, in white matter pathways involved in sensory and body-related processing. These included the corticospinal tract and cerebral peduncle. The brain changes were also tied to improvements in self-reported interoception and other clinical changes.
The findings suggest that adding a physical vibration cue to mindfulness may help strengthen brain pathways involved in body awareness. Researchers say that matters because many trauma-focused treatments ask people to notice feelings, memories or body sensations that may be difficult to tolerate. A simple physical signal, such as vibration on the chest, may give people a more concrete way to focus on the body.
The new study builds on earlier work from the same research team, including an April 2026 study in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders on which Fani served as a PI, along with first author Timothy J. McDermott. That manuscript drew from the same parent study as the current paper and focused on whether adding vibration to breath-focused mindfulness could help regulate breathing in trauma-exposed adults with elevated dissociation. The new findings move the work a step further by linking sternal vibration to changes in white matter microstructure and body awareness, helping explain why the approach may be useful for people whose trauma symptoms make it difficult to connect with internal body signals.
"Many people with PTSD either cannot access front-line treatments, do not respond to them or find them difficult to tolerate," says Fani. "What is exciting about this approach is that it is low-cost, noninvasive and flexible. It gives us a new way to think about helping people engage with body-based signals that are often disrupted after trauma."
The current study is an interim analysis of an ongoing clinical trial. Researchers will continue to follow participants for six months after treatment to determine whether the brain and clinical changes are durable and evaluate longer-term effects on PTSD symptoms.
Fani says more research is needed before sternal vibration can be considered a standalone treatment for PTSD or dissociation. Future studies will examine how the approach affects symptoms over time and how it could be used alongside existing therapies.
The study was led by Fani, with co-first authors McDermott and Alexa Kondas, both of the Emory Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Additional Emory co-authors included Alfonsina Guelfo, Travis M. Fulton, Aziz Elbasheir, Maya C. Karkare, Timothy D. Ely and Robert T. Krafty, PhD, of Emory's Rollins School of Public Health.
This research was supported by the NIH grant R01AT011267.
