Abstract
The widespread implementation of advanced and complex systems requires predominantly operators’ cognitive functions and less importance of human manual control. On the other hand, most operators perform their cognitive functions below their peak cognitive capacity level due to fatigue, stress, and boredom. Thus, there is a need to improve their cognitive functions during work. The goal of this paper is to present a psychophysiology training approach derived from cardiovascular response named heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback. Description of resonant frequency biofeedback - a specific HRV training protocol - is discussed as well as its supported researches for the performance enhancement. HRV biofeedback training works by teaching people to recognize their involuntary HRV and to control patterns of this physiological response. The training is directed to increase HRV amplitude that promotes autonomic nervous system balance. This balance is associated with improved physiological functioning as well as psychological benefits. Most individuals can learn HRV biofeedback training easily which involves slowing the breathing rate (around six breaths/min) to each individual’s resonant frequency at which the amplitude of HRV is maximized. Maximal control over HRV can be obtained in most people after approximately four sessions of training. Recent studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of HRV biofeedback to the improvement of some cognitive functions in both simulated and real industrial operators.
Highlights
To address with global challenge, a great number of environments have been upgrading into the higher-tech, higher value-added and more sophisticated work system
As a measure of training progress, the percent of total heart rate variability (HRV) shifted to the low frequency (LF) range was assessed between sessions using Biofeedback Stress Management Kit developed by Institute of Molecular biology and Biophysics, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences
There was an increase in cognitive performance after training both in simulated and real operators
Summary
To address with global challenge, a great number of environments have been upgrading into the higher-tech, higher value-added and more sophisticated work system. The increase of such advanced and complex systems shifts the nature of the human operator’s task from an emphasis on perceptual motor skills or psychomotor activities to an emphasis on knowledge-based or cognitive activities. Pattyn, Neyt, Henderickx, and Soetens (2008) showed that the crucial determinant of cognitive performance is the ability to maintain sustained attention or vigilance on a given stimulation source or task. In addition to attention and vigilance, short-term memories (STM) can be very unstable. Most people have difficulty remembering even three items after 18 seconds and Marsh, Hicks, and Landau (1997) presented that STM can decay within 2 seconds
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