Heart Rate Feedback Research Articles

Stable T wave effects during improvement of heart rate control with biofeedback

Under audiovisual heart rate feedback the differences between attempts to accelerate and decelerate improved with practice. Simultaneously, T wave amplitude was reduced during acceleratory trials and remained constant during deceleratory trials. The T wave difference between acceleratory and deceleratory trials, unlike the heart rate differences, did not improve with trial repetition. It was concluded that the improvement in heart rate control was parasympathetically mediated.

Operant autonomic conditioning and rod-and-frame test performance.

Forty subjects were administered the portable rod-and-frame test (RFT) before and after operant autonomic conditioning training or control experiences. Ten subjects were assigned to each of four groups: a heart rate conditioning group; a false heart rate feedback group; a galvanic skin-response conditioning group; and a control group. Half of the subjects in the three experimental groups were informed of the response-reinforcement contingencies, and half were not informed. Informed subjects in the conditioning groups exhibited significantly lower portable RFT scores after conditioning. The results suggest that awareness of and control over autonomic functioning may be an important determinant of RFT performance.

Feedback of True Heart Rate During Exposure in Vivo

Ten women with specific chronic animal phobias were treated by graded exposure in vivo in two to four two-hour treatment sessions. Sessions were divided into four balanced half-hour epochs, half with visual feedback of true heart rate plus instructions to lower heart rate during approach to phobic stimulus. All patients improved significantly from the start to end of sessions on heart rate and on subjective anxiety. Feedback of heart rate plus instructions to lower it substantially reduced heart rate during epochs of feedback, compared to non-feedback epochs without instructions, but this effect did not generalize to skin conductance or to subjective anxiety in our short-term experiment.

Cross-modal effects of anticipatory bogus heart rate feedback in a negative emotional context.

The goal of the present investigation was to examine the effect of altering the perceptions of one's own physiological arousal on the elicitation of emotional behavior as defined by galvanic skin response, the nonspecific galvanic skin response, and verbal report measures of discomfort and unpleasantness. After an initial three-minute rest period, 48 subjects were exposed to 10 successive slides of people who died violently and continuous auditory tones. Results showed that the groups simultaneously exposed to the noxious slides and tones labeled as bogus heart rate feedback responded to the slides with increased electrodermal activity as compared to subjects exposed to the identical auditory feedback labeled as extraneous noise. An increase in bogus heart rate tended to elicit the most pronounced electrodermal responses. As expected, bogus heart rate conditions resulted in greater self reports of discomfort and slide unpleasantness as compared to the noise conditions. These findings were explained as a function of a cyclic cognitive-visceral link.

Heart rate feedback and the management of cardiac neurosis.

Heart rate feedback and the management of cardiac neurosis.

Effects of false heart rate feedback and sex-guilt upon attitudes toward sexual stimuli.

60 male Ss differing in sex-guilt were shown slides of semi-nude girls while they simultaneously heard pre-recorded sounds perceived to be either (a) their own heart rates, (b) extraneous sounds, or (c) extraneous sounds requiring close attention. The pre-recorded sounds increased in tempo to 3 slides, decreased to 3 slides and remained constant for 3 slides. Slides accompanied by an increase in perceived heart rate were rated more attractive than those accompanied by decrements and constancy in perceived heart rate, while changes in the rate of extraneous sounds had no effect upon subsequent attractiveness ratings. The effect for the sound patterns accompanying the slides of semi-nudes was present among high sex-guilt Ss but nor low sex-guilt Ss.

Differential effects of feedback and reinforcement in voluntary acceleration of human heart rate.

Six single-subject experiments were conducted: In each experiment, after a stable baseline was established, S was given 8 20-min. trials on which he was to accelerate heart rate with no feedback; next 24 additional 20-min. sessions were given on which S received binary feedback of heart rate; depending upon the experiment, reinforcement in the form of small amounts of money was also given or withdrawn in blocks of 8 sessions; finally generalization was measured in a concluding block of 8 sessions. A significant instruction effect was found in 4 experiments. Further significant increases in heart rate were found in all 6 experiments when feedback was introduced. Although it was established experimentally that contingent presentation of money functioned as a reinforcer for a motor (bar-press) response, its contingent presentation did not yield a consistent advantage in accelerating heart rate.

"Digital Computer Model of the Cardiovascular System and the Effects of Hypertensive Reculation"

This paper presents a digital computer model of the cardiovascular system (CVS) for an integrated open loop, as well as a closed loop, regulator and indicates the results of experimentation to regulate pressure.The results of the mathematical analysis and simulation verify many of the conclusions of previous investigators and develop some new ones related to hypertension.The model is basically developed from the work of Grodins (1-3), and Mc Adam (4), and extended and refined to result in one of the few all digital computer simulations utilizing Starling's law of filling (5).The paper proceeds to develop the CVS model from Starling's law of filling for an isolated ventricle and presents a set of equations which will be utilized to develop a digital computer simulation as well as perform an analytical analysis. A model for the simulation of heart-rate feedback is carefully developed, tested and incorporated in the CVS model in order to study feedback regulation.Both the parameters used for linear and nonlinear operation of the system are extended from experimental data on dogs to those of humans.Experimental results of the digita1 computer model for a human CVS indicate the effects of pressure regulation with and without feedback. The effect of various gain factors on the heartrate feedback equations is carefully analyzed.It is clearly shown that the CVS operating with-cut heart-rate feedtack either delayed or inhibited causes excessively high arterial pressure (hyertension). Utilizing the correct type and kind of regulation causes normal pressure regulation.In addition to the response of the systems pressure the effect of regulation on cardiac output and blood volume are also experimented with. It was observed that for constant cardiac output the blood volume increased and the heart-rate decreased as the arterial pressure increased.Experimentations with the human CVS model also revealed the non-linear relationship between arterial pressure, cardiac output and heart-rate in addition to the linear relationship between arterial pressure and peripheral resistance.The CVS model developed should prove to be a valuable aid to medical doctors and researchers in their attempt to find causes for the nations number one killer - hypertension.This work is a result of more extensive analysis and simulation and represents a condensation of' the more basic work. Some of the more inportant results are presented in this paper.

Boundary conditions of false heart-rate feedback effects on avoidance behavior: A resolution of discrepant results

Summary Forty-eight college females fearful of snakes were assigned to one of four conditions in a 2 × 2 design: exposure to a behavioral pretest vs. non-exposure, and false heart-rate. feedback during snake slide presentation vs. non-feedback. As predicted, posttest approach differences between the feedback and non-feedback groups, as originally demonstrated by Valins and Ray, occurred only under non-exposure conditions. Actual heart-rate reactivity to the slides was greater among exposed subjects than among non-exposed subjects.

The effects of instructional suggestion and physiological cues on analogue fear

Two studies on the interaction of suggestion and physiological cues are reported. In Study I, female college students (20 fearful and 20 unafraid of snakes) were exposed to repeated approach tests with intervening suggestion of improvement. After the first test, subjects were categorized into four subject characteristic groups: strong vs weak actual pulse rate reactivity and strong vs weak perceived reactivity. Both subject characteristic variables were found to be related to approach and pulse rate improvement. In Study II, 72 college females fearful of snakes, similarly categorized into actual and perceived reactivity groups, were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: repeated approach tests with vs without intervening suggestions of improvement and false heart rate feedback increasing vs decreasing during posttest. Suggestion and feedback interacted with subject characteristics in determining approach changes, while pulse rate improvement was again related to subject characteristics.

False heart-rate feedback and reciprocal inhibition by aversion relief in the treatment of snake avoidance behavior

The purpose of this study was to examine physiological and behavioral data collected using cognitive desensitization technique of treating snake avoidance behavior ( Valins & Ray, 1967 ). The reciprocal inhibition by aversion-relief model was utilized to reinterpret the cognitive desensitization treatment paradigm. The roles of both false and veridical heart-rate feedback were also investigated. Forty subjects who were unable to pick up a snake on a specially designed test of snake intimacy were randomly assigned to one of three experimental treatment procedures and one control group. GSR and EKG responding were measured throughout the experimental treatment procedures. Immediately following the treatment session, subjects were again tested on the snake intimacy test. Subjective fear ratings were also obtained both before and after treatment. Support for the aversion-relief model was found in various aspects of the data. The results indicated that if the cognition, “That stimulus has not affected me internally,” is operating for the snake slides, as suggested by Valins and Ray, it is veridical in nature and based on actual reduced physiological responding. It was also found that false heart rate feedback facilitated the overall aversion-relief treatment process.

Behavioral and physiological effects of false heart rate feedback: a replication and extension.

ABSTRACTThree experiments were conducted to study the behavioral and physiological effects of false heart rate feedback. These experiments were based on a paradigm advanced by Valins (1966) who stressed that the mere belief that one's heart beat is changing, regardless of actual physiological changes, is sufficient to affect behavior. The three experiments involved (1) a replication of Valins' original study with a closer examination of actual physiological responses, (2) examination of the role which subject attention plays, and (3) a substitution of unpleasant stimuli for the pictures of nude females used in the earlier studies. It was concluded that what Valins ascribed to merely the belief that physiological actions were occurring may have, in fact, been due to actual physiological changes precipitated by a general attention factor.

Effects of false heart-rate feedback on avoidance behavior: An investigation of “Cognitive desensitization”

Valins and Ray (1967) report a procedure in which subjects, presented with bogus heart-rate recordings indicating an absence of fear arousal in the presence of the feared object (i.e., a snake), subsequently exhibited a reduction in behavioral avoidance of a snake. An attempt was made to replicate these findings employing a more conventional and stringent criterion of behavioral avoidance. Contrary to Valins and Ray, results showed no significant behavioral or attitudinal effect of the cognitive manipulation. A preliminary clinical application of this false feedback procedure was described.

Opportunity for information search and the effect of false heart-rate feedback.

The role of information search in the attribution of physiological states was investigated by manipulating the subject’s opportunity for information search following the presentation of false information about his heart-rate reactions to photographs of female nudes. Consistent with the self-persuasion hypothesis proposed by Valins, the rated attractiveness of the slides was not affected by the false heart-rate feedback for those subjects who were prevented from visually searching the slides. Those subjects who had ample opportunity to view the slides rated those slides accompanied by false information of a heart-rate change as more attractive than those slides which were not paired with a change in heart rate.

Triadic consistency and false heart-rate feedback.

Subjects viewed slides of the Rorschach cards while listening to heart sounds that were supposedly but not actually their own. For some of the subjects the heart rate increased when they were exposed to the five achromatic cards and for some subjects the heart rate increased when they were exposed to the five chromatic cards. In addition, some subjects were told that increased heart rate was a sign of mental health (positive condition), and some that the increased heart rate was a sign of mental abnormality (negative condition) Since the heart-rate increase (behavior) and Rorschach cards associated with the increase (attitude object) are connected by a positive causal relation, triadic theory predicts that the sign of the heart-rate increase should generalize to the associated cards (i e, be positive in the positive condition and negative in the negative condition) An analysis of variance revealed such an overall significant effect Closer examination of the data, however, revealed that the triadic effects were not unambiguously occurring when the increased heart rate was associated with achromatic cards It was suggested that in this condition the unique characteristics of the cards facilitated the generation of complicating anxiety. Supportive data for this interpretation were offered

Changes in heart rate as a function of an unconditional stimulus presented under varying conditions of certainty

It was hypothesized that the degree of certainty about the time when a threatening event is to occur can affect heart rate in human Ss. Subjective certainty about an electric shock was varied in 54 Ss in a classical trace conditioning paradigm. Auditory cue inputs, internally (feedback) or externally (metronome) generated, were supplied to Ss. The findings were that heart-rate feedback combined with constant interstimulus intervals to shock showed the most “adaptive” change in heart-rate responses, while metronome and random shock intervals had a disruptive influence.

Cognitive effects of false heart-rate feedback.

This experiment was concerned with some of the cognitive effects of internal events. The objective was to ascertain whether the labeling of emotional stimuli would be affected by information concerning internal reactions. Ss viewed 10 slides of seminude females while hearing sounds that were allegedly their beats. 1 group of Ss heard their heart rates increase markedly to 5 of the slides and not change to the other 5; a 2nd group of Ss heard a marked decrease in the bogus rate to S of the slides and no change to the other S. In comparison with the slides to which Ss did not hear a change in the bogus rate, the slides to which they heard a marked change, whether increased or decreased, were (a) rated significantly more attractive during the experiment proper and during a disguised interview conducted 4-5 wk. later, and (b) chosen significantly more as remuneration for experimental participation. Although there is considerable evidence that emotional states are accompanied by physiological changes (Duffy, 1962; Woodworth & Schlosberg, 1962), until recently there was little indication that these internal events facilitate the development of emotional behavior. Several experiments have now shown that emotional behavior is affected by the experimental manipulation of sympathetic activity. Emotional behavior is more readily learned when the sympathetic nervous system is intact than when it is surgically enervated (Wynne & Solomon, 1955), and more readily manifested during epinephrine-induced states of sympathetic activation than during states of relative inactivation (Latane & Schachter, 1962; Schachter & Singer, 1962; Schachter & Wheeler, 1962; Singer, 1963). In an attempt to account for the influence of autonomic arousal on emotional behavior, Schachter (1964) has emphasized the importance of the cognitive effects of internal events. Within his cognitive-physiological theory of emotion, physiological changes are considered to function as stimuli or cues and are represented cognitively as feelings or sensations. These feelings, in turn, arouse further cognitive activity in the form of attempts to identify the situation that precipi1 This research was conducted at Duke University while the author was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow in the Research Training Program in Sciences Related to the Central Nervous System,