30th Annual Student Research Conference
Breathing Effort May Not Reduce Heart Rate Variability When Respiration Rate Is Controlled.
Nicholas W. Gravett
Dr. Fred Shaffer, Faculty Mentor
This experiment examined whether greater excursion decreases HRV when participants breathe at a constant rate. Subjects were 36 healthy undergraduates (16 men and 20 women) ages 18 to 26. A Thought Technology ProComp™ Infiniti system monitored ECG, respiration, skin conductance level, and hand temperature. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two treatment orders separated by a 3-min resting buffer period: normal excursion-high excursion or high excursion-normal excursion. For each 5-min condition, subjects sat upright with eyes open and followed a 6-bpm animated pacer without feedback. In the normal excursion (NE) condition, subjects were instructed to breathe effortlessly; in the high-excursion (HE) condition, subjects were instructed to allow their abdomen to deeply expand and contract. Excursion did not affect skin conductance or temperature. HR Max – HR Min was greater in the HE condition and increased excursion did not adversely affect HRV frequency domain, time domain, or nonlinear HRV indices.
Keywords: heart rate variability, respiration
Topic(s):Psychology
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: 13-
Location: GEO - SUB
Time: