Effects of respiration on heart rate in an aversive classical conditioning situation.

Abstract

Several studies in the past have attempted to assess respiratory influences on the cardiac response in anticipation of shock. These studies have utilized either control of rate of respiration, sustained inhalation or exhalation, control of amplitude of respiration, or some combination of these. In the present study, Ss inhaled at the start of each trial, held their breath, exhaled during a 4-second tone, and then refrained from breathing in again until they received an electric shock. Thus, each trial corresponded to one breath cycle, cs-ucs interval and duration of breath holding were varied orthogonally. The three major findings of the study were: (1) a reliable, large magnitude (20 bpm) deceleration followed the inhalation at the start of each trial; (2) the acceleratory component of the cardiac response in anticipation of shock increased with cs-ucs pairings, and therefore could not be considered to be an orienting reflex;(3) the biphasio form of the cardiac response occurred over an 8-to 10-second period, regardless of cs-ucs interval, and appeared to be "locked" to the cs rather than to the DCS.

An Experimental Evaluation of Stress-Management Training for the Airborne Soldier

“…As mentioned before, the method was chosen to provide a direct link with laboratory experimentation (Laird and Fenz, 1971), with applied research (Fenz, 1975) and with a philosophical tradition (Herrigel, 1953) and thus to be perceived by the students as worthy of an honest try.…”

“…as well as self reports of anxiety. Other studies varying both the rate and the depth of respiration have demonstrated that large decreases in heart rate can be produced by deep, slow breathing (Laird and Fenz, 1971;Westcott and Huttenlocher, 1961).…”

“…Prior to their first jump individuals are hooked up to a biofeedback apparatus which monitors their heart rate They are then taught a pattern of slow, deep breathing which has been shown experimentally to reduce the heart rate as much as 30 beats per minute (Laird and Fenz, 1971;Westcott and Huttenlocher, 1961) and shown the effect it can have on their own heart rate Sometime later they are chuted up, taken up in the aircraft that they are to jump from later in the day, and given an in-the-air orientation to the actual conditions preceding a jump They do not actually jump at this time but are returned to the ground and allowed to disembark Later in the day, after their jump training is complete, they are then taken up once again to make the actual jump.…”

“…It was related to the group that this method (slightly modified by insertion of instruction about pressing down with the diaphragm) was used by Fenz in training his novice skydivers (Fenz,Note 2) and was also used by him (and a similar technique by others) in laboratory experiments in which heart rate was lowered by as much as 30 beats per minute (Laird & Fenz, 1971;Westcott & Huttenlocher, 1961).…”