Transfer of Heart Rate Feedback Training to Reduce Heart Rate Response to Laboratory Tasks

Abstract

To examine whether transfer of heart rate (HR) feedback training to tasks not used during training could be improved by using multiple tasks during training, a modified multiple baseline across tasks, single subject design study was conducted using six high HR-reactive young adults. Participants received HR feedback training during the presentation of a videogame, and transfer of training was assessed to a mental arithmetic challenge and handgrip task. Transfer of training was next assessed following training with the mental arithmetic challenge and handgrip task. HR responses to each training task with no HR feedback were assessed during a pre-treatment session, an immediate post-training period following training on each task, a short delay (1-2 days) post-training session, and a long delay (1-2 weeks) post-training session. HR response to a novel speech task was assessed at pre-treatment and during short delay and long delay post-training sessions. Results revealed that participants reduced HR during training and generally maintained this reduction in HR during the immediate post-training assessment when HR feedback was not present. Participants were not able to reduce HR responses to tasks during short delay and long delay post-training sessions, and they were unable to transfer HR reduction skills to the speech task. Transfer of HR feedback training to new tasks was limited in nature and efforts to train across multiple stressors did not appear to improve transfer of training.

Biofeedback for Everyday Stress Management: A Systematic Review

“…Heart rate data alone are insufficient to indicate stress. HR biofeedback is typically used for training users to reduce heart rate response/reactivity to acute stresses and to improve cardiac control during a stressful task, such as performing calculations using computers (Larkin et al, 1992;Yokoyama et al, 2002;Goodie and Larkin, 2006), or viewing negative pictures (Peira et al, 2014).…”

“…The biofeedback data are displayed on the screen of a personal computer (n = 24) or a mobile/portable device (n = 15). The ambient medium allows the users to receive biofeedback information through the surroundings in a physical Larkin et al, 1992;Goodie and Larkin, 2006;McCraty et al, 2009;Strunk et al, 2009;Cutshall et al, 2011;Henriques et al, 2011;Morarend et al, 2011;Edvardsson et al, 2012;Moraveji et al, 2012;Paul and Garg, 2012;Sanchez et al, 2012;Sutarto et al, 2012;Wells et al, 2012;Wu et al, 2012Wu et al, , 2015Prinsloo et al, 2013;Peira et al, 2014;Whited et al, 2014;Lewis et al, 2015;Pusenjak et al, 2015;Sarabia-Cobo, 2015;Meier and Welch, 2016;Munafò et al, 2016Animations Feijs et al, 2013Al Osman et al, 2016 Visual scene Bouchard et al, 2012;De Jonckheere et al, 2014;Gaggioli et al, 2014;Dillon et al, 2016;van Rooij et al, 2016 Virtual character Chittaro and Sioni, 2014;Arroyo-Palacios and Slater, 2016 Modified game Parnandi et al, 2013;Kotozaki et al, 2014 Ambient light Snyder et al, 2015 Auditory Musical expression Yokoyama et al, 2002;Morarend et al, 2011;Vidyarthi and Riecke, 2013;...…”

“…Besides assisting with relaxation training, biofeedback techniques are also used to improve users' resilience to acute stress as well as, negative emotional and mental stimuli. Typically, this type of biofeedback training is performed during or just after a simulated stressful experience, such as a stressful work task (e.g., Yokoyama et al, 2002;Al Osman et al, 2016), a mentally challenging task (e.g., Prinsloo et al, 2013), a negative multimedia stimulus (Goodie and Larkin, 2006;Lewis et al, 2015), or a stressful game (Bouchard et al, 2012). Here, the biofeedback helps to improve users' awareness of their stress and find a better (mostly personalized) approach to reducing or moderating stress responses, e.g., via activities designed to increase arousal (heart rate and skin conductance responses).…”

“…Physiological measures HRV (n = 18) Yokoyama et al, 2002;McCraty et al, 2009;Lemaire et al, 2011;Adelbach et al, 2012;Paul and Garg, 2012;Sutarto et al, 2012;Wu et al, 2012Wu et al, , 2015Zhu et al, 2012;Parnandi et al, 2013;Prinsloo et al, 2013;Whited et al, 2014;Bhandari et al, 2015;Lee and Finkelstein, 2015;Lewis et al, 2015;Sarabia-Cobo, 2015;Al Osman et al, 2016;Meier and Welch, 2016 GSR (n = 8) Strunk et al, 2009;Adelbach et al, 2012;Feijs et al, 2013;Parnandi et al, 2013;Bhandari et al, 2015;Pusenjak et al, 2015;Arroyo-Palacios and Slater, 2016;Munafò et al, 2016 HR (n = 10) Larkin et al, 1992;Goodie and Larkin, 2006;Strunk et al, 2009;Lemaire et al, 2011;Bouchard et al, 2012;Prinsloo et al, 2013;Peira et al, 2014;Pusenjak et al, 2015;Arroyo-Palacios and Slater, 2016;Dillon et al, 2016 RSP (n = 9) Adelbach et al, 2012;Moraveji et al, 2012;Wu et al, 2012Wu et al, , 2015Prinsloo et al, 2013;…”

“…In addition to the physiological and psychological measures, a user's work/task performance can also be measured to assess the effects of biofeedback. Performance measurements can produce a score of a mentally challenging task including calculation work (Yokoyama et al, 2002), an arithmetic task (Larkin et al, 1992;Goodie and Larkin, 2006), and a modified Stroop colorword test (Parnandi et al, 2013). The measurements can be specialized by tasks, such as a psychomotor vigilance task (Lee and Finkelstein, 2015), lactation yield (Feijs et al, 2013), or some behavioral indices assessed by a medical instructor (Bouchard et al, 2012).…”