The Appreciative Heart: The Psychophysiology of Positive Emotions and Optimal Functioning

This monograph is an overview of Institute of HeartMath's research on the physiological correlates of positive emotions and the science underlying two core HeartMath techniques which supports Heart-Based Living. The heart's connection with love and other positive emotions has survived throughout millennia and across many diverse cultures. New empirical research is providing scientific validation for this age-old association. This 21-page monograph offers a comprehensive understanding of the Institute of HeartMath's cutting-edge research exploring the heart's central role in emotional experience. Described in detail is physiological coherence, a distinct mode of physiological functioning, which is generated during sustained positive emotions and linked with beneficial health and performance-related outcomes. The monograph also provides steps and applications of two HeartMath techniques, Freeze-Frame(R) and Heart Lock-In(R), which engage the heart to help transform stress and produce sustained states of coherence. Data from outcome studies are presented, which suggest that these techniques facilitate a beneficial repatterning process at the mental, emotional and physiological levels

Respiratory Variability, Sighing, Anxiety, and Breathing Symptoms in Low- and High-Anxious Music Students Before and After Performing

Music performance anxiety (MPA) is a major problem for music students. It is largely unknown whether music students who experience high or low anxiety differ in their respiratory responses to performance situations and whether these co-vary with self-reported anxiety, tension, and breathing symptoms. Affective processes influence dynamic respiratory regulation in ways that are reflected in measures of respiratory variability and sighing. This study had two goals. First, we determined how measures of respiratory variability, sighing, self-reported anxiety, tension, and breathing symptoms vary as a function of the performance situation (practice vs. public performance), performance phase (pre-performance vs. post-performance), and the general MPA level of music students. Second, we analyzed to what extent self-reported anxiety, tension, and breathing symptoms co-vary with the respiratory responses. The participants were 65 university music students. We assessed their anxiety, tension, and breathing symptoms with Likert scales and recorded their respiration with the LifeShirt system during a practice performance and a public performance..

Engineering Music to Slow Breathing and Invite Relaxed Physiology

We engineered an interactive music system that influences a user's breathing rate to induce a relaxation response. This system generates ambient music containing periodic shifts in loudness that are determined by the user's own breathing patterns. We evaluated the efficacy of this music intervention for participants who were engaged in an attention-demanding task, and thus explicitly not focusing on their breathing or on listening to the music. We measured breathing patterns in addition to multiple peripheral and cortical indicators of physiological arousal while users experienced three different interaction designs: (1) a "Fixed Tempo" amplitude modulation rate at six beats per minute; (2) a "Personalized Tempo" modulation rate fixed at 75\% of each individual's breathing rate baseline, and (3) a "Personalized Envelope" design in which the amplitude modulation matches each individual's breathing pattern in real-time. Our results revealed that each interactive music design slowed down breathing rates, with the "Personalized Tempo" design having the largest effect, one that was more significant than the non-personalized design. The physiological arousal indicators (electrodermal activity, heart rate, and slow cortical potentials measured in EEG) showed concomitant reductions, suggesting that slowing users' breathing rates shifted them towards a more calmed state. These results suggest that interactive music incorporating biometric data may have greater effects on physiology than traditional recorded music.Comment: Accepted at 2019 8th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII

Aromatherapy for Preoperative Anxiety among Female Breast Surgery Patients: A Feasibility Study

Purpose: This dissertation addresses the use of complementary therapies in the perioperative period for acute situational anxiety. The aim of this dissertation was to explore the concept of relief from anxiety, to describe instruments used to measure preoperative anxiety, and to evaluate the feasibility of using aromatherapy patch for preoperative anxiety among female breast surgery patients. Design: This dissertation includes a principle-based concept analysis on relief from anxiety using complementary therapies in the perioperative period, an integrative review on instruments used to measure preoperative acute situational anxiety, and a feasibility study using the RE-AIM framework to evaluate the feasibility of providing lavender aromatherapy through a sustained-release patch and the use of a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) to measure anxiety levels during the preoperative period for female breast surgery patients. Conclusions: This dissertation provides a greater understanding of relief from anxiety using complementary therapies. This knowledge will allow perioperative providers to modify and specify the incorporation of complementary therapies to the plan of care for surgical patients experiencing acute situational anxiety. However, if providers wish to implement a plan of care for preoperative acute situational anxiety, a reliable and valid instrument should be used for measurement. A feasible and convenient option for measuring and treating preoperative anxiety are a VAS and a sustained-release lavender aromatherapy patch. Clinical Relevance: The ideas for this dissertation arose directly from my clinical practice as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist and my personal appreciation for the use of complementary therapies to relieve or reduce anxiety or stress. Numerous deleterious effects can occur from untreated anxiety in the perioperative period. Therefore, this dissertation explores options, beyond the traditional anxiety treatment, for patients and providers to use for perioperative anxiety. Aromatherapy was shown to be a feasible and potentially efficacious intervention to reduce preoperative anxiety. The next step is to conduct a randomized controlled trial to determine whether the aromatherapy patch demonstrates efficacy compared to a placebo patch on perceived reductions and biobehavioral decreases in anxiety (i.e., anxiety scales, heart rate variability, skin conductance, physiological biomarkers of stress) among patients in the preoperative period

A theoretical basis for understanding and researching the relationship between music, stress, and biofeedback

Music’s ability to influence emotional states and physical arousal has become an increasingly popular area of study. The wealth of literature around music and stress suggests a significant amount of interest in leveraging music to manage stress. However, as attention increases, the robustness of research becomes an increasing concern. This study investigates the current literature and proposes recommendations for the future studying of the psychological and physiological impacts of music as it relates to stress reduction. Existing literature was reviewed with a focus on the operationalization of key concepts of music and stress. The analysis showed considerable discrepancies in research design, operationalization of music, operationalization of the psychological aspects of stress, and operationalization of the physiological aspects of stress. The findings of this study have implications for future research design. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu)

The impact of mindfulness interventions on elite athletes' levels of recovery

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of two types of psychological interventions on the cognitive performances and recovery levels of elite athletes. In a world that has always lived by the “I work while you sleep” mentality (Bellezza et al., 2017), it is becoming increasingly important to investigate recovery and how to help athletes cope with the mental and physical demands that come with competition (Bahnert et al., 2013). Additionally, there has been very little research on the psychological side of recovery and what can be done to increase or aid an athlete’s recovery aside from physical rest. This project aimed to address these gaps in the literature by testing the effects of two mindfulness-based interventions on athletes’ perceived recovery and raw recovery scores gathered through recovery-focused technology. The intervention spanned over five weeks during Spring of 2022 and consisted of five professional baseball players. Each individual was randomly allocated to one of two groups: one participant was in the traditional mindfulness group while four participants were allocated to the mindfulness-based technology group. This unequal sample size was due to the exclusion of participants. The traditional mindfulness intervention included face to face meetings with a certified consultant while the mindfulness-based technology included using the Bodysound technology that is comprised of vibrations, brainwave training, and biofeedback. Both groups participated in one to three- 15 minute sessions per week for five weeks. Recovery, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability were measured via Whoop straps, while cognitive functioning was assessed via the NIH Toolbox. Participants attended an average of 1.6 sessions a week (SD = 0.71). The participant in the mindfulness group attended a total of 9 sessions, with an average of 1.8 sessions a week. The four participants in the Bodysound group attended an average of 1.6 sessions a week (SD = 0.57), with an average total of 7.8 sessions. Results suggest that engaging in mindfulness can increase cognitive functioning (pre: M = 68, SD = 0 vs post: M = 94, SD = 0) and recovery (pre: M =60, SD = 0 vs post: M = 95, SD = 0) while engaging in Bodysound can keep the two (cognitive functioning and recovery) relatively stable (CF pre: M = 60, SD = 31.36 vs post: M = 65.75, SD = 22.56; recovery pre: M = 65.25, SD = 9.78 vs post: M = 72.75, SD = 8.70). Results from this study can provide researchers and mental performance consultants with ideas regarding factors that might affect athletes’ needs when it comes to recovery, and how recovery might be enhanced through the application of specific sport psychology strategies. This pilot study creates the potential for the topic of psychological recovery in athletes to gain traction within the sport psychology world, possibly leading to the discovery of what strategies might be the most helpful for athletes to reach a maximized level of recoveryThesis (M.S.

Biometrics for Emotion Detection (BED): Exploring the combination of Speech and ECG

The paradigm Biometrics for Emotion Detection (BED) is introduced, which enables unobtrusive emotion recognition, taking into account varying environments. It uses the electrocardiogram (ECG) and speech, as a powerful but rarely used combination to unravel people’s emotions. BED was applied in two environments (i.e., office and home-like) in which 40 people watched 6 film scenes. It is shown that both heart rate variability (derived from the ECG) and, when people’s gender is taken into account, the standard deviation of the fundamental frequency of speech indicate people’s experienced emotions. As such, these measures validate each other. Moreover, it is found that people’s environment can indeed of influence experienced emotions. These results indicate that BED might become an important paradigm for unobtrusive emotion detection