Ongoing Research Projects
neoflo
This study investigates the effects of haptic belt guided slow paced breathing (SPB) on vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV). VmHRV is continuously recorded to analyze differences in autonomic regulation across different guided breathing conditions. Data analysis is conducted using appropriate statistical methods to determine the influence of haptic belt guidance on the effectiveness of the breathing technique. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the physiological mechanisms behind breath regulation under three different guided breathing conditions.
The Diving Response...
... and its' influence on the emotional impulse control, the cardiac-vagal and sympathetic activity
The Diving Response is a mechanism within all air-breathing animals and humans and gets activated when holding the breath while diving. It is characterised by a specific combination of responses within the respiratory, vascular and cardiac system.
This is the first time, that not only the diving response's influence on the cardiac-vagal and sympathetic activity is taken into account. But also it's influence on the emotional impulse control is systematically examined.
The Diving Response...
... and its' influence on the cardiac-vagal and sympathetic activity
The aim of this project is to fill the existing gap in the physiological explanatory model of the diving reflex. It is the first examination in context of the diving reflex, that focuses on both, the cardiac vagal AND the sympathetic activity. This research builds the basis for future investigation of the diving reflex as ...
… possible recovery strategy within performance sport
… Thermoregulation strategy
... or relaxing strategy
Fast paced breathing
Specifying the cardio-respiratory mechanisms of fast-paced breathing
Fast-paced breathing has been increasingly implemented in sports and daily life to purposefully increase psychophysiological activation. Little is however known about the mechanisms underlying this effect. This study investigates the phasic changes in cardiac vagal and sympathetic activity during and after fast-paced breathing at different frequencies. For this purpose, electrocardiography, impedance cardiography, and the respiration signal are continuously measured. The aim is to advance the theoretical foundation for the use of fast-paced breathing as an evidence-based psychophysiological intervention.
Influence of ...
... breathing induced activation on the information search and decision strategy
This study focuses on the phenomenon of biased information search under high psychophysiological activation. By implementing slow- and fast-paced breathing, we manipulate the activation level and test the effects on cognitive processes involved in a multi-attribute decision task. The interactions among information search, decision strategy, and physiological responses are analyzed in relation to cardiac vagal activity and peripheral sympathetic activity, collected via electrocardiography and skin conductance responses. The aim is to provide further insights into the activation-cognition relationship and extend the predictions of the arousal-biased competition theory.
This study is being conducted in cooperation with the Memory and Decision Processes Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Cue weighting & basketball pass decisions ...
... under high & low psychophysiological activation
Psychophysiological activation levels are known to influence motor-cognitive processes during sport performance, but the exact form of these influences is still not fully understood. This study examines how breathing-induced changes in psychophysiological activation influence the pass selection, execution, and timing in basketball. For this purpose, we developed a novel basketball-related decision task, which is presented to participants in a mixed reality environment via Apple Vision Pro. Taking a step towards more representative laboratory tasks, we seek to explore the interaction of motor-cognitive decision processes with phasic cardiac activity in a sports context.
Cycling to the (heart)beat
- how auditory cues shape pacing decisions
Endurance athletes attain performance benefits by strategically distributing speed, power, and energy to prevent excessive physical strain. Taking an embodied cognition approach, this study aims to identify the role of bodily cues, specifically the heartbeat signal, in pacing decisions. In a dynamic cycling task, the auditory heartbeat signal is either congruent or faster than the actual heart rate. We analyze the changes in perceived exertion and conscious pacing down decisions in response to the manipulated auditory heartbeat signal. The aim is to gain a deeper understanding of how bodily cues are used in pacing to inform future theoretical developments in this field.
Effects of slow- & fast-paced breathing...
... on the heartbeat-evoked potential
Within this experiment, the relationship between breathing (slow- and fast-paced breathing), the two branches of the autonomic system (sympathic and parasympathic nervous system) and the heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP) is investigated. The heartbeat-evoked potential is an event related potential which is related to heart activity and is considered as a marker of cortical elaboration of heart signals. Thus it is commonly measured using electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG).
Our aim with this experiment is to contribute to further clarifying the mechanisms behind heart-brain interactions, and how breathing might influence specific psychophysiological indexes connected to autonomic nervous system activity, cardiac activity and cortical cardiac processing.
HRV Test Battery
We are currently working on the development of a new HRV Test Battery. More information will follow soon ...