Univ. Lyon, UCBL-Lyon 1, Laboratoire Interuniversitaire de Biologie de La Motricité, EA 7424, F-69622, Villeurbanne, France.
Research on Healthcare Performance (RESHAPE), INSERM U1290, Lyon, France.
Behav Res Ther. 2021 May;140:103834. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2021.103834. Epub 2021 Mar 3.
Anticipating a stressful situation involves psychophysiological reactions before the occurrence of the overt stress event. The current challenge in the stress domain is to characterize anticipatory stress reactions and how to effectively modulate them. The present study aimed to characterize the anticipation period and evaluate the benefits of a heart-rate variability biofeedback (BFB) intervention designed to manage anticipatory stress. Healthy participants were exposed to an anticipation stress period (15 min) during which they either practised BFB (stress + bfb, n = 15) or watched a neutral video (stress + video, n = 14). Anticipatory stress was effectively induced by the Trier Social Anticipatory Stress (TSAS) protocol, specifically designed for this study. Control participants, without anticipation stress, practised BFB for an equivalent time (ctrl + bfb, n = 15). Subsequently, all participants performed a set of cognitive tasks assessing executive functions. Heart-rate variability (cardiac coherence, standard deviation of the R-R intervals, root mean square of successive difference measure) and the evolution of the perceived psychological state were measured during the anticipation period. Self-reported judgements of how the intervention influenced stress and performance were further assessed. The main result showed that BFB is a relevant proactive stress-coping method. Compared with the stress + video group, participants who practised BFB attained higher cardiac coherence scores. Post-intervention self-reported measures revealed that BFB contributed to reduce psychological stress and increase perceived levels of performance. Together, these findings provide practical guidelines for examining the stress anticipation period by means of the TSAS protocol.
预期紧张情况涉及到明显压力事件发生前的心理生理反应。当前压力领域的挑战是描述预期压力反应以及如何有效地调节这些反应。本研究旨在描述预期期，并评估旨在管理预期压力的心率变异性生物反馈（BFB）干预的益处。健康参与者在预期压力期（15 分钟）中暴露于 Trier 社会预期压力（TSAS）协议，该协议专门为此研究设计。参与者分为三组：有预期压力的参与者（15 人）进行 BFB 练习（应激+bfb），有预期压力的参与者（14 人）观看中性视频（应激+视频），无预期压力的参与者（15 人）进行 BFB 练习（Ctrl+bfb）。随后，所有参与者都进行了一系列认知任务，评估执行功能。在预期期间测量心率变异性（心脏连贯性、R-R 间隔标准差、连续差异测量的均方根）和感知心理状态的演变。进一步评估了自我报告的干预措施如何影响压力和表现的判断。主要结果表明，BFB 是一种相关的主动应对压力的方法。与应激+视频组相比，进行 BFB 练习的参与者的心脏连贯性评分更高。干预后的自我报告措施显示，BFB 有助于减轻心理压力并提高感知的表现水平。这些发现为通过 TSAS 协议检查预期压力期提供了实用的指导方针。
