Department of Performance Psychology, Institute of Psychology, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Normandie Université, UFR STAPS, EA 4260 CESAMS, Caen, France.
Psychophysiology. 2022 Jan;59(1):e13952. doi: 10.1111/psyp.13952. Epub 2021 Oct 11.
Heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback, referring to slow-paced breathing (SPB) realized while visualizing a heart rate, HRV, and/or respiratory signal, has become an adjunct treatment for a large range of psychologic and medical conditions. However, the underlying mechanisms explaining the effectiveness of HRV biofeedback still need to be uncovered. This study aimed to disentangle the specific effects of HRV biofeedback from the effects of SPB realized alone. In total, 112 participants took part in the study. The parameters assessed were emotional (valence, arousal, and control) and perceived stress intensity as self-report variables and the root mean square of the successive differences (RMSSD) as a physiologic variable. A main effect of condition was found for emotional valence only, valence being more positive overall in the SPB-HRVB condition. A main effect of time was observed for all dependent variables. However, no main effects for the condition or time x condition interaction effects were observed. Results showed that for PRE and POST comparisons (referring, respectively, to before and after SPB), both SPB-HRVB and SPB-NoHRVB conditions resulted in a more negative emotional valence, lower emotional arousal, higher emotional control, and higher RMSSD. Future research might investigate psychophysiological differences between SPB-HRVB and SPB-NoHRVB across different time periods (e.g., long-term interventions), and in response to diverse psychophysiological stressors.
心率变异性（HRV）生物反馈，是指在可视化心率、HRV 和/或呼吸信号的同时进行缓慢的呼吸（SPB），已成为治疗多种心理和医学疾病的辅助手段。然而，解释 HRV 生物反馈有效性的潜在机制仍有待揭示。本研究旨在区分 HRV 生物反馈的特定效果和单独进行 SPB 的效果。总共有 112 名参与者参加了这项研究。评估的参数是情绪（效价、唤醒和控制）和感知压力强度作为自我报告变量，以及连续差异的均方根（RMSSD）作为生理变量。仅在情绪效价方面发现了条件的主要效应，即 SPB-HRVB 条件下整体上更为积极。所有依赖变量都观察到了时间的主要效应。然而，没有观察到条件或时间 x 条件交互作用的主要效应。结果表明，对于 PRE 和 POST 比较（分别指 SPB 之前和之后），SPB-HRVB 和 SPB-NoHRVB 两种条件都导致情绪效价更消极、情绪唤醒更低、情绪控制更高和 RMSSD 更高。未来的研究可能会调查 SPB-HRVB 和 SPB-NoHRVB 之间在不同时间段（例如，长期干预）的心理生理差异，以及对不同心理生理应激源的反应。
