Validation of the Polar Heart Rate Monitor for Assessing Heart Rate During Physical and Mental Stress

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 159-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey L. Goodie ◽  
Kevin T. Larkin ◽  
Scott Schauss
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Mental Stress ◽  
Mental Arithmetic ◽  
Inexpensive Method ◽  
Arithmetic Task ◽  
Heart Rate Monitor ◽  
Heart Rates ◽  
Hand Grip ◽  
Mental Arithmetic Task ◽  
Resting Period

Abstract The Polar Vantage XL heart rate monitor provides an ambulatory, inexpensive method of continuously measuring heart rate. To examine the validity of the Polar monitor for measuring heart rate during resting periods and while engaging in two stressful tasks, 30 students participated in a 1-hour laboratory session. Heart rates were measured simultaneously using the Polar monitor and electrocardiography (ECG) during a hand grip exercise and a mental arithmetic task, each preceded by a 4-min resting period. Within-subject correlations between the two devices were significant (mean r = 0.98, P < .001). All correlations, except for three participants, exceeded r = 0.90. Between-task correlation analyses revealed high correlations (i. e., rs ≥ 0.98) between the Polar monitor and ECG. The Polar monitor obtained readings that were slightly, though significantly higher than readings obtained using ECG. The correspondence between observed mean heart rates from the Polar monitor and ECG suggest that the Polar monitor provides a valid measure of heart rate during stationary laboratory tasks.

Effects of mental stress on autonomic cardiac modulation during weightlessness

2010 ◽  
Vol 298 (1) ◽  
pp. H202-H209 ◽  
Author(s):  
André E. Aubert ◽  
Bart Verheyden ◽  
Constantin d′Ydewalle ◽  
Frank Beckers ◽  
Omer Van den Bergh
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Mean Arterial Pressure ◽  
Arterial Pressure ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Mental Stress ◽  
Mental Arithmetic ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Arithmetic Task ◽  
Mental Arithmetic Task ◽  
Normalized Units

Sustained weightlessness affects all body functions, among these also cardiac autonomic control mechanisms. How this may influence neural response to central stimulation by a mental arithmetic task remains an open question. The hypothesis was tested that microgravity alters cardiovascular neural response to standardized cognitive load stimuli. Beat-to-beat heart rate, brachial blood pressure, and respiratory frequency were collected in five astronauts, taking part in three different short-duration (10 to 11 days) space missions to the International Space Station. Data recording was performed in supine position 1 mo before launch; at days 5 or 8 in space; and on days 1, 4, and 25 after landing. Heart rate variability (HRV) parameters were obtained in the frequency domain. Measurements were performed in the control condition for 10 min and during a 5-min mental arithmetic stress task, consisting of deducting 17 from a four-digit number, read by a colleague, and orally announcing the result. Our results show that over all sessions (pre-, in-, and postflight), mental stress induced an average increase in mean heart rate (Δ7 ± 1 beats/min; P = 0.03) and mean arterial pressure (Δ7 ± 1 mmHg; P = 0.006). A sympathetic excitation during mental stress was shown from HRV parameters: increase of low frequency expressed in normalized units (Δ8.3 ± 1.4; P = 0.004) and low frequency/high frequency (Δ1.6 ± 0.3; P = 0.001) and decrease of high frequency expressed in normalized units (Δ8.9 ± 1.4; P = 0.004). The total power was not influenced by mental stress. No effect of spaceflight was found on baseline heart rate, mean arterial pressure, and HRV parameters. No differences in response to mental stress were found between pre-, in-, and postflight. Our findings confirm that a mental arithmetic task in astronauts elicits sympathovagal shifts toward enhanced sympathetic modulation and reduced vagal modulation. However, these responses are not changed in space during microgravity or after spaceflight.

scholarly journals Heart Rate Reactivity to Mental Stress in Athlete and Non-Athlete Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (118) ◽  
pp. 4-12
Author(s):  
Krisztina Ábel ◽  
Attila Rausz Szabó ◽  
Attila Szabo
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Psychosocial Stress ◽  
Mental Stress ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Mental Arithmetic ◽  
Protective Role ◽  
Heart Rate Reactivity ◽  
Arithmetic Task ◽  
Before And After

Background. Research suggests that exercise training and/or physical fitness may be associated with lower heart rate reactivity and faster recovery from psychosocial stress. This relationship was rarely studied in children despite the potential protective role of physical activity in stress that may start in early life stages. Methods. In this laboratory investigation we examined 18 athlete and non-athlete children before, during and following exposure to mental stress which consisted of the Stroop Color Word Task and a mental arithmetic task, both distracted by classical music, in a counterbalanced research design. Results. The results based on absolute heart rate measures suggested that athletes exhibited lower heart rates in the stress-anticipation period as well as during the stress period than non-athletes. However, based on relative measures these differences vanished. The two groups of children did not differ in perceived arousal, perceived stressfulness of the mental tasks, and the self-reported feeling states before and after stress. Further, they did not differ in their performance on the two stress-eliciting active-coping tasks as indicated by the number of correct answers. Conclusion. These results appear to suggest that athletic status in children is unrelated to heart rate reactivity and other subjective psychological experiences before, during and after acute psychosocial stress.  Keywords: adolescent, exercise, fitness, physical activity, relative measures.

scholarly journals Respiratory-phase Domain Analysis of Heart Rate Variability Can Accurately Estimate Cardiac Vagal Activity during a Mental Arithmetic Task

2007 ◽  
Vol 46 (03) ◽  
pp. 376-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Tachibana ◽  
K. Takamasu ◽  
K. Kotani
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Mental Arithmetic ◽  
Domain Analysis ◽  
Load Level ◽  
Vagal Activity ◽  
Arithmetic Task ◽  
Phase Domain ◽  
Respiratory Phase ◽  
Mental Arithmetic Task

Summary Objectives: The objectives of this paper were to present a method to extract the amplitude of RSA in the respiratory-phase domain, to compare that with subjective or objective indices of the MWL (mental workload), and to compare that with a conventional frequencyanalysis in terms of its accuracy during a mental arithmetic task. Methods: HRV (heart rate variability), ILV (instantaneous lung volume), and motion of the throat were measured under a mental arithmetic experiment and subjective and objective indices were also obtained. The amplitude of RSA was extracted in the respiratory-phase domain, and its correlation with the load level was compared with the results of the frequencydomain analysis, which is the standard analysis of the HRV. Results: The subjective and objective indices decreased as the load level increased, showing that the experimental protocol was appropriate. Then, the amplitude of RSA in the respiratory-phase domain also decreased with the increase in the load level. The results of the correlation analysis showed that the respiratory-phase domain analysis has higher negative correlations, −0.84 and −0.82, with the load level as determined bysimplecorrelation and rankcorrelation, respectively, than does frequencyanalysis, for which the correlations were found to be −0.54 and −0.63, respectively. In addition, it was demonstrated thatthe proposed method could be applied to the short-term extraction of RSA amplitude. Conclusions: We proposed a simple and effective method to extract the amplitude of the respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in the respiratory-phase domain and the results show that this method can estimate cardiac vagal activity more accurately than frequency analysis.

scholarly journals Decision Fusion of EEG and fNIRS Signals

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fares Al-Shargie
Keyword(s):  
Mental Stress ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Mental Arithmetic ◽  
Decision Fusion ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Arithmetic Task ◽  
Mental Arithmetic Task

In this study, we investigated the use of multimodal functional neuroimaging in detecting mental stress on the prefrontal cortex (PFC). We recorded Electroencephalography (EEG) and functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) simultaneously from 20-subjects performing mental arithmetic task under control and stress conditions. Stress was induced in this study based on two established stressors – time pressure and negative feedback about peer performance. We explored decision fusion by using support vector machine classifier for each modality, and optimizing the classifiers based on Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve values. Experiment results revealed significant reduction in alpha rhythm and mean change in concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin at PFC when stressed, p&lt;0.001 and 0.0001 respectively. The decision fusion improved significantly the detection rate of mental stress by +7.76% and +10.57%, when compared to sole modality of EEG and fNIRS, respectively.

scholarly journals Task-induced deactivation in diverse brain systems correlates with interindividual differences in distinct autonomic indices

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vittorio Iacovella ◽  
Luca Faes ◽  
Uri Hasson
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Mental Arithmetic ◽  
Block Design ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Arithmetic Task ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Mental Arithmetic Task

AbstractNeuroimaging research has shown that different cognitive tasks induce relatively specific activation patterns, as well as less task-specific deactivation patterns. Here we examined whether individual differences in Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) activity during task performance correlate with the magnitude of task-induced deactivation. In an fMRI study, participants performed a continuous mental arithmetic task in a task/rest block design, while undergoing combined fMRI and heart / respiration rate acquisitions using photoplethysmograph and respiration belt. As expected, task performance increased heart-rate and reduced the RMSSD, a cardiac index related to vagal tone. Across participants, higher heart rate during task was linked to increased activation in fronto-parietal regions, as well as to stronger deactivation in ventromedial prefrontal regions. Respiration frequency during task was associated with similar patterns, but in different regions than those identified for heart-rate. Finally, in a large set of regions, almost exclusively limited to the Default Mode Network, lower RMSSD was associated with greater deactivation, and furthermore, the vast majority of these regions were task-deactivated at the group level. Together, our findings show that inter-individual differences in ANS activity are strongly linked to task-induced deactivation. Importantly, our findings suggest that deactivation is a multifaceted construct potentially linked to ANS control, because distinct ANS measures correlate with deactivation in different regions. We discuss the implications for current theories of cortical control of the ANS and for accounts of deactivation, with particular reference to studies documenting a “failure to deactivate” in multiple clinical states.

Cognitive Aspects of Panic Attacks

1989 ◽  
Vol 155 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Zucker ◽  
C. B. Taylor ◽  
M. Brouillard ◽  
A. Ehlers ◽  
J. Margraf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Panic Attack ◽  
Mental Arithmetic ◽  
Cold Pressor Test ◽  
Cold Pressor ◽  
Panic Attacks ◽  
Arithmetic Task ◽  
Initial Event ◽  
Mental Arithmetic Task

Twenty patients with panic attacks and ten controls were given a standardised interview about thoughts occurring during times of anxiety or panic attacks. The interviewer was blind to the subject's diagnosis. The 20 panic patients underwent a psychophysiological test battery which included a cold pressor test, mental arithmetic task, and 5.5% CO2 inhalation. More patients than controls reported thoughts centred on fears of losing control and shame when anxious. Panic patients rated their thoughts as stronger and clearer than did controls and they had more difficulty excluding them from their minds. A feeling of anxiety preceded anxious thoughts in patients. This suggests that ‘faulty cognitions' are not the initial event in a panic attack, although anxious thoughts may exacerbate or maintain them. Significant correlations were found between the intensity of anxiety-related thoughts in anticipation of mental arithmetic and changes in diastolic blood pressure and heart rate during mental arithmetic.

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