Studies on the Physiology of Awareness: The Effect of Rhythmic Sensory Bombardment on Emotions, Blood Oxygen Saturation and the Levels of Consciousness

1952 ◽  
Vol 98 (413) ◽  
pp. 640-653 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Lovett Doust ◽  
Robert A. Schneider

Biological rhythms exist in a rich variety and almost bewildering profusion to attend and equilibrate the physiology of man. Such dynamic phasic activity appears not only to be intimately concerned with the phenomenology of life and biological processes in general, but is also to be found in purely chemical systems (Hedges and Meyers, 1926). Modalities of the periodicities associated with life can be divided into those external to the organism—including diurnal and climatic variation, sun-spot activity, etc., and into those inherent within the individual such as the respiratory and cardiac rhythms, the menstrual cycle, sleep and awakening. Only less well marked are certain psychological periodicities such as “cyclothymic “variations in mood and personality. In the course of the present century much painstaking research has attempted to link external with internal rhythmic activities, significant correlations being adduced between seasonal variation and, for example, the incidence of psychiatric disorder (Huntington, 1915), immunity from disease (Spencer and Melroy, 1943, Webster, 1944), temperament and behaviour (Petersen, 1934-36; Mills, 1942), and an impressive array of biochemical and physiological variables ranging from blood pH, lactic acid and protein to breath-holding time, plethysmography, tests of hand strength and fatigability, dark adaptation time and various tests of urinary function (Petersen, 1947).

1983 ◽  
Vol 142 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Mullen

Rhythmic variations with frequences from fractions of seconds to years characterise a wide variety of biological processes (Aschoff, 1979). Biological rhythms can be observed, not only in the individual of the species, but also in the cells which comprise the organism and the populations of which it is a member. These regular fluctuations can be endogenously generated by some form of internal oscillator, or alternatively may passively reflect exogenous environmental alterations. An important group of rhythms combines both endogenous and exogenous inputs with an internal oscillator or oscillators which are capable of being influenced by some external change. In this situation, the internal rhythm is kept in harmony with an environmental cycle by a change in the outside world acting as a synchroniser or zeitgeber. In this type if the animal is artificially isolated from its normal external synchroniser, the rhythm will continue, but free running, with a periodicity which is a close approximation to the duration of the environmental cycle to which it is normally tied. These rhythms normally synchronised to an environmental cycle but capable of being self-sustaining at approximately the same rate, are termed circa rhythms: thus circadian, circannual and circalunar rhythms, according to the geophysical cycle by which they are normally entrained.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bartłomiej Paleczny ◽  
Rafał Seredyński ◽  
Małgorzata Wyciszkiewicz ◽  
Adrianna Nowicka-Czudak ◽  
Wojciech Łopusiewicz ◽  
...  

AbstractThe aim of this study was to test the utility of haemodynamic and autonomic variables (e.g. peripheral chemoreflex sensitivity [PCheS], blood pressure variability [BPV]) for the prediction of individual performance (marathon time and VO2max) in older men. The post-competition vasodilation and sympathetic vasomotor tone predict the marathon performance in younger men, but their prognostic relevance in older men remains unknown. The peripheral chemoreflex restrains exercise-induced vasodilation via sympathetically-mediated mechanism, what makes it a plausible candidate for the individual performance marker. 23 men aged ≥ 50 year competing in the Wroclaw Marathon underwent an evaluation of: resting haemodynamic parameters, PCheS with two methods: transient hypoxia and breath-holding test (BHT), cardiac barosensitivity, heart rate variability (HRV) and BPV, plasma renin and aldosterone, VO2max in a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET). All tests were conducted twice: before and after the race, except for transient hypoxia and CPET which were performed once, before the race. Fast marathon performance and high VO2max were correlated with: low ventilatory responsiveness to hypoxia (r =  − 0.53, r = 0.67, respectively) and pre-race BHT (r =  − 0.47, r = 0.51, respectively), (1) greater SD of beat-to-beat SBP (all p < 0.05). Fast performance was related with an enhanced pre-race vascular response to BHT (r =  − 0.59, p = 0.005). The variables found by other studies to predict the marathon performance in younger men: post-competition vasodilation, sympathetic vasomotor tone (LF-BPV) and HRV were not associated with the individual performance in our population. The results suggest that PCheS (ventilatory response) predicts individual performance (marathon time and VO2max) in men aged ≥ 50 yeat. Although cause-effect relationship including the role of peripheral chemoreceptors in restraining the post-competition vasodilation via the sympathetic vasoconstrictor outflow may be hypothesized to underline these findings, the lack of correlation between individual performance and both, the post-competition vasodilation and the sympathetic vasomotor tone argues against such explanation. Vascular responsiveness to breath-holding appears to be of certain value for predicting individual performance in this population, however.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1671
Author(s):  
Luigi Barrea ◽  
Giovanna Muscogiuri ◽  
Gabriella Pugliese ◽  
Chiara Graziadio ◽  
Maria Maisto ◽  
...  

Individual differences in the chronotype, an attitude that best expresses the individual circadian preference in behavioral and biological rhythms, have been associated with cardiometabolic risk and gut dysbiosis. Up to now, there are no studies evaluating the association between chronotypes and circulating TMAO concentrations, a predictor of cardiometabolic risk and a useful marker of gut dysbiosis. In this study population (147 females and 100 males), subjects with the morning chronotype had the lowest BMI and waist circumference (p < 0.001), and a better metabolic profile compared to the other chronotypes. In addition, the morning chronotype had the highest adherence to the Mediterranean diet (p < 0.001) and the lowest circulating TMAO concentrations (p < 0.001). After adjusting for BMI and adherence to the Mediterranean diet, the correlation between circulating TMAO concentrations and chronotype score was still kept (r = −0.627, p < 0.001). Using a linear regression analysis, higher chronotype scores were mostly associated with lower circulating TMAO concentrations (β = −0.479, t = −12.08, and p < 0.001). Using a restricted cubic spline analysis, we found that a chronotype score ≥59 (p < 0.001, R2 = −0.824) demonstrated a more significant inverse linear relationship with circulating TMAO concentrations compared with knots <59 (neither chronotype) and <41 (evening chronotype). The current study reported the first evidence that higher circulating TMAO concentrations were associated with the evening chronotype that, in turn, is usually linked to an unhealthy lifestyle mostly characterized by low adherence to the MD.


Buildings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prageeth Jayathissa ◽  
Matias Quintana ◽  
Mahmoud Abdelrahman ◽  
Clayton Miller

Evaluating and optimising human comfort within the built environment is challenging due to the large number of physiological, psychological and environmental variables that affect occupant comfort preference. Human perception could be helpful to capture these disparate phenomena and interpreting their impact; the challenge is collecting spatially and temporally diverse subjective feedback in a scalable way. This paper presents a methodology to collect intensive longitudinal subjective feedback of comfort-based preference using micro ecological momentary assessments on a smartwatch platform. An experiment with 30 occupants over two weeks produced 4378 field-based surveys for thermal, noise, and acoustic preference. The occupants and the spaces in which they left feedback were then clustered according to these preference tendencies. These groups were used to create different feature sets with combinations of environmental and physiological variables, for use in a multi-class classification task. These classification models were trained on a feature set that was developed from time-series attributes, environmental and near-body sensors, heart rate, and the historical preferences of both the individual and the comfort group assigned. The most accurate model had multi-class classification F1 micro scores of 64%, 80% and 86% for thermal, light, and noise preference, respectively. The discussion outlines how these models can enhance comfort preference prediction when supplementing data from installed sensors. The approach presented prompts reflection on how the building analysis community evaluates, controls, and designs indoor environments through balancing the measurement of variables with occupant preferences in an intensive longitudinal way.


BUILDER ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 258 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-28
Author(s):  
Anna Nowak ◽  
Wiesław Rokicki

INSPIRATIONS OF NATURE IN ARCHITECTURE. BIONIC PAVILIONS. The search for bionics is an interesting design notion, where the form of architectural objects is not only inspired by the aesthetics or patterns found in nature, but how its shape is reproduced by the natural processes of morphogenesis. Depending on how various patters in nature are replicated, a number of bionic modeling can be observed. The design based on the principles of forming natural structures requires some understanding of the ongoing processes and their changes. Thanks to the improvement of generative design methods allowing for the advanced knowledge in the field of technology to build the individual structural elements, a structural replication and analysis of biological processes is possible. The creation of mathematical models is an attempt to describe the forms found in the natural world, in particular the aspects of the morphogenesis. The Voronoi diagrams, or the Fibonacci sequence, which are increasingly used as a method of the discretization of the surface, deserve special consideration among the mentioned patterns found in nature. Digital tools play an important role in this process through the application of appropriate algorithms and advanced computer programs, but also experimental activities geared to building prototype solutions. The design of complicated spatial forms under different aspects is also aimed at searching for optimized technical and material solutions, in which unnecessary geometry is being eliminated. The transfer of biological models into architecture also applies to functional processes and systems found in nature in terms of shaping the coating elements. This paper is dedicated to the presentation of the completed experimental pavilions, which were created based on the bionic ideas, where the search for the multifunctional materials seems to be particularly important and could in turn revolutionize the building industry.


2017 ◽  
Vol 95 (6) ◽  
pp. 502-512
Author(s):  
F. I. Komarov ◽  
S. I. Rapoport ◽  
Tamara K. Breus ◽  
S. M. Chibisov

The temporal structure and dynamics of biological rhythms were formed in the course of evolution under the influence of environmental factors. Circadian rhythm as a central one in biological objects developed in response to daily luminosity and temperature rhythms related to rotation of the Earth. New causative factors that could be involved in this process and affect the entire spectrum of biological rhythms emerged with the advent of space research. The discovery of solar wind, interplanetary magnetic field, and Earth’s magnetosphere revealed similar periodicity of biological rhythms and magnetic factors which suggests possible participation of the latter in the formation of the former. Disturbances in magnetic rhythms may lead to desynchronization of biological processes by the adaptive stress mechanism as exemplified by circadian rhythm disorders in response to jetlag. This hypothesis forwarded by the authors in the 1990s was confirmed by further investigations including those reported by foreign researchers.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Carcamo de la Concepcion ◽  
Daniel James Sargent ◽  
Nada Surbanovski ◽  
Richard Colgan ◽  
Marco Moretto

Abstract Background: Fruit firmness and in particular the individual components of texture and moisture loss, are considered the key quality traits when describing blueberry fruit quality, and whilst these traits are genetically regulated, the mechanisms governing their control are not clearly understood. In this investigation, RNAseq was performed on fruits of two blueberry cultivars with very different storage properties, ‘Bluecrop’ and ‘Legacy’, at harvest, three weeks storage in a non-modified environment at 4 oC and after three weeks storage at 4 oC followed by three days at 21 oC, with the aim of understanding the transcriptional changes that occur during storage in cultivars with very different post-harvest fruit quality.Results: De novo assemblies of the transcriptomes of the two cultivars were performed separately and a total of 39,335 and 41,896 unigenes for ‘Bluecrop’ and ‘Legacy’ respectively were resolved. Differential gene expression analyses were grouped into four cluster profiles based on changes in transcript abundance between harvest and 24 days post-harvest. A total of 264 unigenes were up-regulated in ‘Legacy’ and down-regulated in ‘Bluecrop’, 103 were down-regulated in ‘Legacy’ and up-regulated in ‘Bluecrop’, 43 were up-regulated in both cultivars and 355 were down-regulated in both cultivars between harvest and 24 days post-harvest. Unigenes showing significant differential expression between harvest and following post-harvest cold-storage were grouped into classes of biological processes including stress responses, cell wall metabolism, wax metabolism, calcium metabolism, cellular components, and biological processes.Conclusions: In total 21 differentially expressed unigenes with a putative role in regulating the response to post-harvest cold-storage in the two cultivars were identified from the de novo transcriptome assemblies performed. The results presented provide a stable foundation from which to perform further analyses with which to functionally validate the candidate genes identified, and to begin to understand the genetic mechanisms controlling changes in firmness in blueberry fruits post-harvest.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13(62) (2) ◽  
pp. 219-226
Author(s):  
C.K. PASWAN

Cerebral palsy is one of the known and famous types of neurological impairment among children across the globe. The study aimed to see the effect of graded conditioning and exercises over some of the physiological variables of children with cerebral palsy. For the purpose of the study 20 children with cerebral palsy were selected and were divided into two groups of ten each the experimental group were given the treatment and the other was the kept as control group for twelve weeks. To obtain the results the analysis of co-variance was applied and it was seen that resting heart rate (.006), triceps girth (.002), suprailliac girth (.002), abdominal umbilicus (.001), sub-scapular girth (.009), positive breath holding capacity (.007) and cardio-respiratory endurance (.001) showed positive significance at .005 level. As after twelve weeks of graded conditioning it can be seen that most of the physiological variables and variables of body composition showed great signs of improvement and showed positive significance, so it can be concluded that with good graded training (according to their need and capability) the positive physiological improvement can be made among children with cerebral palsy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Mulder ◽  
Erika Schagatay ◽  
Arne Sieber

Studying risk factors in freediving, such as hypoxic blackout, requires development of new methods to enable remote underwater monitoring of physiological variables. We aimed to construct and evaluate a new water- and pressure proof pulse oximeter for use in freediving research. The study consisted of three parts: (I) A submersible pulse oximeter (SUB) was developed on a ruggedized platform for recording of physiological parameters in challenging environments. Two MAX30102 sensors were used to record plethysmograms, and included red and infra-red emitters, diode drivers, photodiode, photodiode amplifier, analog to digital converter, and controller. (II) We equipped 20 volunteers with two transmission pulse oximeters (TPULS) and SUB to the fingers. Arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) and heart rate (HR) were recorded, while breathing room air (21% O2) and subsequently a hypoxic gas (10.7% O2) at rest in dry conditions. Bland-Altman analysis was used to evaluate bias and precision of SUB relative to SpO2 values from TPULS. (III) Six freedivers were monitored with one TPULS and SUB placed at the forehead, during a maximal effort immersed static apnea. For dry baseline measurements (n = 20), SpO2 bias ranged between −0.8 and −0.6%, precision between 1.0 and 1.5%; HR bias ranged between 1.1 and 1.0 bpm, precision between 1.4 and 1.9 bpm. For the hypoxic episode, SpO2 bias ranged between −2.5 and −3.6%, precision between 3.6 and 3.7%; HR bias ranged between 1.4 and 1.9 bpm, precision between 2.0 and 2.1 bpm. Freedivers (n = 6) performed an apnea of 184 ± 53 s. Desaturation- and resaturation response time of SpO2 was approximately 15 and 12 s shorter in SUB compared to TPULS, respectively. Lowest SpO2 values were 76 ± 10% for TPULS and 74 ± 13% for SUB. HR traces for both pulse oximeters showed similar patterns. For static apneas, dropout rate was larger for SUB (18%) than for TPULS (&lt;1%). SUB produced similar SpO2 and HR values as TPULS, both during normoxic and hypoxic breathing (n = 20), and submersed static apneas (n = 6). SUB responds more quickly to changes in oxygen saturation when sensors were placed at the forehead. Further development of SUB is needed to limit signal loss, and its function should be tested at greater depth and lower saturation.


1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 49-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
EJ Bridges ◽  
SL Woods

Critical care clinicians must consider known expected circadian rhythms when interpreting fluctuations in patients' hemodynamic values. As noted in the case study, knowledge of circadian rhythmicity in cardiovascular variables may help clinicians anticipate hemodynamic changes and develop and evaluate chronobiologically sensitive interventions, including prescriptions for activity, modification of the timing of medications, and provision of protective interventions for patients with disrupted rhythms. Felver provides excellent guidelines for the systematic review of possible causes for overt changes in circadian patterns. This review highlights the need to evaluate (1) the effect of disease progression on temporal patterns, (2) the patient's underlying endogenous rhythms, (3) the zeitgebers that may entrain the patient's biological rhythms (e.g., light, social cues, and sleep-wake cycles), and (4) how the zeitgebers change in a critical care environment. The body of literature on the rhythmic fluctuation of cardiovascular variables in healthy, young subjects is extensive. During the past 10 years, research on the chronobiologic fluctuations of numerous physiological variables (cardiovascular, pulmonary, hematologic, and endocrine) in critical illness has increased. As information on the fluctuations in critically ill patients increases, critical care clinicians will be challenged to develop and evaluate a chronobiologically sensitive plan of care for these patients.


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