The Importance of a Strong Methodology When Choosing Baselines for Physiological Assessment

This study examines current resting baseline practices in physiological measurement. Specifically, we investigated between- and within-baseline stability of two-minute resting periods for electrocardiography (ECG), cerebral bloodflow velocity (CBFV), function near-infrared imaging (fNIR), and electroencephalography (EEG). A 4 x 4 within subjects ANOVA revealed instability between and within baselines for several psychophysiological measures. Planned comparisons between the final 30 seconds of each resting period, however, revealed that most measures return to a stabilized level after a period of attenuation. Outcomes suggest that researchers disregard the first minute and thirty seconds of resting baselines to allow for this attenuation when using a full suite of physiological measures.