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Biomedical subjects

V De Pascalis

Publications and source records attributed to V De Pascalis.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Changes in heart rate during feedback control of respiration.

Subjects received one of eight treatments: practice at increasing heart rate with heart-rate feedback, practice at decreasing heart rate with heart-rate feedback, practice at increasing heart rate without heart-rate feedback, practice at decreasing heart rate without heart-rate feedback, practice at increasing respiration rate with respiratory feedback, practice at decreasing respiration rate with respiratory feedback, practice at increasing respiration rate with respiratory instructions only, practice at decreasing respiration rate with respiratory instructions only. Heart rate, Respiration rate, and Respiration depth were measured. Analysis indicated that subjects who controlled respiration with respiratory feedback reliably increased and decreased heart rate; subjects who controlled respiration with respiratory instructions only reliably increased but not decreased heart rate; subjects in the respiratory-feedback conditions showed higher heart-rate increase and decrease than heart-rate increase and decrease of subjects in the other six conditions.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Effect of suggestion on perception: replication of Gheorghiu and Reyher's study.

Gheorghiu and Reyher in 1982 described a Scale of Sensory Suggestibility consisting of an indirect-direct method of assessing suggestibility. In this study a further sample of 81 women was tested on Gheorghiu and Reyher's scale. The scale has tactual, auditory, and visual items. Each item was administered to the left and right sides of the body in random sequence and the method of presentation was varied. The scale is indirect in that the announced stimuli are never presented to participants, contrary to their expectations; it is direct because the subjects are cautioned that a stimulus might not actually be presented. The scale showed acceptable internal consistency. There were no right-left side differences. The methods of presentation were not equally successful. Progressive Intensification and Progressive Decrease in Intensification of stimulation were the most successful, whereas Expectation of series without objective stimuli was the least successful, contrary to Georghiu and Reyher's results. Finally, item analysis showed that all the items had high reliability coefficients, except two auditory and one visual items. Implications for clinical practice were discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Anxiety, perception, and control of heart rate.

8 women and 8 men took Cattell's IPAT-anxiety questionnaire and later McFarland's test of ability to perceive heart activity. The second test involved subjects' tracking their own heart rates, then they enrolled in an EKG biofeedback session to evaluate ability to increase and decrease heart rate from subjects' resting baselines. At the end of the session each subject completed Blanchard, et al.'s questionnaire to specify the cognitive strategies used for heart-rate control. Heart rate, abdominal respiration rate, respiration amplitude, EEG percent power in theta, alpha, and beta bands were evaluated. Success of heart-rate decrease seemed to depend mainly on activity levels: the subjects who achieved high scores on the activity test decreased heart rate significantly better than did low scorers. The relationship between scores for perception of heart and increases in heart rate was nonsignificant: increased heart-rate seemed to depend on differences in respiration between the rest and periods of increase. The significant, negative correlation between trait anxiety and perceptions of heart activity suggested that anxiety affected subjects' ability to perceive heart rate. The theta EEG power of the right hemisphere was significantly higher in subjects scoring high than for those low in perception of heart activity. During heart-rate increase tasks subjects mainly reported use of 'arousal responses,' similarly during heart-rate decrease tasks they reported use of relaxation responses.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Personality, hypnotic susceptibility and EEG responses: preliminary study.

22 men and women, students in psychology, were given the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, also percent theta, alpha and beta EEG spectral powers were evaluated during an hypnotic induction induced according to Barber's method. The EEG performance was compared with two baseline eyes-open, eyes-closed conditions and with a neutral control situation of listening to a weather report. No relation was found between Extraversion-Introversion scores and scores on the Barber Suggestibility Scale. The difference in EEG powers was nonsignificant for groups high and low in suggestibility, while a significant interaction was found for eyes open or closed X suggestibility groups when extreme scores of Extraversion-Introversion and Neuroticism were considered according to Eysenck's (1966) method. The right theta power of the stable extraverts and neurotic introverts, high in susceptibility in eyes-open condition was higher than the neurotic extraverts, and stable introverts who were low in susceptibility to hypnosis. The right theta power of the neurotic extraverts and stable introverts who were low in susceptibility to hypnosis showed a tendency to increase in eyes-closed conditions, while an opposite observation was made for the stable extraverts and neurotic introverts, subjects who were high in susceptibility. It is interesting to notice, according to Galbraith, et al. (1970) that it was the eyes-open condition which yielded the best EEG predictor of hypnotic susceptibility.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

EEG asymmetry and heart rate during experience of hypnotic analgesia in high and low hypnotizables.

This study evaluates the effects of hypnotic analgesia and hypnosis on bilateral EEG activity recorded from frontal, central and posterior areas during three painful electrical stimulation conditions: waking, hypnosis/no-analgesia, hypnosis/analgesia. Eight high-hypnotizable and eight low-hypnotizable (right handed) subjects participated in the experiment. The following measures were obtained: pain and distress tolerance ratings; EEG spectral amplitudes for the frequency bands: delta (0.5-3.75 Hz), theta 1 (4-5.75 Hz), theta 2 (6-7.75 Hz), alpha 1 (8-9.75 Hz), alpha 2 (10-12.75 Hz), beta 1 (13-15.75 Hz), beta 2 (16-31.75 Hz), total band (0.5-31.75 Hz), '40-Hz' (36-44 Hz); cardiac interbeat interval (ms); mid-frequency and high-frequency peaks from power spectral analysis of heart period variability. During hypnosis/analgesia, high hypnotizable subjects displayed significant reductions in pain and distress scores compared to hypnosis/no-analgesia and waking conditions. In each experimental condition these subjects displayed significant lower total and beta 1 amplitudes compared to low hypnotizables. High hypnotizables, on central and posterior recording sites, during both hypnosis/analgesia and hypnosis/no-analgesia conditions also showed total and delta EEG amplitude reductions in both hemispheres and a theta 1 amplitude reduction in the left hemisphere. However, for total, delta and beta 1 bands in the hypnosis/analgesia condition the amplitude reduction was more pronounced in the right hemisphere as shown by hemispheric asymmetry in favor of the left hemisphere. Low hypnotizables, on posterior recording sites, displayed a delta amplitude reduction during hypnosis/no-analgesia and hypnosis/analgesia conditions. These subjects also showed, for all recording sites, a reduction in theta 1 amplitude during hypnosis/no-analgesia compared to the waking condition. Lows, however, failed in evidencing amplitude differences between hypnosis/no-analgesia and hypnosis/analgesia conditions. During hypnotic analgesia the hemispheric asymmetry found in high hypnotizables was parallel to a significant reduction in the spectral mid-frequency peak of heart period variability which indicated a decrease in the level of sympathetic activity. In contrast, during hypnosis/no-analgesia the EEG amplitude reduction was not paralleled by a decrease in sympathetic activity.

Adult↗