Squeeze the beat: Enhancing cardiac vagal activation during resonance breathing via coherent pelvic floor recruitment. A Pilot Study.

Resonance breathing (RB) has been shown to improve psychophysiological health and performance within clinical and non-clinical populations. This is attributed to its baroreflex stimulating effects and the concomitant increase in cardiac vagal activation (CVA). Hence, developing methods that strengthen the CVA boosting effect of RB could improve its clinical effectiveness. Therefore, we assessed whether supplementing RB with coherent pelvic floor activation (PRB), which has been shown to entrain the baroreflex, yields stronger CVA than standard RB. N = 32 participants performed 5-minutes of RB and PRB, which requires to recruit the pelvic floor during inhalation and release it at the initiation of the expiration. CVA was indexed via heart rate variability using RMSSD and LF-HRV. PRB induced significantly larger RMSSD (d = 1.04) and LF-HRV (d = 0.75, ps < .001) compared to RB. Our results indicate that coherent pelvic floor recruitment during RB enhances its CVA boosting effects in healthy individuals. However, subsequent studies are warranted to evaluate whether these first findings can be replicated in individuals with compromised health, including a more comprehensive psychophysiological assessment to potentially elucidate the origin of the promising effects. Importantly, longitudinal studies need to address whether the additional CVA during PRB translates to better treatment outcomes.

Psychophysiological Adaptation of a Patient with Acute Radiated Sickness of Average Degree and Acute Leukemia

Purpose: Clinical and psychophysiological assessment of the adaptation of a patient who suffered from acute radiation sickness of moderate severity after the Chernobyl accident and acute leukemia, which began 30 years after the transferred ARS. Material and methods: A clinical and psychophysiological examination of a patient who suffered from acute radiation sickness of moderate severity after the Chernobyl accident and acute leukemia that occurred 30 years after the Chernobyl accident was carried out. The object of the study was the patient D.R.I., born in 1950, deputy. Head of the Chernobyl NPP workshop, participant in the liquidation of the consequences of the 1986 Chernobyl accident. On April 26, 1986, during an emergency, he underwent relatively uniform beta-gamma radiation with the development of ARS II (moderate) severity. Within 3.5 hours after the accident was in the premises of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In the structure of ARS, bone marrow syndrome of the second degree and oropharyngeal syndrome of the first degree of severity were observed. The radiation dose, according to a cytogenetic study, was 3.4 Gy. A psychophysiological study was carried out using the MMPI methodology, the Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors Test, the Expert automated software and methodological complex, designed to study the personality characteristics of a person, the cognitive and intellectual characteristics of a person, the Raven’s Progressive Matrices, simple and complex sensorimotor reactions and reactions to a moving object, 15 (2001) and 30 years (2016) after the Chernobyl radiation accident. Results: The clinical and psychophysiological assessment of the personality and the actual mental state made it possible to determine the demonstrative-hypochondriacal type of disturbance in the psychophysiological adaptation with the tendency for the anxiety-depressive behavior of the patient to progress to a state of increasing depression, more pronounced in dynamics. Conclusion: The psychophysiological assessment of the personality and current mental state of the patient who had ARS, moderate and, 30 years after the Chernobyl accident, acute leukemia showed a demonstrative-hypochondria type of adaptation disorder, as a variant of a disharmonious combination of hypochondria, anxiety-depressive and demonstrative tendencies with a predominance of demonstrativeness (the first, second and third scale of the MMPI methodology) with a significant decrease on the ninth scale in the form of an increase in depression in dynamics. The prevalence of demonstrativeness over growing depression in a person with high intellect, good figurative and logical thinking, and a lack of sensorimotor inhibition is a manifestation of optimism and resistance to a serious illness.