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Psychosomatic Medicine 65:796-805 (2003) This Article

© 2003 American Psychosomatic Society
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Heart Rate Variability
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From the Department of Psychiatry Robert Wood Johnson Articles by Lehrer, P. M.
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ABSTRACT
 TOP
OBJECTIVE: We evaluated heart rate variability ABSTRACT
biofeedback as a method for increasing vagal baroreflex INTRODUCTION
gain and improving pulmonary function among 54 BIOFEEDBACK AND RESONANT...
healthy adults. METHOD
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
METHODS: We compared 10 sessions of biofeedback ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
training with an uninstructed control. Cognitive and REFERENCES
physiological effects were measured in four of the
sessions.

RESULTS: We found acute increases in low-frequency and total spectrum heart rate
variability, and in vagal baroreflex gain, correlated with slow breathing during biofeedback
periods. Increased baseline baroreflex gain also occurred across sessions in the biofeedback
group, independent of respiratory changes, and peak expiratory flow increased in this group,
independently of cardiovascular changes. Biofeedback was accompanied by fewer adverse
relaxation side effects than the control condition.

CONCLUSIONS: Heart rate variability biofeedback had strong long-term influences on

resting baroreflex gain and pulmonary function. It should be examined as a method for
treating cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. Also, this study demonstrates neuroplasticity
of the baroreflex.

Key Words: biofeedback, • heart rate variability, • baroreflex, • pulmonary function, •

neuroplasticity.

Abbreviations: BP = blood pressure;; HF = high frequency;; HR = heart rate;; HRV = heart

rate variability;; LF = low frequency;; RSA = respiratory sinus arrhythmia.

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ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
BIOFEEDBACK AND RESONANT...
METHOD
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION
Biofeedback can enable people to obtain voluntary control over various physiological
processes (1), and some biofeedback methods have been used widely as adjuncts to, or
substitutes for, medical treatment. Typically, a biofeedback trainee views an instantaneous
electronic display of a physiological function and attempts to change it. Most biofeedback
methods involve teaching patients to control a level of a physiological function, such as
muscle tension, HR, or finger temperature. Recently we have reported using biofeedback to
produce increases in heart rate variability (HRV). This method has been used by Russian
clinicians to treat autonomic dysfunction with a variety of clinical manifestations, including
anxiety and high BP (2), and we recently used it to improve airway function in asthmatic
patients (3). These results tentatively suggest that the method can produce long-term changes
in multiple organ systems that are affected by autonomic control. This study focuses on
arterial baroreflexes and pulmonary function in a healthy population.

Arterial baroreflex responses, triggered by stretch receptors in the walls of the aortic arch and
carotid artery, modulate vagus nerve traffic to the sinoatrial node, and mediate beat-by-beat
HR responses to changing arterial pressures (4). Risk for cardiac events (including sudden
death) in patients with heart disease is inversely related to the robustness of their baroreflex
responses. La Rovere et al. (5) showed that in patients recovering from myocardial infarction,
those with subnormal vagal baroreflex gains have a high risk of fatal cardiac events,
especially if the patient also has low HRV. The linkage between vagal baroreflex impairment
and mortality may partially reflect patients’ autonomic responses to cardiac rhythm changes.
Ventricular tachycardia, a rapid rhythm that commonly precedes sudden death (6),
precipitously lowers arterial pressure, and increases muscle-sympathetic (7) and reduces
vagal-cardiac (8) nerve activity. During ventricular tachycardia, arterial perfusion pressures
recover more rapidly in patients with stronger than weaker vagal and sympathetic baroreflexes
(9). In an exercise/ischemia dog model of sudden cardiac death, ventricular fibrillation occurs
when baroreflexes are weak, but does not occur when they are strong (10).

Vagal mechanisms also figure importantly in asthma, because the parasympathetic nervous
system plays a major role in modulating airway smooth muscle tone (11). Just as increased
baroreflex responsiveness may promote successful responses to abrupt rhythm disturbances in
cardiac patients, increased vagal activity can cause bronchoconstriction in asthma, and asthma
exacerbations can be associated with cholinergic hyperreactivity (12). The therapeutic effects
of HRV biofeedback may be through influencing the body’s modulatory processes (eg, the
well-known modulation of BP changes by baroreflex activity), through which vagal as well as
sympathetic reflexes may be controlled.

The levels of baroreflex gain and vagal bronchoconstriction both vary over time, influenced
by various neurobehavioral factors. The earliest quantitative analysis of human baroreflex
function (13) documented elevated baroreflex gain during sleep. Fritsch et al. (14) reported
that changes of arterial pressure lasting only seconds reset the relation between arterial
pressure and vagal and sympathetic neural outflows. Systematic changes in pulmonary
function also occur during behavioral laboratory tasks (12) and relaxation (15).

When people try to maximize their respiratory sinus arrhythmia (the vagally mediated HR
speeding and slowing that occurs in synchrony with breathing), they spontaneously slow their
breathing rates to 0.1 Hz, about one breath every 10 seconds (16). There are previous reports
that slow or deep breathing may acutely increase baroreflex gain in healthy people (17) and
can even counteract the bronchoconstrictive effects of inhaled methacholine (18). A controlled
trial of slow breathing in the context of yoga documented acute reductions of airway
resistance among people with asthma (19). Thus, vagal cardiac and pulmonary mechanisms
are linked, and there are reasons to expect that improvements in one vagal limb might spill
over into the other.
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ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
BIOFEEDBACK AND RESONANT...
METHOD
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES

BIOFEEDBACK AND RESONANT FREQUENCY

IN HRV
For each individual there is a resonant frequency in HRV at which maximum amplitudes of
HRV can be attained by biofeedback. At this frequency, we have found that HR oscillates
180° out of phase with BP and in phase (0° phase relationship) with respiration (20), such that
respiratory and baroreflex effects on HRV interact, producing very high amplitudes at a single
frequency, accounting for higher total variability. The resonant HRV frequency usually is
0.1 Hz (6 cycles/min). At this frequency, we previously found that HR and BP oscillate 180°
out of phase (20), while HR and respiration oscillate in phase with each other (0° phase
relationship, with inhalation coinciding with HR accelerations and exhalation with
decelerations). Thus, when people breathe at their resonant frequency, respiratory effects on
HRV stimulate baroreflex effects (ie, as the individual inhales, HR rises, BP falls, and the
consequent baroreflex response produces a further increase in HR, with corresponding effects
during exhalation). The consequent resonance effects produce very large increases in both
HRV and baroreflex gain, which can be obtained only when subjects try to increase HRV at
this particular frequency (20).

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METHOD
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DISCUSSION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES

METHOD
Participants
We recruited participants through media advertisements and personal contacts, and screened
out volunteers who smoked, had a history of psychosis, mental deficiency, heart disease or
arrhythmias, chronic pulmonary disease (including asthma), serious neurological illness
(including epilepsy), or who were taking any medication that affected the autonomic nervous
system. Fifty-four people participated in the study (See Table 1 for participant characteristics),
and were assigned to groups using a restricted randomization procedure, balanced for age and
sex: 25 to the biofeedback protocol (of whom 2 dropped out before completion), and 32 to the
waiting list (of whom 1 dropped out before completion). Participants were paid $100 for each
of four testing sessions (see below) and $50 for each of the other training sessions
(biofeedback group only). This study was approved by the human research committee of
UMDNJ–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

View this table: TABLE 1. Participant characteristics

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Physiological data were collected during 4 of the 10 treatment sessions in the biofeedback
condition, and in 4 equivalently spaced sessions in the control group. Data were collected
during four 5-minute periods: 1) a pretraining rest period ("Task A") in which subjects were
asked to relax as deeply as possible with eyes open, and to try not to move, so as not to disturb
the measuring equipment; 2) the first 5 minutes of biofeedback training ("Task B"); 3) the last
5 minutes of an approximately 30-minute biofeedback training period ("Task C"); and 4) a
posttraining rest period ("Task D"), with the same instructions as for the pretest rest period.
For control subjects, instructions for Tasks B and C were identical to those in Tasks A and D.

Instrumentation and Software

Physiological data were recorded on a J&J Engineering (Poulsbo, WA) I-330 DSP
physiograph unit. EKG data were collected from sensors on the right arm and left leg (Lead
II), digitized at the rate of 512 samples/s. Beat-to-beat BP was recorded from a Finapres unit
(Ohmeda model 223), and digitized at a rate of 256 samples/s. The sensor was placed on the
participant’s left middle finger, and the hand was elevated on a table to approximately the
level of the heart. End-tidal CO2 was taken from a Datex 223 capnometer. The intake tube was
inserted into a mouthpiece, and subjects wore nose clips and breathed through the mouth
during the 5-minute testing periods. A pneumotachometer was used to record respiratory
patterns from which measurements of respiratory rate and tidal volume were derived. During
biofeedback sessions, strain gauges around the chest and abdomen were also used to display
respiratory activity for training purposes. Spirometry was done before and after each testing
session following procedures recommended by the American Thoracic Society (21) using a
Koko pneumotach-based spirometer (PDS Instrumentation, Louisville, CO), calibrated daily
with a 3-liter syringe.

HR and BP data were edited, and analyzed using the WinCPRS program (Absolute Aliens Oy,
Turku, Finland), a program for general analysis of physiological data, including analysis of
HR and BP variability and baroreflex gain. Spectral baroreflex gain in the LF range correlates
closely with baroreflex gain assessed directly by using phenylephrine injection to alter BP and
trigger baroreflex responses BP (22). In cats, baroreceptor denervation abolishes the coherence
between systolic pressure and R-R interval oscillations in this frequency range (23). We
estimated baroreflex gain over coherent LF (0.04–0.15 Hz) segments from the squared
coherence between pairs of measurements. In this procedure, the squared cross-spectral
densities of systolic pressure and R-R intervals are divided by the product of the individual
power densities. The transfer function was calculated as the cross-spectral densities divided by
the power spectral densities of the systolic pressure. The modulus of the transfer function was
used to estimate baroreflex gain (10, 24).

Participants also completed two self-report inventories about their experiences during the
testing sessions: 1) the Relaxation Inventory (25), a factor-analytically derived scale that
yields a full scale score and three dimensions of the relaxation experience, experience of
physical tension, cognitive tension, and subjective assessment of relaxation; and 2) the Side
Effects of Relaxation Scale (26), which assesses common adverse experiences of people
undergoing various kinds of relaxation training.

Procedure for HRV Biofeedback

The details of the procedure for HRV biofeedback have been described elsewhere (27). The
trainee was first taught to breathe at his/her resonant frequency, ie, the frequency at which
maximum amplitudes of HRV could be generated voluntarily for each individual. The
resonant frequency was determined in the first session by measuring HR oscillation
amplitudes while the individual breathed for intervals of 2 minutes at each of the following
frequencies: 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, and 6.5 breaths/min. We provide a "pacing stimulus" for this
purpose: a light display that moved up and down on the computer screen at the target
respiratory rate. The trainee was instructed to breathe at the rate of that stimulus. The resonant
frequency was determined as the respiratory frequency yielding the highest frequency power
peak on a moving Fourier analysis of HR data displayed by the I-330 physiograph. Subjects
were instructed to practice breathing at the resonant frequency for 20-minute periods twice
daily for the next week. Throughout training, the individual was cautioned to breathe
shallowly and naturally, in order to avoid hyperventilation, as can be provoked by this
technique (16). Participants also were trained to breathe abdominally and to exhale through
pursed lips.

At the next session, the participant was given HRV biofeedback in two forms: 1) A beat-to-
beat cardiotachometer display superimposed on respiratory activity taken from the strain
gauges. The participant was instructed to breathe approximately in phase with HR changes,
with the goal of maximally increasing amplitude of RSA; 2) A moving frequency analysis of
HR within the band of 0.005–0.4 Hz, updated approximately every second, reflecting the
frequency of HR oscillations within the past 30 seconds. The participant was instructed to
increase the spectral power peak that occurred at approximately resonant frequency. In the
third session, a stand-alone analog HRV biofeedback device was provided for home practice
(Cardiosignalizer KC-3, Biosvyaz Corp., St. Petersburg, Russia), which provided a light-bar
display whose height was proportional to amplitude of RSA. The upper and lower limits of the
display could be adjusted in order to help shape the participant’s response. Participants’ home
practice now was assisted by the machine.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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RESULTS
Figure 1 shows arterial pressure and R-R interval time series (upper panels) and spectral
baroreflex gain from a typical participant during 5-minute rest (left) and biofeedback periods
(right). Note that biofeedback 1) lowered systolic pressure and oscillation amplitudes, 2)
shortened the shortest and lengthened the longest R-R intervals, and 3) increased the average
baroreflex gain (from 8.7 to 15.3 ms/mm Hg). Figure 2 shows typical HR and BP variability
during biofeedback, with very high amplitudes all at a single frequency, and BP oscillating
180° out of phase with HR.

Fig. 1. Recording from one participant before and

during biofeedback. In this participant, biofeedback
increased systolic pressure and R-R interval oscillations,
decreased mean systolic pressure, and increased
baroreflex gain.

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 Fig. 2. Heart rate and blood pressure variability during
biofeedback from a typical subject. This figure shows
the typical 180° phase relationship between heart rate
and blood pressure during HRV biofeedback and very
high oscillation amplitudes in both measures, all at a
single frequency.

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We analyzed data with mixed effects models using SAS Proc Mixed (28), with one between-
groups variable (Biofeedback vs. Control) and two repeated measures [Sessions (1, 4, 7, 10)
and Tasks (the 5-minute control periods at the beginning and end of each session, ie, Tasks A
and D vs. the two 5-minute biofeedback periods in the middle of the sessions, ie, Tasks B and
C)]. We fitted each variable with autoregressive (order of one) and compound symmetry
models, and identified the better model with Akaike’s Information Criteria (29) [In general,
tonic measures such as R-R intervals and arterial pressures, were described better by the
autoregressive model (correlations are stronger when measurements are closer in time), and
dynamic measures such as baroreflex gain, were better described by compound symmetry
(correlations do not depend on their closeness in time).] Baseline age, weight, height and sex
were included in the model as appropriate. Our results tended to be skewed by large changes,
and therefore, we normalized all data with log transformations.

We found a significant pattern of differences in baroreflex gain and HRV between the
biofeedback and the control groups across sessions, although mean R-R intervals and systolic
pressures were similar (Figs. 3–5 ; Table 2). During each session, baroreflex gain was
significantly (p < .0001) higher during the two 5-minute biofeedback periods (Table 3 ) than
during the two rest periods. Total R-R interval spectral power also was significantly (p <
.0001) greater during biofeedback than during rest conditions, as was LF spectral power for
both BP and R-R interval. Baroreflex gain and R-R interval spectral power did not change in
the control group. Because subjects tended to breathe in the LF range, HF variability in RR-
interval decreased during biofeedback tasks. The increase in baroreflex gain indicates that the
increase in LF R-R variability was greater than that in LF systolic BP variability.

Fig. 3. Long-term physiological effects across weeks of

training. Error bars represent standard deviations.

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 Fig. 4. Effects of biofeedback on measures of
cardiovascular variability. Error bars represent standard
deviations.

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Fig. 5. Effects of biofeedback on measures of tonic

physiological activity. Error bars represent standard
deviations.

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View this table: TABLE 2. Medians for cardiovascular variables

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View this table: TABLE 3. Results of mixed models analysis on log values
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 View this table: TABLE 3. Continued
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Biofeedback also increased baroreflex gain and R-R interval variability cumulatively during
sessions. These measures were greater during the postsession rest period (Task D) than during
the presession rest (Task A) (Table 2), and they were also greater at the end of the
biofeedback training period (Task C) than at the beginning of biofeedback (Task B). Long-
term cumulative biofeedback effects were assessed by comparing presession rest measures
(Task A) in the first session, before any training had been given, and the last one. By the 10th
weekly training session, presession resting baroreflex gain in the biofeedback group was
significantly (p < .003) greater than during the first session. Baroreflex gain did not change
across sessions in the control group. There were no long-term between-group differences in
mean HRV.

Respiration rate slowed during biofeedback training periods to approximately six breaths/min
(median = 0.1 Hz, mean = 0.092 Hz), and tidal volume increased. However, there were no
significant between session differences in either measure at baseline (Task A). In order to
determine whether changes in baroreflex gain were explained by changed respiratory patterns,
we included tidal volume and respiration rate as factors in the mixed models analysis of
baroreflex gain. The immediate effects of biofeedback (ie, the comparison between rest
periods [Tasks A and D] and biofeedback periods [Tasks B and C]) were erased by this
procedure, but the long-term baseline effects (Task A in Session 1 vs. Task A in Session 10)
were not influenced by respiratory patterns (Table 3 ). End-tidal CO2 was not affected by the
experimental procedures.

Although pulmonary function was normal in all participants, significant (p < .0001) increases
in peak expiratory flow occurred between the first and last treatment sessions in the
biofeedback group (respectively, 95.3 ± 18.5 and 109.6 ± 16.2%), but no changes in the
control group and no correlation between baroreflex and pulmonary effects in either group.

We found no significant between-group differences in the Relaxation Inventory, but, across

sessions, subjects in the biofeedback condition reported significantly fewer negative side
effects of relaxation training than subjects in the waiting list condition in Sessions 4, 7, and 10,
but not in Session 1 (Table 4), indicating that regular training and/or practice of biofeedback
tended to block some of the negative side effects of relaxation that might occur when people
are instructed to relax without special training in how to do it.

View this TABLE 4. Proportions of having one or more negative side effects
table: commonly associated with relaxation training in each treatment
[in this group, by testing sessions
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METHOD
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES

DISCUSSION
Biofeedback acutely increased both HRV and baroreflex gain, and chronically increased
baroreflex gain and peak expiratory flow even among healthy individuals, in whom these
measures ordinarily are thought to be stable. Other interventions known to increase baroreflex
gain, including ß-adrenergic blockade (30) and exercise training (31), also prevent sudden
death in high-risk populations. Further research may show that HRV biofeedback training
may have similar salutary effects, without the side effects that medication often causes.

The acute baroreflex effects are consistent with our hypothesis that stimulation of HRV at its
resonant frequency by respiratory activity involves amplification of the vagal baroreflex
response, and that this "exercises" the baroreflex. Evidence for resonance in HRV includes the
large and highly significant (p < .0001) increase in total as well as LF HRV (Tables 2–4 )
during biofeedback, all at a single frequency. This frequency was close to 0.1 Hz, which
appears to be the modal resonant frequency across individuals (20). The acute effects of
biofeedback on baroreflex gain were related to respiratory frequency and tidal volume, and
were probably produced by the latter. After we adjusted for changes in respiration rate by
entering respiration rate as an independent variable in the mixed models analysis, we found
that baroreflex gain during biofeedback periods no longer differed significantly from that
during rest periods.

However, the cumulative changes in baroreflex gain, both within and, more importantly,
across sessions, were not simple effects of slow breathing. The effects of biofeedback on
baroreflex gain, both within and between sessions, remained significant, after factoring out the
effects of respiration rate. Thus, although breathing at participants’ resonant frequencies
produced immediate baroreflex augmentation, over time (both within individual sessions and
over weeks of practice) the baroreflex became intrinsically more responsive, an effect that no
longer depended on breathing rate and volume. Thus, the intrinsic resting baroreflex
increased.

We suggest that chronic biofeedback-induced increases in baroreflex gain, which, to our

knowledge, has not previously been reported, reflects neuroplasticity. There are many
opportunities within the baroreflex arc for such plastic changes to occur. It is known that the
neurochemical phenotype of autonomic neurons changes continuously in response to changes
of neural traffic, feedback by innervated targets, and changing neurotransmitter and hormone
levels (32). Also, it is known that baroreflex gain is modulated by higher centers. Electrical
hypothalamic stimulation inhibits baroreflex responses (33). It seems likely that biofeedback
alters central modulation of baroreflex gain.

At the same time, biofeedback appears to modulate traffic over vagal pathways involved in
maintenance of airway tone. However, the lack of correlation between baroreflex and
pulmonary effects suggests that the mechanisms for the two effects may be different.
Similarly, none of the physiological changes were closely associated with self-reported
experiences of relaxation, suggesting also that the cardiorespiratory effects cannot be
explained by relaxation. The fewer relaxation side effects reported in the biofeedback
condition suggest that the training procedures are less stressful than asking people to relax on
demand, without special instruction.

Our peak flow results are consistent with data from preliminary studies showing that HRV
biofeedback may be helpful in treating asthma (3, 16). Similarly, the baroreflex effects
suggest that it may be helpful for various cardiovascular disorders linked to impaired
baroreflex control, including orthostatic hypotension and perhaps other forms of BP
dysregulation, and perhaps other cardiovascular diseases.

The principal limitation of our experiment is its duration. Future research should probe the
possibility that the trend we identified continues.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported by Grant R01HL58805 from the National Heart, Lung, and
Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Received for publication June 12, 2002.

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