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Vital sign monitoring is dominated by precise but costly contact-based sensors. Contactless devices such as radars provide a promising alternative. In this article, the effects of lateral radar positions on breathing and heartbeat extraction are evaluated based on a sleep study. A lateral radar position is a radar placement from which multiple human body zones are mapped onto different radar range sections. These body zones can be used to extract breathing and heartbeat motions independently from one another via these different range sections. Radars were positioned above the bed as a conventional approach and on a bedside table as well as at the foot end of the bed as lateral positions. These positions were evaluated based on six nights of sleep collected from healthy volunteers with polysomnography (PSG) as a reference system. For breathing extraction, comparable results were observed for all three radar positions. For heartbeat extraction, a higher level of agreement between the radar foot end position and the PSG was found. An example of the distinction between thoracic and abdominal breathing using a lateral radar position is shown. Lateral radar positions could lead to a more detailed analysis of movements along the body, with the potential for diagnostic applications.

Purpose: To determine how repeatable thoracoabdominal compartmental contributions to tidal volume (V T ) are across different intensities of exercise, and to examine if the pattern of breathing for a given minute ventilation (V̇ E ) is reproducible between constant-load and ramp exercise tests., Methods: Ten healthy adults (age: 27 ± 6 yr, peak oxygen uptake: 42 ± 5 mL min -1  kg -1 ) completed a 25 W·min -1 ramp cycling test to exhaustion and two repetitions of a step cycling test on separate days. V T , breathing rate (BR), and V̇ E were assessed using a bi-directional turbine, and thoracic and abdominal contributions to V T were measured using respiratory inductance plethysmography. Repeatability (step vs. step) and reproducibility (step vs. ramp) of responses were assessed using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC)., Results: The relative compartment contributions to V T during step exercise were highly repeatable for low (ICC = 0.87, p = 0.003), moderate (ICC = 0.89, p = 0.002) and heavy (ICC = 0.93, p = 0.001) exercise. Inter-individual differences in response to higher intensity exercise were observed, as two participants had significant relationships between V T and their percent compartmental contributions to V T , but five others did not. No differences were identified between ramp and step exercise tests for V T (main effect: p = 0.61) or BR (main effect: p = 0.77) at matched V̇ E for each intensity, and the pattern of breathing was reproducible for each intensity., Conclusion: These findings suggest the way young healthy adults breathe for a given V̇ E is repeatable day-to-day and reproducible between different exercise protocols., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper introduces and evaluates an innovative sensor for unobtrusive in-car respiration monitoring, mounted on the backrest of the driver's seat. The sensor seamlessly integrates into the vehicle, measuring breathing rates continuously without requiring active participation from the driver. The paper proves the feasibility of unobtrusive in-car measurements over long periods of time. Operation of the sensor was investigated over 12 participants sitting in the driver seat. A total of 107 min of driving in diverse conditions with overall coverage rate of 84.45% underscores the sensor potential to reliably capture physiological changes in breathing rate for fatigue and stress detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abnormalities in cardiorespiratory measurements have repeatedly been found in patients with panic disorder (PD) during laboratory-based assessments. However, recordings performed outside laboratory settings are required to test the ecological validity of these findings. Wearable devices, such as sensor-imbedded garments, biopatches, and smartwatches, are promising tools for this purpose. We systematically reviewed the evidence for wearables-based cardiorespiratory assessments in PD by searching for publications on the PubMed, PsycINFO, and Embase databases, from inception to 30 July 2022. After the screening of two-hundred and twenty records, eight studies were included. The limited number of available studies and critical aspects related to the uncertain reliability of wearables-based assessments, especially concerning respiration, prevented us from drawing conclusions about the cardiorespiratory function of patients with PD in daily life. We also present preliminary data on a pilot study conducted on volunteers at the Villa San Benedetto Menni Hospital for evaluating the accuracy of heart rate (HR) and breathing rate (BR) measurements by the wearable Zephyr BioPatch compared with the Quark-b2 stationary testing system. Our exploratory results suggested possible BR and HR misestimation by the wearable Zephyr BioPatch compared with the Quark-b2 system. Challenges of wearables-based cardiorespiratory assessment and possible solutions to improve their reliability and optimize their significant potential for the study of PD pathophysiology are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes a computational algorithm which extracts the frequency, timings and signal segments corresponding to respiratory phases, through buccal and nasal acoustic signal processing. The proposal offers a computational solution for medical applications which require on-site or remote patient monitoring and evaluation of pulmonary pathologies, such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The state of the art presents a few respiratory evaluation proposals through buccal and nasal acoustic signals. Most proposals focus on respiratory signals acquired by a medical professional, using stethoscopes and electrodes located on the thorax. In this case the signal acquisition process is carried out through the use of a low cost and easy to use mask, which is equipped with strategically positioned and connected electret microphones, to maximize the proposed algorithm’s performance. The algorithm employs signal processing techniques such as signal envelope detection, decimation, fast Fourier transform (FFT) and detection of peaks and time intervals via estimation of local maxima and minima in a signal’s envelope. For the validation process a database of 32 signals of different respiratory modes and frequencies was used. Results show a maximum average error of 2.23% for breathing rate, 2.81% for expiration time and 3.47% for inspiration time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breathing interventions have been shown to improve sport performance. Although evidence exists to support the role of perceived arousal as a critical underlying mechanism of breathing interventions, methodological differences in the literature preclude clear understanding of potential contributing factors to the effectiveness of such interventions. Under neutral contexts, we have demonstrated attention, dyspnea, and hindrance may need to be considered as mediators of how breathing frequency affects motor performance. We sought to extend our previous findings to determine how breathing frequency affects motor performance under varying emotional conditions. Participants (N =35, Mage =21.68, SD =2.96; 20 females) performed slow, normal, and fast metronomepaced breathing while viewing pleasant and unpleasant stimuli prior to executing a pinch grip task. Performance was assessed via reaction time (RT), variability (V) and error (AE). Assessment of indices of perceived arousal included measuring heart rate variability (HRV) and visual analog scale responses. Visual analog scales were also used to assess attention, dyspnea, and hindrance. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed slow breathing increased RT and HRV compared to normal and fast breathing under emotional conditions (all p's<0.05). Hierarchical multiple regression models revealed that decreased breathing frequency predicted increases in RT (β = -0.25, p <0.05) under pleasant conditions, while predicting increases in HRV for unpleasant conditions (β = -0.45, p <0.001). Increases in dyspnea (β =0.29, p <0.05) and hindrance (β =0.35, p <0.01) predicted increases in RT under pleasant conditions, while only increases in hindrance predicted increases in RT under unpleasant conditions (β =0.41, p <0.01). Decreases in breathing frequency predicted increases in HRV under unpleasant conditions (β = -0.45, p <0.001). Overall, our findings suggest under varying emotional contexts breathing frequency differentially affects movement, potentially mediated by factors other than perceived arousal. In addition, these results inform the use of breath regulation as an antecedent emotion regulation strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emotional reactions to social exclusion can be associated with physiological responses that could allow researchers to estimate the valence and intensity of the ongoing affective state. In this work, respiratory activity was analysed to verify whether breathing rate variations can be considered as predictive factors of subsequent positive and negative affect after inclusion and exclusion in young women. A standard Cyberball task was implemented and manipulated information was provided to the participants to create both conditions. The participants were socially excluded by limiting their participation to 6% of the total number of passes among three teammates and providing negative feedback about them. The results suggest that breathing rate can be a good option to infer subjective feelings during social interactions and a promising feature to incorporate into modern emotion monitoring systems as an alternative to other physiological measures. Furthermore, the interaction between metaemotion and physiology was studied by recording breathing rate while completing the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, evidencing a breathing rate increase during the emotion self-assessment only after exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characterization of breathing dynamics provides researchers and clinicians the ability to differentiate respiratory compensation, impairment, disease progression, ventilator assistance, and the onset of respiratory failure. However, within many sub-fields of respiratory physiology, we still have challenges identifying changes within the breathing dynamics and critical respiratory states. We discuss one fundamental modeling of breathing and how modeling imprecise assumptions decades ago regarding breathing are still propagating into our quantitative analysis today, limiting our characterization and modeling of breathing. The assumption that breathing is a continuous sinusoidal wave that can consist of a single frequency which is composed of a stationary time-invariant process has limited our expanded discussion of breathing dynamics, modeling, functional testings, and metrics. Therefore, we address major misnomers regarding breathing dynamics, specifically rate, rhythm, frequency, and period. We demonstrate how these misnomers impact the characterization and modeling through the force equations that are linked to the Work of Breathing (WoB) and our interpretation of breathing dynamics through the fundamental models and create possible erroneous evaluations of work of breathing. This discussion and simplified non-periodic WoB models ultimately sets the foundation for improved quantitative approaches needed to further our understanding of breathing dynamics, compensation, and adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abnormalities in cardiorespiratory measurements have repeatedly been found in patients with panic disorder (PD) during laboratory-based assessments. However, recordings performed outside laboratory settings are required to test the ecological validity of these findings. Wearable devices, such as sensor-imbedded garments, biopatches, and smartwatches, are promising tools for this purpose. We systematically reviewed the evidence for wearables-based cardiorespiratory assessments in PD by searching for publications on the PubMed, PsycINFO, and Embase databases, from inception to 30 July 2022. After the screening of two-hundred and twenty records, eight studies were included. The limited number of available studies and critical aspects related to the uncertain reliability of wearables-based assessments, especially concerning respiration, prevented us from drawing conclusions about the cardiorespiratory function of patients with PD in daily life. We also present preliminary data on a pilot study conducted on volunteers at the Villa San Benedetto Menni Hospital for evaluating the accuracy of heart rate (HR) and breathing rate (BR) measurements by the wearable Zephyr BioPatch compared with the Quark-b2 stationary testing system. Our exploratory results suggested possible BR and HR misestimation by the wearable Zephyr BioPatch compared with the Quark-b2 system. Challenges of wearables-based cardiorespiratory assessment and possible solutions to improve their reliability and optimize their significant potential for the study of PD pathophysiology are presented.

To understand the growing needs of an aging human population, there is demand for scalable and reproducible approaches to study animal models of aging and to test novel therapeutic interventions. We investigated the sensitivity and utility of a continuous monitoring platform and its digital biomarkers (motion, breathing rate, and wheel running) to evaluate behavioral and physiological differences between "young" (12 weeks) and "old" (23 months) male C57BL/6J mice with or without running wheels in the home cage. Compared to young mice, old mice showed marked reductions in motion and breathing rate, as well as altered circadian rhythms. Mice without running wheels possessed lower breathing rates compared to their counterparts with running wheels. Digital biomarkers showed age-dependent changes in response to routine procedures (cage changes and blood sampling) and alterations in subjects that unexpectedly reached endpoint. Continuous collection of digital biomarkers in the home cage can enhance current approaches by providing unbiased longitudinal monitoring for large-scale aging studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Altered breathing rate is an important sign of disease status. Currently used machine-based monitoring of the breathing rate includes contact with the body, which may result in pain and discomfort. In this paper, a non-contact breathing monitoring technique is proposed by integrating RGB and thermal imaging systems with RGB-thermal image registration. This method provides a linear mapping for automated selection of the region of interest (ROI) followed by tracking to extract the breathing rate. To evaluate the efficacy of the proposed approach and its robustness against motion, talking, varying breathing rate or rhythm, and high ambient temperature, this study was conducted in three phases. Validation of the proposed approach demonstrated a strong agreement with the reference method of breathing rate monitoring using a respiration belt. During normal breathing, the mean absolute error (MAE) reached 0.11 bpm (breaths per minute). While in more challenging conditions, defined by three phases, the MAE reached 1.46, 2.08, and 1.69 bpm, respectively. In short, the proposed method performance is a promising alternative to a contact-based method due to its strong agreement and might be useful in diverse applications such as sport studies, rehabilitation centres, quarantine centres, and in hospital or airport screening during the COVID 19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breathing rate (BR) is one of the vital signs used in physiological monitoring. Conventional BR monitoring requires attaching wired canula/thermistor on the buco-nasal area to measure air-flow, inducing discomfort to the subject. Abdominal/thoracic belts are also used to detect breathing movements whereas esophageal pressure is the gold standard to measure breathing effort. In this paper, we aim to validate the consistency of using only bed-sheet pressure sensors to monitor the BR in healthy adults. We propose a method and demonstrate that it could be used interchangeably with respiratory belts which were approved for medical use by the American Association of Sleep Medicine (AASM). We build a ten-sinusoidal model-based extended Kalman Filter to adaptively estimate the breathing movements’ signal from the body pressure distribution data. The model is posture-specific, I.e., parameters are optimized based on the detected posture. An artificial neural network (ANN) model was used to detect four bed postures to perform the kalman filter parameters’ optimization step. The BRs of 12 healthy adults are recorded using the pressure mattress and a reference respiratory belt. To validate the method as a surrogate measure, a Bland-Altman (BA) analysis was performed on both pressure and belt data, and the linear relationship is evaluated using Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC). Interestingly, a high inter-rater agreement, an average maximum difference of 1.93 Breaths Per Minute (BrPM), a confidence interval of 95%, along with a strong linear relationship of 95.8% on average between the two methods were interestingly obtained. The presented results show the suitability of the proposed solution in medical applications requiring respiration monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Objectives: Unobtrusive monitoring of sleep and sleep disorders in children presents challenges. We investigated the possibility of using Ultra-Wide band (UWB) radar to measure sleep in children.Methods: Thirty-two children scheduled to undergo a clinical polysomnography participated; their ages ranged from 2 months to 14 years. During the polysomnography, the children's body movements and breathing rate were measured by an UWB-radar. A total of 38 features were calculated from the motion signals and breathing rate obtained from the raw radar signals. Adaptive boosting was used as machine learning classifier to estimate sleep stages, with polysomnography as gold standard method for comparison.Results: Data of all participants combined, this study achieved a Cohen's Kappa coefficient of 0.67 and an overall accuracy of 89.8% for wake and sleep classification, a Kappa of 0.47 and an accuracy of 72.9% for wake, rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, and non-REM sleep classification, and a Kappa of 0.43 and an accuracy of 58.0% for wake, REM sleep, light sleep and deep sleep classification.Conclusion: Although the current performance is not sufficient for clinical use yet, UWB radar is a promising method for non-contact sleep analysis in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research works on operator monitoring underline the benefit of taking into consideration several signal modalities to improve accuracy for an objective mental state diagnosis. Heart rate (HR) is one of the most utilized systemic measures to assess cognitive workload (CW), whereas, respiration parameters are hardly utilized. This study aims at verifying the contribution of analyzing respiratory signals to extract features to evaluate driver’s activity and CW variations in driving. Eighteen subjects participated in the study. The participants carried out two different cognitive tasks requiring different CW demands, a single task as well as a competing cognitive task realized while driving in a simulator. Our results confirm that both HR and breathing rate (BR) increase in driving and are sensitive to CW. However, HR and BR are differently modulated by the CW variations in driving. Specifically, HR is affected by both driving activity and CW, whereas, BR is suitable to evidence a variation of CW only when driving is not required. On the other hand, spectral features characterizing respiratory signal could be also used similarly to HR variability indices to detect high CW episodes. These results hint the use of respiration as an alternative to HR to monitor the driver mental state in autonomic vehicles in order to predict the available cognitive resources if the user has to take over the vehicle.

Continued developments of sensor technology including hardware miniaturization and increased sensitivity have enabled the development of less intrusive methods to monitor physiological parameters during daily life. In this work, we present methods to recover cardiac and respiratory parameters using accelerometer and gyroscope sensors on the wrist. We demonstrate accurate measurements in a controlled laboratory study where participants (n = 12) held three different positions (standing up, sitting down and lying down) under relaxed and aroused conditions. In particular, we show it is possible to achieve a mean absolute error of 1.27 beats per minute (STD: 3.37) for heart rate and 0.38 breaths per minute (STD: 1.19) for breathing rate when comparing performance with FDA-cleared sensors. Furthermore, we show comparable performance with a state-of-the-art wrist-worn heart rate monitor, and when monitoring heart rate of three individuals during two consecutive nights of in-situ sleep measurements.

We tested the validity of the Hexoskin wearable vest to monitor heart rate (HR), breathing rate (BR), tidal volume ( VT), minute ventilation, and hip motion intensity (HMI) in comparison with laboratory standard devices during lying, sitting, standing, and walking. Twenty healthy young volunteers participated in this study. First, participants walked 6 min on a treadmill at speeds of 1, 3, and 4.5 km/h followed by increasing treadmill grades until 80% of their predicted maximal heart rate. Second, lying, sitting, and standing tasks were performed (5 min each) followed by 6 min of treadmill walking at 80% of their ventilatory threshold. Analysis of each individual's mean values under each resting or exercise condition by the 2 measurement systems revealed low coefficient of variation and high intraclass correlation values for HR, BR, and HMI. The Bland-Altman results from HR, BR, and HMI indicated no deviation of the mean value from zero and relatively small variability about the mean. VT and minute ventilation were provided in arbitrary units by the Hexoskin device; however, relative magnitude of change from Hexoskin closely tracked the laboratory standard method. Hexoskin presented low variability, good agreement, and consistency. The Hexoskin wearable vest was a valid and consistent tool to monitor activities typical of daily living such as different body positions (lying, sitting, and standing) and various walking speeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence indicates that activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) suppresses physiological responses associated with motion sickness. Research also shows paced breathing increases PNS activation; the current study examines the use of paced diaphragmatic breathing (DB) training to quell motion sickness symptoms. Healthy participants (N = 60) were pre-screened for motion sickness susceptibility. Participants were then randomly assigned to either a control condition, focusing on environmental awareness, or to an experimental condition implementing paced DB. Following this, participants were exposed to a virtual reality (VR) motion sickness experience, while heart rate variability, breathing rate (RPM), and motion sickness ratings were collected. Results demonstrated participants in the DB condition had higher PNS activation and reported fewer motion sickness symptoms during the VR experience than the participants in the control condition. Results suggest that the DB protocol can be used to significantly increase PNS tone and decrease the development of motion sickness symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correlations between behavioural traits constrain animals to a limited range of behavioural choices and set a limit to the available variation in behavioural phenotype of a population. These constraints are especially important during stressful situations, potentially limiting the ability to cope with stress appropriately. As yet, very little consideration has been given to a possible role for sexual selection in maintaining differences in behavioural stability within individuals: sex-specific differences in behavioural correlations have been seldom studied, especially in the wild. In this field study, we investigated associations between neophobia (latency to enter nest in the presence of a novel object), nest defence (response to a model predator) and breathing rate in response to handling in breeding pied flycatchers ( Ficedula hypoleuca). We did not find any significant difference in antipredator responses between males and females, which indicates low sexual conflict over parental care in the pied flycatcher. However, females were more neophobic than males, while males and females did not differ in their breathing rates. Further, our study demonstrated a strong positive correlation between nest defence behaviour and neophobia in male, but not in female pied flycatchers. Males that defended their nest more had lower breathing rate and higher latency to resume nestling feeding after encountering a predator decoy than males that mobbed less intensely. We found only weak evidence that nest partners might affect each other's behaviour in these contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method of screen-printing a conductive carbon nanotube printing paste onto textile substrates to prepare textronic strain sensors for measuring breathing rate. Screen-printed sensors can be integrated with garments after construction and do not require significant modification of the construction process. Personalisation of the garment is used to optimize sensor placement for improved measurement accuracy. Changes in the electrical resistance of the sensor as a result of changes in strain are detected and used to determine the breathing rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: A prospectively randomised, controlled animal study was conducted to analyse the influence of vagal injury on acute cardio-respiratory responses to blast injury. Materials and methods: We used a previously described model of blast-fragment combined injuries to divide dogs randomly into three groups: normal control, blast injury with fragment shot at the masseter and blast injury with fragment shot at the neck. The vagal histomorphologic changes were investigated by haematoxylin-eosin staining and immunocytochemical analysis of neuron-specific enolase and glial fibrillary acidic protein. The indices of respiration, heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature were recorded continuously before and after blast exposure. Results: The vagal injury was more severe in the neck-injured than in the face-injured group. However, bradycardia, hypotension and absence of compensatory peripheral vasoconstriction, which are typically seen in animals subjected to blast injury without vagal nerve injuries, were partly inhibited when the vagal nerve was injured. Conclusion: A vagally mediated reflex, such as a cardio-respiratory system defensive reflex that caused shock, was observed immediately after blast pressure wave injury. These observations may have important implications for the emergency management of blast injury cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although increasing attention is given to both the causes and consequences of variation in animal personality, the measurement of personality in captive or free-ranging individuals remains an issue. In particular, one important question concerns whether personality should be established from the existence of complex behavioral syndromes (a suite of correlated behavioral traits) or could be more easily deduced from a single variable. In that Context, it has recently been suggested that handling stress, measured through breathing rate during handling, could be a good descriptor of personality, at least in passerine birds. The authors experimentally investigated to what extent handling stress was correlated with personality in female zebra finches (Tueniopygia guttata), as assessed from a suite of repeatable behavioral traits, including activity, exploratory behavior, neophobia, and reaction to startle. Although breathing rate was repeatable across individuals, it was not related to any behavioral trait, suggesting that it cannot be used to quickly predict personality, at least in zebra finches. Breathing rate during handling, in addition, was related to morphology, questioning the fact that breathing rate during handling reflects personality irrespective of individual state. The authors suggest that inference on global personality from a reduced number of traits should be performed with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Previous studies have observed reduced vagal modulation in patients with acute schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives, thus suggesting a genetic predisposition. To investigate vagal modulation, we analyzed the coupling between heart rate and breathing as a putative measure of central autonomic function in 19 patients, 19 of their relatives and 19 matched control subjects. The interaction of heart rate and breathing was investigated in all groups applying the non-linear parameter cross-ApEn, indicating the asynchrony between both time series. In addition, measures of the time and frequency domain of heart rate variability (HRV) were obtained. The main finding of our study is a significantly increased cross-ApEn value, indicating reduced central vagal modulation both in relatives and patients suffering from schizophrenia. Non-linear measures of HRV proved to more sensitively differentiate relatives from control subjects. Furthermore, we observed a correlation between psychopathology and breathing, indicating that positive symptoms are associated with a higher degree of regularity in the breathing pattern. Our results suggest that autonomic dysfunction previously described for patients suffering from schizophrenia is also present in first-degree relatives. This might relate to changes of brainstem activity in patients and relatives, and a common genetic background in patients and their family members can be assumed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Altered amygdala activity in patients with schizophrenia can influence respiratory patterns and consequently cardiovascular parameters. Hence, we examined respiration and heart rate time series complexity as well as coupling of both signals. Electrocardiograms and respiratory signals were obtained from 25 unmedicated patients with schizophrenia and controls. Approximate entropy (ApEn) was calculated for heart and respiratory rates as well as cross-ApEn reflecting coupling of both signals. Coupling was decreased indicating diminished vagal modulation at the brain stem level. Regularity of breathing correlated with disease severity. These data might reflect a lack of inhibitory control over brainstem centers in schizophrenia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study investigated the effect of psychological pressure on physiological responses during the golf putting stroke. Six young adults (four males and two females) participated in the study. The experiment was comprised of a contest that consisted of four sessions, with a dinner prize awarded to the winner. In each session, the subject was instructed to attempt 20, 9-foot putts. Eye, head, and putter motions, as well as heart rate and breathing rate, were objectively recorded during each trial. For all sessions, each successful putt was awarded a score of +2 points. However, as the four sessions progressed, any missed putt was given progressively greater negative scores: -2, -3, -4, and -5 points, respectively. At the end of the experiment, the subject rated the perceived pressure during each session on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 corresponding to no pressure and 5 corresponding to extreme pressure. Overall, the results demonstrated that the apparently simple act of putting involves a complex interplay among various physiological and neurological control parameters, hence reflecting a myriad of emotions that are magnified under increased psychological pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper proposes the design of a sleep monitoring platform. It consists of an entire sleep monitoring system based on a smart glove sensor called UpNEA worn during the night for signals acquisition, a mobile application, and a remote server called AeneA for cloud computing. UpNEA acquires a 3-axis accelerometer signal, a photoplethysmography (PPG), and a peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO 2 ) signal from the index finger. Overnight recordings are sent from the hardware to a mobile application and then transferred to AeneA. After cloud computing, the results are shown in a web application, accessible for the user and the clinician. The AeneA sleep monitoring activity performs different tasks: sleep stages classification and oxygen desaturation assessment; heart rate and respiration rate estimation; tachycardia, bradycardia, atrial fibrillation, and premature ventricular contraction detection; and apnea and hypopnea identification and classification. The PPG breathing rate estimation algorithm showed an absolute median error of 0.5 breaths per minute for the 32 s window and 0.2 for the 64 s window. The apnea and hypopnea detection algorithm showed an accuracy (Acc) of 75.1%, by windowing the PPG in one-minute segments. The classification task revealed 92.6% Acc in separating central from obstructive apnea, 83.7% in separating central apnea from central hypopnea and 82.7% in separating obstructive apnea from obstructive hypopnea. The novelty of the integrated algorithms and the top-notch cloud computing products deployed, encourage the production of the proposed solution for home sleep monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of breathing on heart rate and heart rate variability were assessed in 6-, 8-, and ]0-year-old boys. Rate of breathing affected only heart rate variability, with faster breathing producing more stable heart rate. Replicating previous findings with adults, depth of breathing affected both heart rate and heart rate variability, with deep breathing producing the fastest, most variable heart rate. The absolute effects of the respiratory manipulations on heart rate variability were found to be greater for children than for adults, and there was also a developmental trend of both decreasing heart rate and variability. Implications of these findings for developmental studies using heart rate as a dependent measure are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of depth and rate of breathing on heart rate (HR) and HR variability were observed in two experiments. Respiration rate (RR) affected only cardiac stability, faster breathing producing more stable cardiac rate. Respiration depth (RD) affected both HR level and variability. Deep breathing produced faster, more variable HR, while shallow breathing had the opposite effects. A third experiment, in which Ss were trained to control HR using respiration, further illustrated the dramatic effects of respiration on cardiac rate. Implications of these results for experiments utilizing HR as a dependent variable and studies of autonomic control were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]