A Much Needed PEP Talk - Advances in Measuring Changes of Sympathetic Drive
Speaker
Viktoriya BabenkoLocation
Sage Center, Psychology 1312Info
The human body must undergo constant modifications in response to the ever-changing environment that we live in. The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) must initiate a stress response rapidly and effectively. Quantitative measures of the SNS including metrics of cardiac mobilization provide insight into motivational states, stress reactivity, reward sensitivity, task engagement and decision making. The combination of electrocardiogram (ECG) and impedance cardiography (ICG) data estimate pre-ejection period (PEP) to define changes in SNS activity. In this talk, I will introduce an experiment where we employ a relatively simple arithmetic task incorporating a feedback manipulation to examine if we can control and categorize the type of stress response a person is having. Additionally, I will present a wearable heart monitor that records the opening and closing of the aortic valve to bypass the limitations of ICG - introducing an improved method for acquiring recordings of cardiac contractility as a means for tracking changes of SNS activity along with open-source software for processing it’s signal.
