Psychophysiological tasks involving speech cause erratic respiratory patterns that explain low-frequency HRV and SAPV variations, making them questionable markers of autonomic function.
Observational (n=25)
Does respiration influence heart-rate and blood-pressure variability during psychophysiological tasks involving speech in adult subjects?
The use of HRV and SAPV as markers of autonomic function during speech tasks is highly questionable due to the confounding influence of respiratory volume variations.
Changes in heart-rate and systolic arterial pressure variability (HRV and SAPV) indexes have been used in psychophysiology to assess autonomic activation, including during tasks involving speech. The current article clearly demonstrates in a sample of 25 adult subjects that the erratic and broadband respiratory patterns during such tasks violate the usual assumption that respiration is limited to the high-frequency band (0.15-0.4 Hz). For these tasks, interindividual differences and rest-task changes in HRV and SAPV in the low-frequency band (0.04-0.15 Hz) can be explained, to a large extent, by variations in the respiratory volume signal. This makes the use of HRV and SAPV as markers of autonomic function during these tasks highly questionable. Furthermore, a number of subjects with long respiratory period at rest were identified, whose presence in the sample can bias the estimation of baseline rest values.
Beda et al. (Wed,) reported a observational. Psychophysiological tasks involving speech vs. Rest was evaluated on Heart-rate and systolic arterial pressure variability (HRV and SAPV) indexes. Psychophysiological tasks involving speech cause erratic respiratory patterns that explain low-frequency HRV and SAPV variations, making them questionable markers of autonomic function.