The Impact of Cardiac Coherence on Executive Functioning in Children with Emotional Disturbances

OBJECTIVE: We used archival data originally collected using a quasi-experimental design to analyze inhibition, emotional regulation, working memory, and cognitive flexibility before and after an intervention of a coherence training program incorporating heart rate variability biofeedback. METHOD: Sixty-three participants, ages 7 to 14 years, were involved in the study: 30 in the treatment group and 33 in the control group. Split-plot analysis of variance (SPANOVA) was used to assess the impact of the intervention for the 4 dependent variables. RESULTS: SPANOVA yielded no significant differences among inhibition, emotional regulation, working memory, and cognitive flexibility in response to the coherence training intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Future research in this area would benefit from the use of more objective measures of executive functioning. Qualitative assessment of child-reported symptomatology and treatment acceptability on the part of students and staff would also be an area for future research.