Methods of Computing Physiological Data

Higher RSA indicates Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a measure of heart rate variability closely associated with vagus nerve function. RSA is calculated from changes in time intervals between heartbeats linked to the respiration cycle. Heart beats will increase when breathing in and decrease when exhaling. In young people, the presence of a high RSA is considered an indication of strong health while in older people, such variability in the heart rate can become a concern as it is associated with heart disease. RSA can also reveal aspects of an individual’s psychological and social character (see right) To calculate RSA there exists several programs, including Cardio Batch and Acqknowledge. This investigation ultimately set out to find if both programs would analyze heart rate and respiration data in the same way, outputting the same RSA value. If so, researchers could replace the usage of one for the other. ● ● ● ● Prosocial behaviour Better emotion recognition Greater compassion Less hostility Lower RSA associated with ● Callous Unemotional (CU) traits ● Lack of social awareness, and emotional expressivity ● Collect respiration and electrocardiogram (electrical activity of the heart) using electrodes and respiration belt while i. Subject is watching a nature video for 5 min ii. Subject is building magnet shapes for 5 min iii. Subject is building magnet shapes while narrating actions for 5 min iv. Subject is talking for 5 min ● Analyze data in four different ways i. Without editing the data anywhere, find the RSA through Cardio Batch ii. Edit data on CardioEdit and find RSA through Cardio Batch iii. Through CardioEdit, edit data corrected for missing R-wave peaks in Acqknowledge. Then find RSA through Cardio Batch iv. Without editing the data anywhere, find the RSA through Acqknowledge v. Correct R-wave peaks on Acqknowledge and find RSA through Acqknowledge ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Wagner, N.J., Hastings, P.D. & Rubin, K.H. J Abnorm Child Psychol (2018) 46: 1439. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0374-6 Switzer A, Caldwell W, da Estrela C, Barker ET and Gouin J-P (2018) Dyadic Coping, Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia, and Depressive Symptoms Among Parents of Preschool Children. Front. Psychol. 9:1959. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01959