Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Two married males presented with psychogenic retarded ejaculation. Both reported the complete absence of ejaculation during sexual intercourse. Intervention consisted of meditative relaxation exercises together with supportive (brief) psychotherapy — for the husband and wife in both cases. Normal ejaculatory competence was reported by both subjects following 10–12 months of intervention. This was maintained at follow-up 14–16 months later.

Given the pervasiveness of stress and anxiety in our culture it is important to develop and implement interventions that can be easily utilized by large numbers of people that are readily available, inexpensive and have minimal side effects. Two studies explored the effectiveness of a computer-based heart rate variability biofeedback program on reducing anxiety and negative mood in college students. A pilot project (n = 9) of highly anxious students revealed sizable decreases in anxiety and negative mood following utilizing the program for 4 weeks. A second study (n = 35) employing an immediate versus delayed treatment design replicated the results, although the magnitude of the impact was not quite as strong. Despite observing decreases in anxiety, the expected changes in psychophysiological coherence were not observed.

Alpha-theta neurofeedback has been shown to produce professionally significant performance improvements in music students. The present study aimed to extend this work to a different performing art and compare alpha-theta neurofeedback with another form of biofeedback: heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback. Twenty-four ballroom and Latin dancers were randomly allocated to three groups, one receiving neurofeedback, one HRV biofeedback and one no intervention. Dance was assessed before and after training. Performance improvements were found in the biofeedback groups but not in the control group. Neurofeedback and HRV biofeedback benefited performance in different ways. A replication with larger sample sizes is required.

The direct, and much of the indirect, evidence supporting the existence psychophysiological mechanisms for phantom limb pain is reviewed. Phantom pain is shown to be a symptom class composed of different, but similarly described problems, each having its own underlying mechanisms. At least some descriptive types of phantom pain probably have mainly peripheral, as opposed to only central, origins. Although much of the direct data are preliminary, burning phantom pain is probably related to decreased blood flow in the residual limb, while cramping phantom pain is mainly related to spikelike muscle spasms in the major muscles of the residual limb. Little support is provided for psychological causes for phantom pain, but the expression of phantom pain does appear to be influenced by psychological mechanisms similarly to the ways other chronic pain conditions are influenced. The importance of a careful psychophysiological assessment of patients to treatment success is discussed. Because several different mechanisms are involved, no one treatment is likely to be effective for all of the different types of phantom pain. Appropriate combinations of self-regulation strategies aimed at controlling the underlying physiological problems are likely to be effective in reducing the incidence and severity of burning and cramping types of phantom pain.

The natural tendency of the mind to wander (i.e., mind wandering), is often connected to negative thoughts and emotional states. On the other hand, mindfulness (i.e., the ability to focus one’s attention on the present moment in a non-judgmental way) has acquired a growing interest in recent years given its beneficial role in improving awareness and self-regulation. Starting from previous evidence, this study aims to clarify the psychological, physiological, and affective impact of a mindfulness exercise on mind wandering. Twenty-eight non-expert female meditators were recruited for this study. Heart rate variability (HRV), state mindfulness, mind wandering manifestations, and affective states, were recorded during a baseline condition, a mindfulness breathing observation exercise, and a final rest condition. Subjects reported significant decreases in mind wandering comparing baseline and mindfulness. Changes in mind wandering were mirrored by changes in HRV, with higher HRV during the breathing observation exercise. Significant associations were found between scores of mindfulness, mind wandering, and affective states measured during the task. Our findings confirmed the role of mindfulness in reducing mind wandering and increasing HRV. Results are discussed considering mindfulness associations with self-regulation and well-being.

This study explores a model in which perceived control is affected by multiple sources of feedback at three different stages of the control sequence — person, response, and outcome. Behavior that enhances feedback is termedactivation, while behavior that diminishes feedback is termedinhibition. The study tests the hypothesis that activation at any stage of the sequence leads to greater perceived control than inhibition. Eighty subjects increased or decreased their brain-wave activity (EEG) by making a tone go either on or off, using either an active or a passive strategy. Following 10 60-second trials, subjects rated their perception of control over their EEG activity. The hypothesis that making a tone go on (activation of the outcome) leads to a greater perception of control than making the tone go off (inhibition of the outcome) was confirmed only when subjects decreased their EEG activity. Perceived control was not significantly correlated with actual control, supporting the expectation that they are separately mediated. The results did not support the hypothesis that increasing EEG activity or using an activity strategy would lead to a greater perception of control than decreasing EEG or using a passive strategy. These findings are interpreted as evidence that attention to feedback may be necessary for the predicted bias in perceived control to occur, and that activation and inhibition should be operationalized as the absolute presence versus absence of feedback in testing the hypothesis for the first two stages of control.

Slow-paced breathing at an individual’s resonance frequency (RF) is a common element of heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback training (Laborde et al. in Psychophysiology 59:e13952, 2022). Although there is strong empirical support for teaching clients to slow their respiration rate (RR) to the adult RF range between 4.5 and 6.5 bpm (Lehrer & Gevirtz, 2014), there have been no definitive findings regarding the best inhalation-to-exhalation (IE) ratio to increase HRV when breathing within this range. Three methodological challenges have frustrated previous studies: ensuring participants breathed at the target RR, IE ratio, and the same RR during each IE ratio. The reviewed studies disagreed regarding the effect of IE ratios. Three studies found no IE ratio effect (Cappo & Holmes in J Psychosom Res 28:265-273, 1984; Edmonds et al. in Biofeedback 37:141-146, 2009; Klintworth et al. in Physiol Meas 33:1717-1731, 2012). One reported an advantage for equal inhalations and exhalations (Lin et al. in Int J Psychophysiol 91:206?211, 2014). Four studies observed an advantage for longer exhalations than inhalations (Bae et al. in Psychophysiology 58:e13905, 2021; Laborde et al. in Sustainability 13:7775, 2021; Strauss-Blasche et al. in Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol 27:601?60, 2000; Van Diest et al. in Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 39:171?180, 2014). One study reported an advantage for longer inhalations than exhalations (Paprika et al. in Acta Physiol Hung 101:273?281, 2014). We conducted original (N = 26) and replication (N = 16) studies to determine whether a 1:2 IE ratio produces different HRV time-domain, frequency-domain, or nonlinear metrics than a 1:1 ratio when breathing at 6 bpm. Our original study found that IE ratio did not affect HRV time- and frequency-domain metrics. The replication study confirmed these results and found no effect on HRV nonlinear measurements.

Since there are several popular beliefs about putative health benefits of amusement which are empirically substantiated poorly about putative health benefits of amusement, the immediate cardiovascular effects of amusement were studied in detail. Cardiovascular activity was studied while participants were viewing humorous films, relative to a control condition involving no amusement. High-resolution measures of heart rate, heart rate variability, continuous blood pressure, and respiration were recorded, and the phase synchronization among the variables was analyzed, which provides information on the coordinated behavior of response systems. Viewing humorous films had cardiovascular effects indicating heightened sympathetic arousal, if they elicited intense amusement. No effects were observed for variables indicating parasympathetic input to the heart. The observed effects associated with amusement were not driven by changes in the respiration. The suppression of positive affect expressions did not produce any additional activation. The transient cardiovascular effects of amusement do not correspond to beneficial correlates of a habitual positive affect disposition reported in the literature, demonstrating that it would be erroneous to argue from the long-term effects of a positive affect disposition to the effects of a single amusing event.