I have found a number fo interesting studies from the field of psychophysiology which have profound implications regarding how we approach health & fitness. At the very least we can see that what is going on in our heads (psychologically) is just as important as what is going on in our bodies (physiologically). In fact, what science is discovering is that differentiation of mind and body is just a dualistic construct that we has been handed down to us from our Western cultural heritage.
Here are just a few highlights from the studies:
Reacting to and Recovering From a Stressful Situation: The Negative Affectivity–Physiological Arousal Relationship
Kelly L. Zellars, James A. Meurs, Pamela L. Perrewé, Charles J. Kacmar, Ana Maria Rossi
Journal of Occupational Health PsychologyJanuary 2009, Vol. 14, No. 1, p 11-22
Although it is one of the most widely researched personality correlates of psychological reactions, the relationship between negative affectivity (NA) and physiological arousal has received little attention. This study examined the associations between NA and physiological outcomes of heart rate, skin temperature, and muscle tension. The authors hypothesized that when individuals are in a stressful situation, persons high in NA experience more heightened physiological arousal than those low in NA. After personality and demographic data were collected, 230 individuals participated in a stressful intervention. Individuals high in NA experienced a significantly greater rate of increase in electromyogram during the stress intervention and a lesser rate of decrease in electromyogram after the stressful event than those low in NA. In regard to skin temperature, those high in NA did not recover from the stress intervention as well as those low in NA. Negative affectivity was not related to heart rate.
Conclusions
Our results for NA and skin temperature recovery are consistent with
studies showing that depressed individuals appear to be physiologically
in a state of hyperarousal (Carney, Freedland, & Veith, 2005).
Over time, the mobilization of extra energy (e.g., greater EMG
responses) may lead to high levels of fatigue. Overall, our findings
regarding the ability to return to physiological baselines is important
(Veldhuizen et al., 2003)
because in the short term, slower recovery may influence functioning on
some tasks at work, and over the long term, incomplete or slow recovery
from demands may lead to chronic effects on health and well-being (Frankenhaeuser & Johansson, 1986).
Improving Cardiovascular Recovery From Stress With Brief Poststress Exercise
Sky Chafin, Nicholas Christenfeld, William Gerin
Health PsychologyJanuary 2008, Vol. 27, No. 1S, p S64-S72
Objective:
While exercising before a stressor has been shown to limit the
magnitude of stress responses, we test the use of exercise as a coping
mechanism after the stressor, to limit the duration of the stress
response. Design: After doing difficult mental arithmetic with harassment, male and female undergraduates (N = 102) either walked in place or sat still for 3 minutes, then all sat for a recovery period. Main Outcome Measures:
Continuous blood pressure and heart rate monitoring was done
throughout. Changes from an initial resting baseline were calculated. Results:
During the manipulation, blood pressure for exercisers was higher than
for controls, but soon after the tasks were completed the participants
who had exercised had significantly lower systolic (SBP; M = 3.5 mmHg above prestress baseline, p < .01) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP; M = 0.3 mmHg above prestress baseline, p < .001) than those who had not exercised (SBP: M = 8.8 mmHg, DBP: M = 4.8 mmHg). Conclusion:
Although exercising when angry adds to initial cardiovascular arousal,
it improves recovery afterward. We discuss possible mechanisms for this
effect.
Relationships Between Musical Structure and Psychophysiological Measures of Emotion
Patrick Gomez, Brigitta Danuser
EmotionMay 2007, Vol. 7, No. 2, p 377-387
Psychophysiological studies with music have not examined what exactly in the music might be responsible for the observed physiological phenomena. The authors explored the relationships between 11 structural features of 16 musical excerpts and both self-reports of felt pleasantness and arousal and different physiological measures (respiration, skin conductance, heart rate). Overall, the relationships between musical features and experienced emotions corresponded well with those known between musical structure and perceived emotions. This suggests that the internal structure of the music played a primary role in the induction of the emotions in comparison to extramusical factors. Mode, harmonic complexity, and rhythmic articulation best differentiated between negative and positive valence, whereas tempo, accentuation, and rhythmic articulation best discriminated high arousal from low arousal. Tempo, accentuation, and rhythmic articulation were the features that most strongly correlated with physiological measures. Music that induced faster breathing and higher minute ventilation, skin conductance, and heart rate was fast, accentuated, and staccato. This finding corroborates the contention that rhythmic aspects are the major determinants of physiological responses to music.
Discussion
The results of this study suggest that the internal structure of the music played a primary role in the induction of the emotions in comparison with extramusical factors. The study further suggests that it may be more so for the feeling of arousal than the feeling of valence. In fact, the musical features differentiated more clearly between low-arousal and high-arousal emotions than between negative and positive emotions. This reflects the higher consistency in the arousal reports than in the valence reports across participants (see Gomez & Danuser, 2004a). Particularly small were the differences in the musical structure between the negative low-arousal and positive low-arousal quadrants. This is consistent with studies on emotional expression showing difficulty in the discrimination of positive low-arousal (e.g., tenderness) and negative low-arousal (e.g., sadness) emotions (Campbell, 1942; Gabrielsson & Juslin, 1996; Juslin, 1997; Thompson & Robitaille, 1992). Situational and personal factors may be decisive in the recognition and experience of these feelings.Musical structure is believed to express and induce emotions through iconic relationships (Sloboda & Juslin, 2001). Iconic relationships come about through some formal resemblance between a musical structure and some nonmusical event or agent carrying emotional “tone” (e.g., the human voice; Dowling & Harwood, 1986). The association between musical features that carry valence information and their nonmusical referents might be more easily modifiable by individual factors than the association between musical features that carry arousal information and their nonmusical referents. Fast and loud music shares features with events of high energy and so suggests a high-energy emotion. In fact, tempo is not limited to music; the rate of events in time characterizes many human behaviors (e.g., gait, speech). Walking faster or speaking faster is associated with more energy expenditure. Similarly, a louder sound carries more energy than a softer one and to produce a louder sound with the voice requires more energy than to produce a softer sound. The association between musical features such as fast tempo and high loudness and events of high energy is consistent with the idea that music possesses qualities that Stern (1985) has named vitality affects. Concerning two major determinants of valence—mode and consonance—studies show a late emergence of sensitivity to mode (Dalla Bella, Peretz, Rousseau, & Gosselin, 2001), much later than sensitivity to tempo (Baruch & Drake, 1997), consistent with the idea that sensitivity to mode may be more dependent on individual learning through exposure to the music of our Western culture. Although there might be in the infant a biological preparedness that makes consonance more attractive than dissonance (Zentner & Kagan, 1998), the concept of consonance/dissonance is culturally conditioned; thus, its link with feelings of pleasantness may be largely modulated by individual experience.
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