Cardiovascular respiratory system
From EuroVR Knowledge Base
Description
arrhythmia, additional heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse volume amplitude) The cardiovascular response system is nearly entirely under involuntary control thus it reflects the functional state of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS maintains the adaptation to metabolic demands (thus energising behaviour). Cardiovascular reactivity is represented by parameters obtained from the electrical activity from the heart itself (measured by the electrocardiogram), the resulting peripheral vascular effects (blood pressure, pulse wave derived parameters) or by parameters reflecting homeostatic regulation processes as bar receptor reflex or respiratory sinus arrhythmia (e.g. Wilhelm et al., 1999). Heart rate reflects various response preparation and energising processes related to mental load, effort, attention, emotion etc. Established as a parameter for workload is the variability of heart rate in a restricted frequency range cantered around .1 Hz (Wilhelm et al., 1999). Blood pressure is one of the most meaningful parameters of the cardiovascular response system directly reflecting changes of the homeostatic regulation. Blood volume and blood flow reflect changes in peripheral vascular state in response to a certain situation. Blood volume recordings reflect relatively slow changes (i.e. changes in tonic level) in the amount of blood in the tissue examined. Pulse volume refers to the heart synchronous pulsatile change in blood flow. Thus pulse volume is a measure of amplitude of individual pulses, the phasic measure of blood flow. Decrease in peripheral (finger) pulse volume is a very sensitive indicator for both mental and emotional strain (Stern 1974; Wesseling et al., 1985).
Primary Reference or Source
- Mager, R., Stoermer, R., Schaerli, H., Estoppey, K.H., Bullinger, A.H., Patel, H., Stedmon, A., Nichols, S.C., D’Cruz, M. (2003). Usability test-battery manual. Deliverable for the European Commission, IST Project VIEW of the Future, IST-2000-26089;
- Dillon, C., Keogh, E., Freeman, J., & Davidoff, J. (2000). Aroused and immersed: The psychophysiology of presence. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Presence, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
