Psychophysiological Mechanisms of the Initial Stage of Learning to Read. Part I

Human Physiology - The study of reading mechanisms is an urgent multidisciplinary fundamental scientific problem. Several reviews on the psychophysiology of reading have been published in Russian...     

Foreword

This issue of Soviet Psychology has been compiled by L. Mecacci and J. Brozek, who have also written an introduction to the topic of Soviet psychophysiology.     

Future perspectives for applied psychophysiology and biofeedback

Current circumstances in both the health science and health care delivery systems in our country have created serious problems for health professionals, particularly for those of us in the relatively young field of biofeedback. At the same time, recent and emerging developments in the neurosciences and in technologies for biological measurement offer exciting new opportunities for the applied psychophysiology upon which our field is based. Examples of these developments include the elucidation of potential neurophysiological mechanisms that may mediate the psychophysiology of immune system responses, and technical achievements leading to on-line, noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging of brain neurochemistry. The issue of perspective is raised in relation to our response to both the challenge and the opportunities of our times.     

Applied Psychophysiology: Commentary from a Rehabilitation Perspective

This commentary endorses a broad definition of applied psychophysiology that can accommodate professionals from many different disciplines, including rehabilitation. As we adopt and implement a definition, we need to be alert to outmoded terminology suggesting that applied psychophysiology procedures are primarily for functional and stress-related disorders.     

Future perspectives for applied psychophysiology and biofeedback

Current circumstances in both the health science and health care delivery systems in our country have created serious problems for health professionals, particularly for those of us in the relatively young field of biofeedback. At the same time, recent and emerging developments in the neurosciences and in technologies for biological measurement offer exciting new opportunities for the applied psychophysiology upon which our field is based. Examples of these developments include the elucidation of potential neurophysiological mechanisms that may mediate the psychophysiology of immune system responses, and technical achievements leading to on-line, noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging of brain neurochemistry. The issue of perspective is raised in relation to our response to both the challenge and the opportunities of our times.This was the presidential address delivered to the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, San Diego, March 19, 1989. The work was supported by the Veterans Administration.     

Learning from Our Treatment Failures

Barton and Blanchard's report that multicomponent behavioral treatment fails to modify chronic daily headaches is discussed with reference to the effectiveness of behavioral and drug treatments for chronic tension-type headache, the distinction between chronic tension-type headache and chronic migraine, and the psychophysiology of episodic vs. persistent pain (K. A. Barton & E. B. Blanchard, 2001). It is suggested that the treatment of chronic daily headache can be improved through research on the benefits of combined behavioral and drug therapy, the psychophysiology of persistent pain, and methods of preventing episodic headaches from evolving to daily headaches.     

Features of brain mechanisms of regulation of the level of wakefulness, organization of cognitive functions and adaptive reactions in children with attention deficit with hyperactivity syndrome and healthy children

In work results of research of features of infringement superslow cortical-truncal, limbic-reticular and upsegmentary mechanisms of regulation of a level of wakefulness at children of 6-7 years with a syndrome of deficiency of attention and hyperactivity and healthy children, pupils of 1 class of a comprehensive school with different type of psychological adaptation are generalized. At use system-integrativity psychophysiology the approach features are established: a) organization emotional-motivational and cognitive spheres; b) psychophysiology mechanisms of formation of adaptive reactions at tactile interaction about earlier unknown alive object--a dolphin at the surveyed contingent of healthy and ill children.     

Applied Psychophysiology: Beyond the Boundaries of Biofeedback (Mending a Wall, a Brief History of Our Field, and Applications to Control of the Muscles and Cardiorespiratory Systems)

The field of applied psychophysiology overlaps a number of others, from behavioral and psychosomatic medicine to Eastern disciplines and complementary medicine. Although the proliferation of societies and professional identities across these fields emphasizes this diversity, it also may hinder growth. The history of our field is one of innovation, often at odds with conventional wisdom and practice. It is important that this innovativeness not be sacrificed in a justified quest for professional respectability. This paper reviews the earliest research in biofeedback and applied psychophysiology, and modern applications and interpretations in the areas of muscular and autonomic control, including progressive relaxation and heart rate variability biofeedback, and draws parallels to disciplines of Yoga, QiGong, and Zen practices and their psychophysiological effects.     

Problems of Studying Executive Functions of Mental Activity in Humans

Literature data on the cerebral mechanisms underlying executive functions and adaptive behavior, which is one of the most important problems of modern psychophysiology, are analyzed and systematized.     

Applied orienting response research: some examples

The development of orienting response (OR) theory has not been accompanied by many applications of the concept--most research still appears to be lab-based and "pure," rather than "applied." We present some examples from our own work in which the OR perspective has been applied in a wider context. These cover the exploration of processing deficits in autistic children, aspects of the "repression" of anxiety in elite athletes, and the locus of alcohol effects. Such applications of the OR concept in real-life situations seem a logical and, indeed, necessary step in the evolution of this area of psychophysiology.     

What is Applied Psychophysiology? Toward a Definition

This paper presents a proposed working definition of applied psychophysiology. The paper reviews the background for the term, reasons for formalizing a definition, and boundaries. The working definition, explanation of key terms, and inclusion and exclusion criteria are then presented. Selected questions are then addressed such as whether physiology always has to be measured, and the boundaries such as distinguishing applied psychophysiology from psychotherapy.     

Responses to Comments and Closer to a Definition of Applied Psychophysiology

This paper responds to the nine response papers to the initial paper in this series. This paper also presents a revised working definition of applied psychophysiology which is in concert with many of the responses.     

Neurophysiological foundations and practical realizations of the brain–machine interfaces in the technology in neurological rehabilitation

The brain–computer interface (BCI) technology, based on the registration and interpretation of EEG, has recently become one of the most popular developments in neuroscience and psychophysiology. This is due not only to the intended future use of these technologies in many areas of practical human activity, but also to the fact that BCI is a completely new paradigm in psychophysiology, which allows testing hypotheses about the possibilities of the human brain to the development of skills of interaction with the outside world without the mediation of the motor system, i.e., only with the help of voluntary modulation of EEG generators. This paper examines the theoretical and experimental basis, the current state, and the prospects of development of training, communicational, and assisting complexes based on BCI to control them without muscular effort on the basis of decoding mental commands detected in the EEG of patients with severely impaired speech and motor system.     

Don't Fence Me In

There are many applications of applied psychophysiology. Some are relevant to AAPB's interests, some are not. However, in no case should we exclude them from our purview merely by defining them out of our existence.     

The Development of Higher Psychological Functions

Soviet psychologists' views of the relationship between psychology and Pavlovian psychophysiology (or the study of higher nervous activity, as it is referred to in the Soviet literature) has long been a matter of curiosity and concern in the United States. Not accidentally, it has also been a matter of concern and dispute within the USSR. The following is an excerpt from a work by one of the Soviet Union's most seminal psychological theorists on this issue. Written in the late 1920s, this essay remains a classic statement of Soviet psychology's commitment to both a historical, materialistic science of the mind and the study of the unique characteristics of human psychological processes.     

Creating our future

The evolving health-care system in the United States increasingly rewards successful efforts to keep people healthier and more productive. This is exactly what applied psychophysiology and biofeedback have to offer. However, if we wait to be included in the system, we will wait forever. Inclusion can only come as a result of our efforts to educate decision-makers about the value of our research and services. That education won't take place unless we have an instructional plan and materials. Detailing that plan and producing those materials is the immediate challenge to this Association.This paper was presented as a presidential address at the annual meeting of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 10, 1995.     

Electrodermal and cardiovascular manifestations of emotions in children

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current state of developmental researches in the area of psychophysiology of emotions in preschool and elementary school children. Electrodermal and cardiovascular activity measures are considered as the sources of indices of the autonomic nervous system activation during emotion-eliciting stimulation in children. We discuss the question of sensitivity of phasic and tonic autonomic measures for the identification of occurrence of emotion, mapping it along with valence and arousal dimensions in affective space, and to further differentiate emotions by their physiological manifestations. Considered are the conceptual and methodological issues related to psychophysiological measurements and developmental factors affecting the emotional reactivity in children. Special attention is devoted to the developmental aspects of psychophysiological studies on emotion such as the maturation of organs, integration of the autonomic and central nervous systems, age and gender-related changes in autonomic reactivity, and development of inhibitory control. Summarized are main findings relevant to psychophysiology of emotions in preschool and early school-age children and suggested are most perspective directions of their integration in the framework of modern theories of emotion.     

A Comparison of Tension Headache Sufferers and Nonpain Controls on the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory: An Exploratory Study with Implications for Applied Psychophysiologists

Studies that have examined the relationship between personality characteristics and tension headache have arrived at conflicting and, for the most part, negative results. In recent years, a number of investigators have begun examining the relationship between anger and psychophysiological disorders, focusing mostly on anger which is suppressed or held in rather than expressed behaviorally. The present study explored the relationship between anger in 59 tension headache subjects and compared their results to 33 nonpain controls. Materials consisted of the revised research edition of the Spielberger State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory. As predicted, tension headache sufferers were found to have significantly more anger held inward than nonpain controls. Implications for applied psychophysiology treatment and future research directions are discussed.     

Applied Psychophysiology and Learned Physiological Regulation

This commentary emphasizes the importance of including animal research and basic human research, contrasts the present state of affairs for biofeedback in the United States versus Europe, and proposes an alternative, more expanded definition of applied psychophysiology, which includes research, diagnostics, and education, as well as interventions.     

Applied Psychophysiology: Exclusions and Inclusions

Mark Schwartz has done a fine job in a systematic attempt to define applied psychophysiology. The present author disagrees on a few points concerning what areas will be included and what areas excluded from Schwatz's definition of this term.