Biofeedback With Heart Sound Following Trauma

Overview

The Project aims to assess the long-term risk of trauma-induced stress in young persons. Using non-invasive sound therapy to assess the effects on the vagal nerve via cardiovascular effects and neural activity will provide biofeedback in these individuals.

Detailed description

Background: Some countries have suffered and will continue to suffer great destruction as a result of wars, epidemics, earthquakes, and other natural catastrophes. When individuals are exposed to specific psychological or physical traumas, they can develop stress-related disorders. This can lead to irreversible changes in the autonomic nervous system and cardiovascular disorders. When subjected to a new stress test, traumatized/previously exposed participants may show more pronounced behavioral changes, intolerance, and greater fatigue responses as compared to pre-trauma. To reduce trauma-associated responses from recurring again in the future, especially in young people, it is necessary to take preventive measures. Alternative solutions must be designed for counseling, medication, phytotherapy, etc. This study aims to examine how individuals cope with trauma-related situations using a biofeedback method, which could be developed to manage stress-related coping. The emotional and psychological states of earthquake victims will be assessed using a protocol based on biomedical (neuro-cardiac) signals and the sound of the person's own heart. This sound will be applied at a fixed frequency or in real-time with allostatic auditory stimulation. A resonance stabilizing the autonomic nervous system will thus provide biofeedback to the participants.

Methods: To examine the different states, biological signals will be measured and recorded, such as electrocardiography (ECG), phonocardiography (PCG), electrodermal activity, respiratory rhythm, and near-infrared spectroscopic imaging (fNIRS). Deep learning models will optimally process the collected data and evaluate the results.

Impact: The Project aims to assess the long-term risk of trauma-induced stress in young persons. Using non-invasive sound therapy to assess the effects on the vagal nerve via cardiovascular effects and neural activity will provide biofeedback in these individuals.

Interventions

• Other PCG auditory stimulation
  PCG auditory stimulation during mental stress
• Other MHR stimulation
  MHR auditory stimulation during mental stress
• Other Control-no treatment
  no stimulation during mental stress

Primary outcome measures

• Primary outcome [Time frame: 2 months]

Secondary outcome measures (1)

• Others biopotentials [Time frame: 2 months]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• 30 earthquake survivor university students between 20 and 25 will participate in the experiment. Participants will be healthy, non-obese men (n=15) and women (n=15). In particular, all participants should have experienced the earthquake disaster in the local region. All participants must be free of any chronic or acute infection, neurological, psychiatric, and/or cardiovascular disease.

Exclusion criteria

• They must be non-smokers, have no alcohol or drug addiction, and not be under any medical treatment. Pregnant or breastfeeding women will not be included in the study.

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: No

Study design

Allocation

Non-randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Single blind

Primary purpose

Prevention

Study locations

Turkey (Türkiye) · 1 center

• Kahramanmaras — Kahramanmaraş

Publications

• Patron E, Calcagni A, Thayer JF, Scrimin S. The longitudinal negative impact of early stressful events on emotional and physical well-being: The buffering role of cardiac vagal development. Dev Psychobiol. 2021 Jul;63(5):1146-1155. doi: 10.1002/dev.22066. Epub 2020 Dec 11. PMID 33314062
• Parizek D, Visnovcova N, Hamza Sladicekova K, Veternik M, Jakus J, Jakusova J, Visnovcova Z, Ferencova N, Tonhajzerova I. Effect of Selected Music Soundtracks on Cardiac Vagal Control and Complexity Assessed by Heart Rate Variability. Physiol Res. 2023 Nov 28;72(5):587-596. doi: 10.33549/physiolres.935114. PMID 38015758
• Nakajima Y, Tanaka N, Mima T, Izumi SI. Stress Recovery Effects of High- and Low-Frequency Amplified Music on Heart Rate Variability. Behav Neurol. 2016;2016:5965894. doi: 10.1155/2016/5965894. Epub 2016 Aug 30. PMID 27660396
• Lee SW, Laurienti PJ, Burdette JH, Tegeler CL, Morgan AR, Simpson SL, Gerdes L, Tegeler CH. Functional Brain Network Changes Following Use of an Allostatic, Closed-Loop, Acoustic Stimulation Neurotechnology for Military-Related Traumatic Stress. J Neuroimaging. 2019 Jan;29(1):70-78. doi: 10.1111/jon.12571. Epub 2018 Oct 10. PMID 30302866
• Guannan, X., Xin, Z., Anchen, G., Siyang, H., Huijie, L., Jing, D., Qianqian, Z., & Jian, J. (2023). Phase-locked auditory pulse stimulation at home enhancing slow sleep waves: A pilot real-world study. medRxiv.
• Gerdes L, Gerdes P, Lee SW, H Tegeler C. HIRREM: a noninvasive, allostatic methodology for relaxation and auto-calibration of neural oscillations. Brain Behav. 2013 Mar;3(2):193-205. doi: 10.1002/brb3.116. Epub 2013 Jan 14. PMID 23532171
• Fioranelli M, Bottaccioli AG, Bottaccioli F, Bianchi M, Rovesti M, Roccia MG. Stress and Inflammation in Coronary Artery Disease: A Review Psychoneuroendocrineimmunology-Based. Front Immunol. 2018 Sep 6;9:2031. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.02031. eCollection 2018. PMID 30237802
• Adiasto K, Beckers DGJ, van Hooff MLM, Roelofs K, Geurts SAE. Music listening and stress recovery in healthy individuals: A systematic review with meta-analysis of experimental studies. PLoS One. 2022 Jun 17;17(6):e0270031. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270031. eCollection 2022. PMID 35714120

Identifiers

NCT: NCT06919055 · ALLOSTAT0001

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗