Autonomic modulation during a cognitive task using a wearable device

BONOMINI MP; MIKEL VAL-CALVO; ALEJANDRO DÍAZ MORCILLO; JOSÉ MANUEL FERRÁNDEZ VICENTE; EDUARDO FERNÉNDEZ

Almería

Conferencia; IWINAC; 2019

Heart-brain interaction is by nature bidirectional, and then,it is sensible to expect the heart, via the autonomic nervous system(ANS), to induce changes in the brain. Respiration can originate differentiatedANS states reflected by HRV. In this work, we measured the changes in performance during a cognitive task due to four autonomic states originated by breath control: at normal breathing (NB), fast breathing (FB), slow breathing (SB) and control phases. ANS states were characterized by temporal (SDNN) and spectral (LF and HF power) HRV markers. Cognitive performance was measured by the response time (RT) and the congruence rate (CR). HRV parameters were acquired with the wristband Empatica E4. Classication was accomplished, firstly, to find the best ANS variables that discriminated the breathing phases (BPH) and secondly, to find whether ANS parameters were associated to changes in RT and CR. In order to compensate for possible bias of the test sets, 1000 classication iterations were run. The ANS parameters that better separated the four BPH were LF and HF power, with changes about 300% from controls and an average classication rate of 59.9%, a 34.9% more than random. LF and HF explained RT separation for every BPH pair, and so was HF for CR separation. The bestRT classication was 63.88% at NB vs SB phases, while CR provided a73.39% at SB vs NB phases. Results suggest that breath control couldshow a relation with the efficiency of certain cognitive tasks. For thisgoal the Empatica wristband with the proposed methodology could helpto clarify this hypothesis.