Life Science Hardware and Software

Schizophrenia has long been known to be a very complicated and poorly understood cognitive disorder. To attempt to understand the differences in emotional processing in schizophrenic patients, psychologists use physiological parameters to quantify psychological activity. Researchers Peterman et al. performed a study in which Galvanic Skin Response (GSR or EDA) and Facial Electromyography (fEMG) were recorded in schizophrenic and control subjects in response to social stimuli to assess the differences in adaptive emotional response. To measure these signals, they used wireless BIOPAC BioNomadix amplifiers, one for GSR (BN-PPGED) and two for fEMG (BN-EMG2). The participants were asked to view a block of images of the same category (e.g., social positive, non-social negative, etc.), then select a positivity response (valence rating) as to how they felt about the images. Subjects viewed several blocks of images to evoke differing responses. The self-reported valence ratings were paired to physiological data acquired with wireless BioNomadix transmitters. The GSR and fEMG were collected with an MP150 data acquisition system, and the data was analyzed with AcqKnowledge software. Researchers found that the Schizophrenic subjects responded similarly to the controls in the valence ratings, but their GSR and fEMG data diverged significantly. The Schizophrenic subjects showed a stronger overall GSR response to the images; however they did not show an effect by the sociality of the pictures. The fEMG response was also greater overall in the Schizophrenic group, but also did not vary by sociality. The results provide physiological background to the disrupted self-awareness of emotion processing in Schizophrenics. The complexity of emotion processing in cognitive disorders continues to elude us and to pave new avenues for scientific study. Along with the BioNomadix modules used in the study, BIOPAC Systems offers several wireless, wearable physiological data acquisition and analysis systems for psychophysiological research.

Exercise researchers at Johns Hopkins University recently performed a study regarding the effectiveness of using short-term heart rate variability (HRV) as a means to monitor the efficiency and safety of cycling activity. Though it had been previously shown that beat-by-beat heart rate data is a good indicator of physiological stress, the potential value of short-term HRV as an automated assessment of exertion level was unknown. The study was designed as such: subjects were asked to perform a 13-minute cycling exercise on an interactive Biking Exercise program, and HRV data was recorded with an electrocardiogram transmitter. Time periods denoting different levels of exercise before and during the program were classified as “rest,” “highest exertion” and “recovery.” A BIOPAC BN-RSPEC wireless ECG and Respiration transmitter/receiver pair was used to acquire appropriate heart rate data. Data from the wireless ECG amplifier was sampled by an MP150 data acquisition system connected to a standard laptop PC. From each subject, nine sets of ECG data were obtained—three each for rest, highest exertion, and recovery time periods. These data sets were recorded with AcqKnowledge software. Further analysis showed significant differences were found among seven HRV variables between time-domains characterized by differing levels of physical exertion. These data were shown to closely match their predictive model. This allowed researchers to conclude that the HRV coupled to time-domain indices separated by exertion level accurately reflected autonomic balance and stress levels during the exercise program. This suggests HRV data can be used short term to measure the efficacy of home-based exercise programs. BIOPAC Systems offers a variety of solutions for Heart Rate Variability and ECG extraction including wireless, wearable and MRI applications. Use of these physiological parameters can be utilized in further studies, continuing to examine and compare the benefits of home-based cycling and other exercise programs for subjects with differing lifestyles and clinical conditions.