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Biomedical subjects

C Mariauzouls

Publications and source records attributed to C Mariauzouls.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Autonomic responses to suggestions for cold and warmth in hypnosis.

The goal of the present study was to investigate whether suggestions for cold or warmth during hypnosis affect fingertip skin temperature. Hypnosis without specific suggestions for cold or warmth ('neutral hypnosis') caused a drop in respiration frequency, however, pulse rate, fingertip skin temperature, and electrodermal activity were not affected. The cold and warmth suggestions decreased and increased fingertip skin temperature, respectively. Compared with the neutral trance phase, the other three autonomic variables measured were also affected by suggestions for cold. However, there was no association between the changes in autonomic variables induced by suggestions and hypnotizability scores measured by the 'Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale for Adults'. Fingertip skin temperature was mostly affected when the images used for the cold and warmth suggestions during hypnosis included experiences of physical temperature and psychological stress or relaxation, indicating that the psychological content of the imagery amplified the autonomic response.

Adult↗

[Vibration-assisted music therapy reduces pain and promotes relaxation of para- and tetraplegic patients. A pilot study of psychiatric and physical effects of simultaneous acoustic and somatosensory music stimulation as pain management].

Pain is a well known phenomenon in posttraumatic spinal cord injuries. Nearly 10% of the patients develop most severe, invalidizing, as a rule neurogenic pain conditions that are hardly accessible to conventional therapies. A pilot study was therefore conducted with 10 paraplegics and tetraplegics suffering chronic pain, investigating how vibration supported music therapy with the Musica Medica method affected pain experience, tension/relaxation and well-being. In addition to subjective experience, we measured physiological parameters (finger tip skin temperature, electrodermal activity, heart rate, respiration frequency) during the therapy sessions. All patients had a high acceptance of the method which throughout the group had brought about an increase in relaxation and well-being as well as a decrease of pain experience. The autonomic nervous system variables correlated with relaxation and in addition pointed to an activating impact of the therapy chosen.

Adult↗

Fingertip temperature as an indicator for sympathetic responses.

Changes of acral skin blood flow are a commonly used indicator for sympathetic reflex responses to various stimuli. The goal of the present study was to determine whether decreases in fingertip temperature are indicative for sympathetic induced changes in microcirculation. Infrared thermography demonstrated that various stimuli triggering the sympathetic nervous system induced decreases in cutaneous microcirculation, most prominently in fingertip skin. Various such stimuli induced almost immediate temporary vasoconstriction, measured by laser Doppler flux and photoplethysmography. With a lag phase of approximately 15 s, reduced microcirculation was also reflected by a transient decrease in fingertip temperature. Vasoconstrictions were easily demonstrable by fingertip temperature when the starting fingertip temperature was above 32 degrees C and vasoconstriction lasted at least 5 s. Temperature measurement offers the advantages of ease and simplicity of performance and analysis, compared with the more complex analyses of flux and pulse volume.

Adult↗

A probe holder for precise intranasal microcirculation measurements.

A probe holder for long-term measurements of intranasal microcirculation by laser Doppler flowmetry is described. It is adjustable to any physiognomy and allows precise intranasal probe insertion. It is based on a commercially-available shooting-spectacles frame and might also be useful for other measurements such as intranasal temperature, humidity and pO2.

Equipment Design↗