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Self-regulation of response patterning

Implications for psychophysiological research and therapy

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Abstract

This paper develops the basic premise that learning to self-regulate a pattern of responses can have different consequences from those observed when controlling individual functions alone. It is suggested that the self-regulation of patterns of responses can be a particularly sensitive and effective procedure for(a) uncovering biological linkages and constraints between responses in the intact human,(b) investigating how multiphysiological systems combine to produce unique subjective experiences and effects on performance, and(c) enhancing the clinical effectiveness of biofeedback procedures by training patients to integrate and coordinate voluntarily specific patterns of cognitive, autonomic, and motor responses. These hypotheses are illustrated by basic research involving biofeedback training for patterns of blood pressure, heart rate and EEG activity, related experiments on the cognitive self-regulation of patterns of physiological responses using affective imagery and meditation procedures, and case studies of patients treated with biofeedback. The concept of electronic biofeedback as an “unnatural act” is presented with the goal of placing self-regulation within a more biobehavioral perspective emphasizing the natural patterning of physiological processes.

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Presidential address read at the Biofeedback Research Society meeting on February 18, 1974 at Colorado Springs, Colorado. I would like to express my gratitude to my former teachers and colleagues, whose thinking and data have helped shape the theme presented in this paper. They are, in alphabetical order: Professors Joseph Campos, Andrew Crider, Harold Johnson, Peter Lang, David Shapiro, and Bernard Tursky. I would also like to thank my graduate students, notably Terry Bergman, Richard Davidson, Paul Fair, Daniel Goleman, Jim Hassett, and Marilyn Neyers for their important contributions to the research program.

A portion of the recent data reported here was supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense and monitored by the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00011-70-C-0350 to the San Diego State University Foundation.

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Schwartz, G.E. Self-regulation of response patterning. Biofeedback and Self-Regulation 1, 7–30 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00998688

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