The aim of this study was to investigate the nonlinear characteristics of heart rate variability (HRV) for three recumbent positions: the supine, left lateral and right lateral decubitus positions. Recently, using a linear analyses method (for time and frequency domains), the effect of the right lateral decubitus position on vagal modulation has been found to increase parasympathetic activity and decrease sympathetic modulation. Little is known about the nonlinear dynamics of HRV for the three recumbent positions. Therefore, we studied the correlation dimension (CD), the largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE), the sample entropy (SampEn), the approximate entropy (ApEn) and the exponent alpha of the 1/falpha power spectrum as nonlinear characteristics of HRV. In response to the right lateral decubitus position, the CD, LLE, SampEn and ApEn increased significantly in both coronary artery disease (CAD) and control groups. In the linear analyses, the normalized high-frequency power (nHF) increased in the right lateral decubitus position. The CD, LLE, ApEn and SampEn correlated positively to the nHF. The alpha exponent did not correlate to either linear measure or CD, but correlated negatively to LLE, ApEn and SampEn. Among the three recumbent positions, it was found that the right lateral decubitus position can increase the complexity of the human physiological system and the vagal modulation of the cardiac autonomic nervous system the most.

Hypertension has been associated with atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.Carotid intima media thickness is increased in hypertensive patients. But, the correlation between carotid intima media thickness and antihypertensive agents is still uncertain. Therefore, we investigated carotid intima media thickness based on types of antihypertensive agents. 1809 patients were enrolled in this study and it showed that 1079 hypertensive patients had thicker carotid intima media thickness than nonhypertensive patients, with carotid intima media thicknesses of (0.72 ± 17 mm vs 0.64 ± 15 mm, P < .001), (0.31 ± 0.07 mm vs 0.30 ± 0.06 mm, P < .001), and (0.41 ± 0.13 mm vs 0.35 ± 0.12 mm, P < .001). Additionally, hypertensive patients on beta-blockers also had thicker carotid intima media thickness than the non-betablocker group, with carotid intima media thicknesses of (0.74 ± 0.18 mm vs 0.71 ± 0.16 mm, P = .018), (0.33 ± 0.09 mm vs 0.31 ± 0.07 mm, P = .029), and (0.43 ± 0.13 mm vs 0.40 ± 0.13 mm, P = .035). Multivariate analysis showed that carotid intima thickness was only correlated with beta-blockers (odds ratio = 2.489, confidence interval = 1.183-5.239, P = .016); however, this study showed that beta-blocker could be associated with increased carotid wall thickness as well.

In present study, we proposed not only a novel methodology useful in developing the various features of heart rate variability (HRV), but also a suitable prediction model to enhance the reliability of medical examinations and treatments for coronary artery disease. In order to develop the various features of HRV, we analyzed HRV for three recumbent postures. The interaction effects between the recumbent postures and groups of normal people and heart patients were observed based on linear and nonlinear features of HRV. Forty-three control subjects and 64 patients with coronary artery disease participated in this study. In order to extract various features, we tested five classification methods and evaluated performance of classifiers. As a result, SVM and CMAR (gave about 72-88% goodness of accuracy) outperformed the other classifiers.

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In marketing, the use of visual-art-based designs on products or packaging crucially impacts consumers’ decision-making when purchasing. While visual art in product packaging should be designed to induce consumer’s favorable evaluations, it should not evoke excessive affective arousal, because this may lead to the depletion of consumer’s cognitive resources. Thus, consumers may use heuristic decision-making and commit an inadvertent mistake while purchasing. Most existing studies on visual arts in marketing have focused on preference (i.e., affective valence) using subjective evaluations. To address this, we applied a neuroscientific measure, electroencephalogram (EEG) to increase experimental validity. Two successive tasks were designed to examine the effects of affective arousal and affective valence, evoked by visual artwork, on the consecutive cognitive decision-making. In task 1, to evaluate the effect of visual art, EEG of two independent groups of people was measured when they viewed abstract artwork. The abstract art of neoplasticism (AbNP) group (n = 20) was showing Mondrian’s artwork, while the abstract art of expressionism (AbEX) group (n = 18) viewed Kandinsky’s artwork. The neoplasticism movement strove to eliminate emotion in art and expressionism to express the feelings of the artist. Building on Gallese’s embodied simulation theory, AbNP and AbEX artworks were expected to induce lower and higher affect, respectively. In task 2, we investigated how the induced affect differentially influenced a succeeding cognitive Stroop task. We anticipated that the AbEX group would deplete more cognitive resources than AbNP group, based on capacity limitation theory. Significantly stronger affect was induced in the AbEX group in task 1 than in the AbNP group, especially in affective arousal. In task 2, the AbEX group showed a faster reaction time and higher error rate in the Stroop task. According to our hypotheses, the higher affective arousal state of the AbEX group might deplete more cognitive resources during task 1 and result in poorer performance in task 2 because affect impacted their cognitive resources. This is the first study using neuroscientific measures to prove that high affective arousal induced by visual arts on packaging may induce heuristic decision-making in consumers, thereby advancing our understanding of neuromarketing.