Learned self-regulation in top-level managers through neurobiofeedback training improves decision making under stress

Abstract

Top-level management teams are particularly exposed to stress factors as they frequently have to make important decision under stress. While an existing body of research evidence suggests that stress negatively affects decision-making processes, very little is known about possible strategies to reduce these negative effects. The aim of the current work is to investigate the effect of training self-regulation ability through neurobiofeedback on managers’ intertemporal and risky decision making. Twenty-three managers were assigned to the experimental or the control condition. All participants performed, two decisional tasks, before and after a training phase. The tasks were administered through mouse tracker software, in order to measure participants’ delay discounting and risk taking propensity on both explicit and implicit choice parameters. During the training phase, the experimental condition received a training protocol based on stress assessment tests via neurobiofeedback signals (i.e., temperature and skin conductance), with the goal of improving self-regulation ability while the control condition was administered a control training. The main result of this study is to have conclusively demonstrated that NBF training increases an individual's ability to self-regulate stress-related psychophysiological phenomena. Consequently, the improved ability to manage one's own reaction to stress enables a reduction in instinctive behavior during a probabilistic choice task.

Self-Regulation training improves stress resilience in Elite Pre-Pubescent Female Gymnasts

“…Data analysis was carried out considering intra-individual variations of physiological parameters (i.e., metabolism level) and within the same evaluation session (i.e., hydration), in the stress and recovery phases (Time).First, normalization of all dependent variables was conducted. Subsequently, baseline amplitude was calculated over 2 min rest data recording to provide an indication of the ongoing rest activity (Iodice et al, 2022). The main metric used for presenting the e cacy of self-regulation is Delta calculated between the mean of the baseline and peak values of physiological parameters during both stress tasks and recovery periods during the assessment.…”

“…Recently, some authors have associated this capacity with the concept of psychological resilience: an indicator of the ability to cope and deal with possible adverse situations (Fletcher & Hanton, 2003;Iodice et al, 2022). Given the pervasiveness of the stress response and its documented negative in uences on both short-and long-term health outcomes, as well as a multitude of individual abilities (O'Connor et al, 2021; Thoits, 2010) and performances (Anderson et al, 2019;Lochbaum et al, 2022) including the negative phenomenological cost (Arnold & Fletcher, 2021), an e cient stress management through selfregulation represents a highly desirable ability.…”

“…The protocol of this study was based on the previous research revealing the e cacy of thermal and electrodermal(Iodice et al, 2022;Peper & Schmid, 1983;Rusciano et al, 2017) biofeedback in the case of self-regulation training for the gymnasts. Namely, psychophysiological self-regulation refers to a person's ability to regulate affective and cognitive states and adapt to various environmental conditions, thus enabling exible behaviour that preserves homeostasis in response to different situational demands(Porges, 2007;Prinzel III et al, 2001).…”

Face Mask Reduces the Effect of Proposer’s (Un)Trustworthiness on Intertemporal and Risky Choices

“…Obtained discounting parameters were then log-transformed to ensure normality as based on literature (e.g., Calluso et al, 2020 ; Cannito et al, 2021 ; Iodice et al, 2022 ).…”

Self-regulation training improves stress resilience in elite pre-pubescent female gymnasts

“…Research has shown that such a state is achieved through an efficient mind–body regulation, underlined by an adaptive interplay between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous subsystems ( Benarroch et al, 1995 ; Porges, 2007 ; Thayer and Lane, 2009 ). Recently, some authors have indicated that the efficiency of self-regulation is largely dependent on resilience, a key psychobiological capacity for maintaining normal functioning and health that involves adaptability to adversity ( Fletcher and Hanton, 2003 ; Russo et al, 2012 ; Iodice et al, 2022 ). This theoretical framework is based on the neurovisceral integration model, which synthesizes extensive evidence linking the autonomic and central nervous systems in a functional and structural network involved in the emotional regulation of behaviour ( Dworkin et al, 1994 ; Porges, 2007 ; Thayer and Lane, 2009 ; Pezzulo et al, 2018 ; Iodice et al, 2019 ; Yu et al, 2021 ).…”