The Translational Value of Psychophysiology Methods and Mechanisms: Multilevel, Dynamic, Personalized

Abstract

It has been nearly 15 years since Kazdin and Nock published methodological and research recommendations for understanding mechanisms of change in child and adolescent therapy. Their arguments and enthusiasm for research on mechanisms of behavior change (MOBCs) resonated across disciplines and disorders, as it shined a light on the crucial importance of understanding how and for whom treatments instigate behavior change and how therapeutic mechanisms might be extended to "situations and settings of everyday life." Initial efforts focused on how psychotherapy works and linear models, yet the use of theory to guide the study of mechanisms, and laboratory experiments to manipulate them, is broadly applicable. Method: This article considers dynamic physiological processes that support behavior change. Specifi cally, it examines the utility of psychophysiological methods to measure and promote behavior change. Moreover, it embeds the baroreflex mechanism, a well-defi ned heart-brain feedback loop, within the theories and strategies of MOBC research. Results and Conclusions: Individuals' subjective and expressive experience of change does not always align with their physiological reactivity. Thus, behavior change may be best understood when concurrently assessed across multiple biobehavioral levels. Further, behavior is initiated in the moment, often before conscious deliberation, suggesting that multilevel behavior change research may benefit from real-time methodological designs. Last, substance use trajectories vary widely, suggesting that different MOBCs are more or less active in individuals depending on their personal constituency and the functional need that their substance use serves; thus, methods that are amenable to personalized modeling approaches are important.

Getting to the Heart of Low Sensitivity to Alcohol: Context Moderates Low Cardiovascular Response to Alcohol in Persons With a Family History of Alcohol Use Disorder

“…In line with well‐established evidence that people often drink alcohol to modify emotional states and decrease inhibition (e.g., Cooper et al, ; Labouvie and Bates, ; Patrick and Schulenberg, ), LS to alcohol effects on cardiovascular regulation could promote risk by increasing the amount of alcohol needed to achieve desired effects of drinking, such as increased sociability and disinhibition and decreased negative affect (Schuckit, ; Schuckit, ; Schuckit et al, ). From an integrated brain–body perspective (Buckman et al, ), the decreases in HRV that have been observed in multiple laboratories following oral alcohol ingestion (reviewed in Ralevski et al, ) would serve to alter communication between the cardiovascular system and the brain areas involved in cardiovascular regulation (Benarroch, ; Goldstein, ). These brain areas, collectively referred to as the central autonomic network, include neural relay and integration areas extending from nuclei in the brainstem, through midbrain to extended limbic and prefrontal regions that participate in cognitive, emotional, and behavioral control.…”

Features of changes of the functional state of higher nervous activity of the students of higher educational medical institutions in the dynamics of the academic year

“…The initial stage of determining the level of psychophysiological readiness of students to successfully mastering the learning material and mastering practical skills is considered to be a comprehensive assessment of the peculiarities of the development of indicators of the functional state of higher nervous activity. First of all, it concerns its high-speed characteristics, above all simple visual-motor reaction, the indicators of which provide an opportunity to fully adequately determine the degree of formation of indicators of visual-motor coordination capabilities, which are at the basis of ensuring the adequate implementation of various socio-and professionally significant sensory-motor acts and, consequently, motor skills necessary for successful theoretical and practical activities in institutions of higher education of future medical professionals [2,5,8,12,17,20,25,29,32].…”

“…Another important indicator of the complex assessment of the peculiarities of the development of indicators of the functional state of higher nervous activity should be considered determination of the degree of formation of criterion characteristics of audio-motor or auditory-motor coordination capabilities and, respectively, indicators of the latent period of audio-motor reaction, which are also at the basis of effective implementation of various socially-and professionally significant sensory-motor acts and, consequently, the various motor techniques necessary for a successful theorist and the practical activities of medical students [2,7,8,10,17,22].…”

“…Such a variety of palettes of the studied indicators of the degree of development of the leading indicators of the functional state of higher nervous activity of students requires to be taken into account when assessing the psycho-physiological status of the subjects and the development of a diagnostic complex (modern methods of determining the features of psychophysiological adaptation) and corrective (modern approaches to overcoming the identified negative in its content of phenomena) means of determining the processes of forming the functional capabilities and adaptive resources of the body of young men and women who receive medical education. This approach is an important continuation of the work, the data presented in a series of studies devoted to the psycho-physiological aspects of providing day-today activities of student youth [8,17,20,21,[25][26][27][28]32]. The necessity of using such approaches is also emphasized by the lack of well-defined tendencies in the usual conditions of educational activity, the main content of which is the steady positive development of the indicators of the functional state of higher nervous activity that underlie the formation of the working dynamic stereotype necessary for successful assimilation by modern student youth necessary theoretical knowledge and abilities, as well as practical skills [2,10,13,[25][26][27]29].…”

Motor activity of students of modern education institutions: biomedical and physiological-hygienic aspects of its assessment and optimization

“…One of the key problems of modern biomedical anthropology is the scientific substantiation of the prerequisites for the formation of a healthy lifestyle, enhancement of adaptive resources of its organism and quality of life, introduction into the process of vital functions of health-saving technologies that take into account the morphological, psychophysiological and personality features of the person and based on the results of the medical-ecological monitoring of the modern population [1,4,8,18,32,34,35].…”