Psychosomatic Medicine 30:837-845 (1968)
© 1968 American Psychosomatic Society

Differential Operant Conditioning of Heart Rate

¹ Cardiovascular Research Institute and Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, Calif.; Present address: Gerontology Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Baltimore City Hospitals, Baltimore, Md.
² Cardiovascular Research Institute and Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, Calif.

Five normal female subjects (Ss) were taught to increase and decrease cyclically their heart rate (HR) by means of a differential operant conditioning technique. Discrimination between slowing and speeding was easily demonstrated; however, the ability significantly to increase and decrease HR relative to resting rate was less apparent. Although each S could do this on at least one occasion, only 2 Ss did so with consistency. Breathing or musculoskeletal responses did not seem to mediate the learned responses.