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Middle Aged

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Houtkooper, J. M., Schienle, A., Stark, R., & Vaitl, D. (1999). Geophysical variables and behavior: LXXXVIII. Atmospheric electromagnetism: the possible disturbing influence of natural sferics on ESP. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 89(3 Pt 2), 1179–1192. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1999.89.3f.1179

Sferics are electromagnetic impulses generated by electrical discharges during thunderstorms (lightning). One category is comprised of very low frequency electromagnetic waves, traveling over distances up to a thousand kilometers. Sferics have been shown to affect biological responses such as pain syndromes, reaction times, and power in the alpha band of the EEG. In the present study, in which 100 subjects took part, sferics have been studied in their relation to performance on a forced-choice extrasensory perception (ESP) task and to several secondary variables. The general finding is a negative correlation between ESP performance and sferics activity around the time of the session, most notably 24-48 hours prior to the session. Secondary variables appear to modulate this correlation, as has been found in previous research on sferics: the correlation tended to be stronger for persons who scored lower on Neuroticism and higher on the Openness scale of a Five-Factor Personality Questionnaire.
Schienle, A., Stark, R., & Vaitl, D. (1999). Electrocortical responses of headache patients to the simulation of 10 kHz sferics. The International Journal of Neuroscience, 97(3–4), 211–224. https://doi.org/10.3109/00207459909000661

Many headache patients believe that weather changes act as pain triggers. Therefore, the present study investigated the psychophysiological influence of an indicator of atmospheric instability, Very Low Frequency (VLF)-sferics, on 32 subjectively weather-sensitive women suffering from migraine attacks and/or tension-type headaches. It was analyzed if sferics exposure is able to induce electrocortical changes as well as headache symptoms. The subjects, who had been divided into two groups, participated in a sferics simulation study. The experimental group (n = 16) underwent a ten-minute exposure to 10kHz-sferics impulses followed by 20 minutes without treatment in order to examine possible prolonged sferics effects. The control group (n = 16) received no treatment. As dependent measures, EEG spectral power was compared between the two groups at six electrode sites (F3/F4; P3/P4; O1/O2). Sferics exposure provoked increases in absolute alpha and beta power during the treatment. The alpha power enhancement was still present at parietal sites at the end of registration (20 minutes after the end of exposure). The stimulation did not induce headache symptoms.
Walter, B., Vaitl, D., & Frank, R. (1998). Affective distress in fibromyalgia syndrome is associated with pain severity. Zeitschrift Fur Rheumatologie, 57 Suppl 2, 101–104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s003930050247

OBJECTIVE: Comparison of low back pain (LBP) patients with and without fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) with regard to affective distress. METHODS: Patients with LBP who had been admitted to various clinics in Germany were examined upon admission. Comparisons were done by dividing the patients into groups with and without signs of FMS. Additionally, both groups were compared after being matched according to sex, age, and pain severity. RESULTS: 15 out of 135 LBP patients met the American College of Rheumatology criteria for fibromyalgia. Patients with FMS showed remarkably higher levels of pain severity and affective distress. After controlling for different levels of pain severity, these pronounced differences disappeared. CONCLUSION: Affective distress is not a unique feature of FMS, but seem to be caused entirely by higher levels of pain severity.
Vaitl, D., Mittelstaedt, H., & Baisch, F. (1997). Shifts in blood volume alter the perception of posture. International Journal of Psychophysiology: Official Journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology, 27(2), 99–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-8760(97)00053-6

Recent experiments have shown that somatic graviceptors exist in humans. Traditionally, extravestibular gravity information has been thought to originate from mechanoreceptors in the joints, muscles and skin. Experiments with normal, paraplegic and nephrectomized subjects revealed that the kidneys and the cardiovascular system are involved in providing truncal gravity information. The present study intends to determine the influence of shifts in body fluid, especially of the distribution of blood along the subjects' spinal (Z-) axis, on the perception of posture. To this end, the distribution of body fluids was altered by means of the technique of lower body negative and positive pressure (LBNP and LBPP). LBNP leads to venous pooling of blood in the legs, whereas LBPP prevents venous blood from pooling, increasing central volume. Changes in blood distribution were measured by segmental impedance cardiography for four body segments: the upper torso (thoracic cavity), lower torso (abdominal and pelvic region), thigh and calf. Seventeen healthy subjects (mean age: 27.3 years) participated in the experiment. They were positioned on the side (right-ear-down head position) on a tilt table which the subjects and the experimenter could tilt via remote control around an axis parallel to the subjects' visual (X-) axis. The experimenter set the initial tilt in total darkness to arbitrary angles while strictly alternating between head-up and head-down tilts. Subjects were then asked to rotate the board until they felt they were in a horizontal posture. Means and variances of eight pairs of settings were taken as a measure of the subjective horizontal posture (SHP). During LBNP (-30 mmHg), subjects perceived being tilted head-up, whereas LBPP (+30 mmHg) led them to feel tilted head-down. The results corroborate the hypothesis of an effect of the blood's mass on graviception and also indicate supplementary contributions of other visceral afferences.
Pagani, M., Mazzuero, G., Ferrari, A., Liberati, D., Cerutti, S., Vaitl, D., Tavazzi, L., & Malliani, A. (1991). Sympathovagal interaction during mental stress. A study using spectral analysis of heart rate variability in healthy control subjects and patients with a prior myocardial infarction. Circulation, 83(4 Suppl), II43-51.

We tested the hypothesis that psychological stress testing in the clinical laboratory provokes changes in the sympathetic and vagal activities regulating heart rate that can be assessed noninvasively using spectral analysis of RR variability. To account for the effects on respiration produced by talking, this study was performed with two different procedures: the I.K.T. (i.e., a computer-controlled mental task that is performed in silence and does not entail human confrontation) and a stressful interview. Finally, we assessed whether ischemic heart disease modifies the spectral changes induced by psychological stress by comparing a group of healthy subjects (age, 38 +/- 2 years) with a group of patients (age, 52 +/- 3 years) recovering from 1-month-old myocardial infarctions. The findings indicate that psychological stress induced marked changes in the sympathovagal balance, which moved toward sympathetic predominance. The low-frequency component of RR variability, a marker of sympathetic activity, increased from 58 +/- 5 normalized units (NU) to 68 +/- 3 NU with the I.K.T. and to 76 +/- 3 NU with the interview. This increase was absent in the group of post-myocardial infarction patients. However, arterial pressure increased significantly in both groups of subjects. The possibility of age playing an important role in determining the differences observed was disproved by the findings of a marked increase in low frequency with mental stimuli in an additional group of borderline hypertensive subjects with ages (55 +/- 2 years) comparable to those of post-myocardial infarction patients.
Hamm, A., & Vaitl, D. (1988). [Classical conditioning of autonomic reactions: effects of stimulus content and context]. Zeitschrift Fur Experimentelle Und Angewandte Psychologie, 35(1), 41–73.

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