Heart rate variability (HRV) is the variation in the time interval between heartbeats. But how does HRV relate to Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback? Applied psychophysiology is the study of the conscious modification of physiological processes, whereas biofeedback is the technical procedure through which an individual learns to modify normally involuntary physiological reactions. To answer this question and to learn how to apply this knowledge in clinical practice, three universities from the NeurotechEU Alliance — Háskólinn í Reykjavík, Radboud University, and Karolinska Institutet — organised the Summer School Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback: Translating Evidence into Practice, featuring both online and in-person components.

María S. Bonmatí, a PhD candidate in the Sport and Health Programme, attended this course to strengthen her academic development by broadening her knowledge of various biomarkers and understanding how to interpret the data they provide regarding the body’s physical state. With a background as a pharmacist and nutritionist, María shares her experience of this course, which connects neuroscience and neurotechnology through an applied health promotion lens.

NeurotechEU students at the Summer School on Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback

Firstly, María, do you believe the topic of the course is relevant?
Definitely. I am a pharmacist and a nutritionist, but the focus of my PhD and my daily work is prevention. When it comes to preventing diseases, infections, and so on, the Spanish healthcare system still has a lot of work to do, and the more professionals trained in this area, the better.
Speaking now as a pharmacist, I believe that if we utilised pharmacies more effectively within the healthcare system with this focus, we could achieve a lot more in terms of prevention than we currently do. This could potentially alleviate some of the current strain on the healthcare system.

Have you learned anything that you feel will influence your career path?
The course focused on HRV (heart rate variability) and biofeedback. As I understand it, these are physical metrics that you can gather from your body and use to improve and train your physiology. For me, in terms of prevention, this is another vital tool. So, it is not that it will cause a complete pivot in my work, but it will certainly make it much more comprehensive and rigorous.
For instance, nowadays many people wear a wearable device, such as a smartwatch that tells the time, counts steps, measures heart rate, or tracks sleep patterns. However, if all that information were properly analysed, it could help us identify when an infection is developing.

What would you highlight most?
Mainly that the programme included such a large practical component. When we were at Reykjavik University, we tested many of the devices we had been told about in the theoretical sessions, which makes everything we learned much easier to apply afterwards.

What was the atmosphere like with the other NeurotechEU attendees?
To be honest, the atmosphere was excellent. There were all kinds of profiles and ages. I really liked that because I do not always get the chance to speak with people from such diverse age groups, and it allows you to see how things are perceived from different career-stage perspectives. The same goes for those studying engineering or biomedicine; these are profiles I do not usually interact with, and they offer highly enriching perspectives.