Resonance Frequency Assessment: The Impact and Implications of Inaccurate Assessment in the Clinical Use of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback

Abstract

While many researchers and clinicians see assessing resonance frequency (RF) as an important step in heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB), some practitioners providing HRVB acknowledge that they do not pay that much attention to RF. What if RF is not easily measured accurately or is not even particularly relevant to HRVB as it is practiced in the field? There is modest evidence suggesting that intertester reliability for RF may be relatively weak. Further study may be warranted to determine the accuracy and reliability of RF determinations in clinical settings and, perhaps, to what extent RF calculations are necessary at all. If RF is not really being used in the field, then there are a number of questions to be answered concerning the clinical practice of HRVB, such as if reliably determining RF is possible, and even whether HRVB as it is used clinically is biofeedback.