ABSTRACT
Ambulatory sport psychophysiology involves the continuous instrument-based monitoring, observation, and analysis of mind-body-technical performance of athletes during real training and competition. The ultimate goal of ambulatory psychophysiology in sports is to establish performance relationships that have a high degree of ecological validity as well as to establish ways of testing the efficacy of interventions and replicating laboratory data that have implications for performance. In order to understand how heart rate variability (HRV) can reflect psychological processes and performance, it is necessary to review how the heart responds to autonomic nervous system activity. The slowness of heart rate (HR) response to sympathetic stimulation is contrasted to vagal stimulation that produces immediate heart rate deceleration. HRV represents the net effect of parasympathetic nerves, which slows HR, and the sympathetic nerves which accelerate it. Clinical research has found that lowered HRV is associated with aging, depressed hormonal responses, and increased incidence of sudden death.
