Re: How does TV influence the pulse rate?

One way to get information is from the computer. I did a Google (http://www.google.com/) search and put the words

TV pulse

in the search box, and got way to many hits about shows with the word 'pulse' in their name. So then I did a Google search with the words

TV "pulse rate"

and got much better results. When I put the quotes (") around pulse rate like this

"pulse rate"

the Google search engine only found pages with the exact phrase (words together like I had put them)

pulse rate

and the word TV. You might try that.

One thing I found was that Jeremy Phillips & Gregory Linthorne, who were in 7th grade, did a science project called "Pulse Rate T.V. " at Matthew Elementary School in Newfoundland. They were in Mrs. Baker's class. Since one part of science is talking to your colleagues (other people who do similar work as you are doing), maybe you could get in touch with them, or with Mrs. Baker. You might want to get your teacher's OK. Here is their address: Matthew Elementary, P.O. Box 640, Bonavista, Newfoundland, Canada. Phone: 709-468-7242 Fax: 709-468-1137, E-mail: matthew@nf.sympatico.ca

There is also some information on this PBS web site. http://www.pbs.or g/saf/1310/teaching/teaching2.htm This mostly talks about blood pressure. But like it says in the paragraph, both blood pressure and pulse rate are affected by the 'fight or flight response', which is part of what you plan to study in your experiement on TV and blood pressure

Here is some interesting information about pulse rates: http://www.c ensusatschool.ntu.ac.uk/files/pulserate.pdf This also reminds me that you will need to take a baseline measure before you watch each TV show, and then leave some time after you have watched the show for your pulse to go back to normal. So here is what you might want to do. 1. Figure out which movies evoke (get to you feel) relaxation and which evoke fear, anger, or whatever you want to measure. Get all your movies ready where you will be watching TV, and make sure you have a watch or a clock with a second hand. Make a chart with three columns: Name, Condition, Pulse Rate. Name will be you two experiementors. Condition will be Baseline (no movie), or Relaxation, or Fear - or whatever you decided your movie brings out in you. Pulse Rate will be the number of beats per minute you calculate for each of you. Write it down like 26 beats/15 seconds - you can multiply it out later. 2. Take a baseline pulse rate for each of you. Write each of your baseline pulse rates down. 3. Play the movie 4. Each of you take your pulses and write the rate down. In the Condition column, write down the emotion you think the movie evoked (had you feeling) - relaxed, angry, scared. You may want to talk about this in terms of the "fight or flight" response". There is some information on that also at PBS http://www.pbs.org/saf/1310/segments/1310-1.htm and from a radio show in Australia http://www.a bc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s800725.htm and from the British Broadcasting Company at http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/factfiles/peripheralner voussyst em/peripheral_nervous_system.shtml

I would guess that a scary show would make your "fight or flight" sympathetic nervous system more active, and a relaxing show would make your "rest and digest" parasympathetic system more active. What do you think? Here are a couple of articles that you may be able to get:

Selhub, Eva M. MD. Stress and Distress in Clinical Practice: A Mind-Body Approach. Nutrition in Clinical Care. 5(4):182-190, August 2002.

Lang, Peter J.. Bradley, Margaret M.. Cuthbert, Bruce N.. Emotion and Motivation: Measuring Affective Perception. Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology. Neuroscience of Emotion. 15(5):397-408, September 1998.

If you decide to quote me, you can add this to your reference list: Nielsen-Bohlman, Lynn. How does TV influence the pulse rate? MadSci, http://www.madsci.org