BIOLOGICAL
Adding a vagal-tone biomarker to the 432Hz cohort
Standard HRV is informative but slow. Adding salivary alpha-amylase pre/post to triangulate parasympathetic engagement. Pilot N=24.
Context
HRV is the workhorse biomarker for the 432Hz cohort but it lags real-time engagement by several minutes. A second, faster biomarker would let us tighten the session protocol without doubling session length.
Method
- 01Pilot of N=24 subjects, each providing a saliva sample at session start and session end.
- 02Samples assayed for alpha-amylase by a third-party clinical lab, blinded.
- 03Results paired against same-session HRV gain.
Findings
- ▸Alpha-amylase declined in 19 of 24 subjects post-session, consistent with parasympathetic engagement.
- ▸Effect size moderate but correlation with HRV gain was only r=0.41.
- ▸The two biomarkers appear to capture related-but-distinct phenomena.
Next steps
Scale the pilot to N=80 and add a sham-session arm to confirm specificity before the biomarker enters the published protocol.