Information for:

Exercise Psychology Laboratory

Patrick O'Connor, Professor
Exercise Psychology Laboratory Co-Director
Ph.D., Exercise Psychology, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Area of Expertise: Exercise and Sport Psychology
Research Interests: Relationships Between Exercise and Mental Health
Complete Vita
Office: 115L
Phone: 706-542-4382
E-mail: poconnor@uga.edu

The Exercise Psychology Lab (2,500 square feet) is instrumented with physiological recorders for assessing heart period, automated indirect blood pressures, respiration, and electrical potentials for skin, muscle, and brain with biofeedback capabilities. Sound-restricted, humidity/temperature controlled, and electrically shielded tested chambers are also housed in the lab. The chambers allow various types of research related to stress physiology and perceived exertion. Recorders are interfaced with microcomputers dedicated to data collection, reduction and analysis. Research has focused on psychophysiological effects of acute and chronic exercise as they relate to anxiety and stress reactivity, effects of somatosensory and acoustically evoked biopotentials assessed by electromyography and electroencephalography and the role of baroreflex activity on changes in cardiovascular reactivity to cognitive and psychomotor stressors following exercise training.

The laboratory also houses facilities suitable for polysomnographic assessment of sleep physiology including EEG, electro-oculography, electromyography and respiratory function. Resting and exercise metabolic measurements are made using a metabolic cart. In addition, computerized and automated ambulatory assessments of heart rate variability, blood pressure, body temperature and physical activity are used to examine various aspects of the human circadian system while test subjects live outside of the laboratory.