In my study I have exposed the volunteers to 4 separate 45 second stressors that are a mixture of modalities (audio/visual) and task types (emotion-evoking/cognitive) with 3 minute baselines in between. A continuous ECG is trace is taken throughout the experiment, from the gross heart rate I hope to work out heart rate variability. My aim is to test the validity of heart rate variability as an objective stress assessment method for psychophysiological stress. My question is at what point on the ECG trace for each volunteer would I analyse the gross heart rate to work out Heart Rate variability for each of the four stressors i.e. pre-stressor, post-stressor and why ?

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