HeartBrain Coherence; HeartRate Variability (HRV); Reading Anxiety; TestEdge Program

Based on psychophysiological research, coherent heartbrain interaction can change afferent cardiac signal pattern sent to the brain. Accordingly, the present study aimed at facilitating the emotioncognition interaction through HeartMath Institute selfregulated emotional techniques to investigate the efficacy of heartbrain coherence on reading anxiety reduction that significantly enhances attention, memory, comprehension, and efficiency in learning. Participants were 63 Iranian university and high school students. In order to enable the participants to selfgenerate high psychophysiological state and optimal heart rate variability (HRV), TestEdge program, a biofeedback remedy that teaches students skills to selfregulate negative emotional learning impediments, was administered. Findings indicated that the combination of intentional heart focus with the generation of sustained positive feelings increased heartbrain coherence and resulted in a beneficial mode of psychophysiological state. This heartbrain coherence affected and controlled the HRV patterns significantly among the participants on average which, in turn, reduced reading anxiety. Particularly, this study found significant differences among the EFL students with high, mid, and low levels of coherence and their reading anxiety level.