Classical back massage is associated with lower heart rate and sustained mean skin conductance during recovery after cognitive load: an exploratory controlled pilot study
Maciej Lachowicz, Iwona Wilk, Igor Hrehorowicz, Szymon Bałamucki, Michał Lisowski, Dariusz Jamro, Grzegorz Żurek, Waldemar Andrzejewski · 2026
Read Classical back massage is associated with lower heart rate and sustained mean skin conductance during recovery after cognitive load: an exploratory controlled pilot study by Maciej Lachowicz, Iwona Wilk, Igor Hrehorowicz, Szymon Bałamucki, Michał Lisowski, Dariusz Jamro, Grzegorz Żurek, Waldemar Andrzejewski (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13593411.txt.
Description
A back massage may calm the heart after hard mental work, even while skin signals stay high. Maciej Lachowicz and co-authors ran a small pilot study on that question in 2026. Forty-eight people took part, half given a classical back massage and half left to rest face down. All had first done a task that loaded the mind. Heart rate and skin conductance were tracked for fifteen minutes after the task.
The massage group kept a lower heart rate than the rest group in every recovery window. Skin conductance, a sign of arousal, stayed higher for longer in the massage group. The split suggests heart and skin measures can move in unlike ways after touch. The authors treat the work as early and in need of larger tests.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Maciej Lachowicz, Iwona Wilk, Igor Hrehorowicz, Szymon Bałamucki, Michał Lisowski, Dariusz Jamro, Grzegorz Żurek, Waldemar Andrzejewski |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 62 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |