Publication guidelines for human heart rate and heart rate variability studies in psychophysiology-Part 1: Physiological underpinnings and foundations of measurement.

This Committee Report provides methodological, interpretive, and reporting guidance for researchers who use measures of heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) in psychophysiological research. We provide brief summaries of best practices in measuring HR and HRV via electrocardiographic and photoplethysmographic signals in laboratory, field (ambulatory), and brain-imaging contexts to address research questions incorporating measures of HR and HRV. The Report emphasizes evidence for the strengths and weaknesses of different recording and derivation methods for measures of HR and HRV.

Multilevel analysis: Integrating multiple levels of neurobehavioral systems.

Traditional disciplines have frequently dealt with complex phenomena from a given level of analysis, be that molecular, cellular, organ system, or organismic level. This can yield highly valuable information on biological and psychological processes. There is an explanatory value added, however, by an integrative multilevel approach, in which different levels of analysis and different levels of the neural organization are considered in the models and theories of psychological functions.

Neural Circuits of Interoception.

The present paper considers recent progress in our understanding of the afferent/ascending neural pathways and neural circuits of interoception. Of particular note is the extensive role of rostral neural systems, including cortical systems, in the recognition of internal body states, and the reciprocal role of efferent/descending systems in the regulation of those states. Together these reciprocal interacting networks entail interoceptive circuits that play an important role in a broad range of functions beyond the homeostatic maintenance of physiological steady-states.

Presidential Address 2011: Autonomic modes of control and health.

Understanding psychosomatic relations, and their implications for heath, is importantly dependent on our conceptual and measurement models. The historical view of reciprocal control of the autonomic branches is applicable in some contexts, but not others. Control of the autonomic branches can vary reciprocally, independently, and even coactively.

Should heart rate variability be "corrected" for heart rate? Biological, quantitative, and interpretive considerations.

Metrics of heart period variability are widely used in the behavioral and biomedical sciences, although somewhat confusingly labeled as heart rate variability (HRV). Despite their wide use, HRV metrics are usually analyzed and interpreted without reference to prevailing levels of cardiac chronotropic state (i.e.