Ethnic differences in resting heart rate variability: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Ethnic disparities in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality are widely documented in the literature. Recently, research has shown that decreased parasympathetic cardiac modulation is associated with the established and emerging risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke. In consideration of the disproportionate CVD risk and disease profile of African Americans (AAs), it is plausible that decreased cardiac parasympathetic functioning may partially explain these disparities.

Organizational justice is related to heart rate variability in white-collar workers, but not in blue-collar workers-findings from a cross-sectional study.

Background: Perceived injustice at work predicts coronary heart disease. Vagal dysregulation represents a potential psychobiological pathway.

Purpose: We examined associations between organizational justice and heart rate variability (HRV) indicators.

Resting heart rate variability and the startle reflex to briefly presented affective pictures.

We have previously shown that persons with low HRV showed potentiated startle responses to neutral stimuli. In the present study we replicated our prior findings and extended them to examine the effects of HRV on the startle magnitude to pictures that were presented outside of conscious awareness. A total of 85 male and female students were stratified via median split on their resting HRV.

Reduced anxiety in forensic inpatients after a long-term intervention with Atlantic salmon.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of Atlantic salmon consumption on underlying biological mechanisms associated with anxiety such as heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate (HR) as well as a measure of self-reported anxiety. Moreover, these biological and self-reported outcome measures were investigated in relation to specific nutrients; vitamin D status, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Ninety-five male forensic inpatients were randomly assigned into a Fish (Atlantic salmon three times per week from September to February) or a Control group (alternative meal, e.

Time-varying correlations between delta EEG power and heart rate variability in midlife women: the SWAN Sleep Study.

No studies have evaluated the dynamic, time-varying relationship between delta electroencephalographic (EEG) sleep and high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) in women. Delta EEG and HF-HRV were measured during sleep in 197 midlife women (M(age)  = 52.1, SD = 2.

A validation of estimated total peripheral resistance using twin data.

Chronically elevated total peripheral resistance (TPR) is a suspected contributor to the greater rates of hypertension in African Americans. Previous research suggests that over 50% of the variability in measures of vascular resistance may be attributable to genetic effects and genetic effects may play an even greater role in variability of TPR in African Americans. We have previously demonstrated the coherence of a simple equation-based estimate of total peripheral resistance (TPRest) with TPR obtained via a validated method (Hill et al, 2013).

Increased association over time between regional frontal lobe BOLD change magnitude and cardiac vagal control with sertraline treatment for major depression.

Regions of the medial visceromotor network (MVN) participate in concurrently regulating shifts in both affective state and cardiac vagal control in the attentional background, and this regulatory ability may be impaired in depression. We examined whether the relationship between changes in BOLD within MVN regions and changes in cardiac vagal control (VC) during affective state shifting changed with depression treatment. Ten depressed and ten control subjects performed an emotional counting Stroop task designed to trigger affective change in the attentional background while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging and concurrent electrocardiography (ECG) on four occasions: week 0 (pre-treatment) and weeks 2, 6 and 12 of treatment on sertraline.

Resting heart rate variability predicts safety learning and fear extinction in an interoceptive fear conditioning paradigm.

This study aimed to investigate whether interindividual differences in autonomic inhibitory control predict safety learning and fear extinction in an interoceptive fear conditioning paradigm. Data from a previously reported study (N = 40) were extended (N = 17) and re-analyzed to test whether healthy participants' resting heart rate variability (HRV) - a proxy of cardiac vagal tone - predicts learning performance. The conditioned stimulus (CS) was a slight sensation of breathlessness induced by a flow resistor, the unconditioned stimulus (US) was an aversive short-lasting suffocation experience induced by a complete occlusion of the breathing circuitry.

Resting high-frequency heart rate variability is related to resting brain perfusion.

We examined the neural correlates of resting cardiac vagal activity in a sample of 432 participants (206 male; 61 African American; mean age 42 years). Pulsed arterial spin labeling was used to quantify whole brain and regional cerebral blood flow at rest. High-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) was used to measure cardiac vagal activity at rest.

Focusing neurovisceral integration: cognition, heart rate variability, and cerebral blood flow.

The neurovisceral integration hypothesis suggests in part that cerebral control of autonomic function conveys comparable control of executive function and, hence, correlation among vagally determined high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), executive function, and regional cerebral blood flow (CBF). In 440 middle-aged men and women, resting HF-HRV was related to regional CBF derived from a resting arterial spin-labeled MRI scan and to seven neuropsychological tests of executive function. Despite some intercorrelations, regression modeling failed to support integrated central control of HF-HRV and executive function.

Effects of depression, anxiety, comorbidity, and antidepressants on resting-state heart rate and its variability: an ELSA-Brasil cohort baseline study.

Objective: Increases in resting-state heart rate and decreases in its variability are associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, yet contradictory findings have been reported for the effects of the mood and anxiety disorders and of antidepressants. The authors investigated heart rate and heart rate variability in a large cohort from Brazil, using propensity score weighting, a relatively novel method, to control for numerous potential confounders.

Method: A total of 15,105 participants were recruited in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health.

Individual differences in resting heart rate variability and cognitive control in posttraumatic stress disorder.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by deficits in cognitive functioning, particularly cognitive control. Moreover, these deficits are thought to play a critical role in the etiology and maintenance of core PTSD symptoms such as intrusive thoughts and memories. However, the psychophysiological concomitants of cognitive control remain largely unexamined.

Heart rate variability and swimming.

Background And Objectives: Professionals in the domain of swimming have a strong interest in implementing research methods in evaluating and improving training methods to maximize athletic performance and competitive outcome. Heart rate variability (HRV) has gained attention in research on sport and exercise to assess autonomic nervous system activity underlying physical activity and sports performance. Studies on swimming and HRV are rare.

Brain natriuretic hormone predicts stress-induced alterations in diastolic function.

Background: Mental stress (MS) reduces diastolic function (DF) and may lead to congestive heart failure with preserved systolic function. Whether brain natriuretic hormone (brain natriuretic peptide [BNP]) mediates the relationship of MS with DF is unknown.

Methods: One hundred sixty individuals aged 30 to 50 years underwent 2-hour protocol of 40-minute rest, videogame stressor and recovery.

From the heart to the mind: cardiac vagal tone modulates top-down and bottom-up visual perception and attention to emotional stimuli.

The neurovisceral integration model (Thayer and Lane, 2000) posits that cardiac vagal tone, indexed by heart rate variability (HRV), can indicate the functional integrity of the neural networks implicated in emotion-cognition interactions. Our recent findings begin to disentangle how HRV is associated with both top-down and bottom-up cognitive processing of emotional stimuli. Higher resting HRV is associated with more adaptive and functional top-down and bottom-up cognitive modulation of emotional stimuli, which may facilitate effective emotion regulation.

Fish consumption, sleep, daily functioning, and heart rate variability.

Study Objectives: This study investigated the effects of fatty fish on sleep, daily functioning and biomarkers such as heart rate variability (HRV), vitamin D status (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n-3) + docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) in red blood cells. Moreover the relationship among sleep, daily functioning, HRV, vitamin D status, and levels of EPA+DHA was investigated.

Methods: Ninety-five male forensic patients from a secure forensic inpatient facility in the USA were randomly assigned into a Fish or a Control group.

Association of the physiological stress response with depressive symptoms in patients with breast cancer.

Objective: The literature on the relationship of depressive symptoms and stress hormones after cancer diagnosis has been mixed, with some studies showing a relationship and other studies showing none. Time since diagnosis may explain these contradictory findings. This study examined the relationship of depressive symptoms to stress hormones in patients with breast cancer using 12-month longitudinal data.

Cardiac reactivity to and recovery from acute stress: temporal associations with implicit anxiety.

Excessive cardiac responses to stressful events are a risk factor for morbidity and mortality. Adverse cardiac responses are usually attributed to conscious negative stress and emotions. Yet, cardiac responses might also be affected by emotions that are not consciously reported.

Lowered parasympathetic activity in apparently healthy subjects with self-reported symptoms of pain: preliminary results from a pilot study.

Objectives: The aim was to evaluate differences in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, indexed by heart rate variability (HRV) in apparently healthy subjects with self-reported symptoms of pain (SRSP) within an exploratory analysis.

Methods: HRV data from 14 apparently healthy male individuals were analyzed to address potential differences in subjects with and without SRSP. SRSP was assessed using the four pain-related items from the symptom checklist (SCL-90R).

When tonic cardiac vagal tone predicts changes in phasic vagal tone: the role of fear and perceptual load.

We examined the relationship between tonic--a correlate of self-regulatory functioning--and phasic cardiac vagal activity (indexed by heart rate variability; HRV) during a selective attentional task with varying levels of load. Participants detected a target letter among letter strings superimposed on either fearful or neutral face distractors. Letter strings consisted of six target letters under low load and one target letter and five nontarget letters under high load.

Redundancy analysis of autonomic and self-reported, responses to induced emotions.

The issue of concordance among the elements of emotional states has been prominent in the literature since Lang (1968) explored the topic in relation to therapy for anxiety. Since that time, a consensus has emerged that concordance among these components is relatively low. To address this issue, redundancy analysis, a technique for examining directional relationships between two sets of multivariate data, was applied to data from a previously published study (Stephens, Christie, & Friedman, 2010).

Heart rate variability predicts control over memory retrieval.

Stopping retrieval of unwanted memories has been characterized as a process that requires inhibition. However, little research has examined the relationship between control over memory retrieval and individual differences in inhibitory control. Higher levels of resting heart rate variability (HRV) are associated with greater inhibitory control, as indicated by better performance on a number of cognitive, affective, and motor tasks.

Two-week test-retest stability of the cold pressor task procedure at two different temperatures as a measure of pain threshold and tolerance.

Background: The cold pressor task (CPT) was originally developed as a clinically indicative cardiovascular test, and quantifies vascular response and pulse excitability when a subject's hand is immersed into ice water. Since the test procedure results in a gradually increasing cold pain, the CPT has been widely used as a nociceptive stimulus in experimental studies on adults and children.

Aim: To evaluate the test-retest stability of response patterns using the CPT as a measure of pain threshold and pain tolerance.

Nonparametric spectral analysis of heart rate variability through penalized sum of squares.

Researchers in a variety of biomedical fields have utilized frequency domain properties of heart rate variability (HRV), or the elapsed time between consecutive heart beats. HRV is measured from the electrocardiograph signal through the interbeat interval series. Popular approaches for estimating power spectra from these interval data apply common spectral analysis methods that are designed for the analysis of evenly sampled time series.