Heart Rate Variability in Children and Adolescents with Autism, ADHD and Co-occurring Autism and ADHD, During Passive and Active Experimental Conditions

AbstractDespite overlaps in clinical symptomatology, autism and ADHD may be associated with opposite autonomic arousal profiles which might partly explain altered cognitive and global functioning. We investigated autonomic arousal in 106 children/adolescents with autism, ADHD, co-occurring autism/ADHD, and neurotypical controls. Heart rate variability was recorded during resting-state, a ‘passive’ auditory oddball task and an ‘active’ response conflict task. Autistic children showed hyper-arousal during the active task, while those with ADHD showed hypo-arousal during resting-state and the passive task. Irrespective of diagnosis, children characterised by hyper-arousal showed more severe autistic symptomatology, increased anxiety and reduced global functioning than those displaying hypo-arousal, suggesting the importance of considering individual autonomic arousal profiles for differential diagnosis of autism/ADHD and when developing personalised interventions.

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Heart Rate Variability, Homeostasis, and Brain Function

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000080 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 26 (4) ◽

pp. 178-203 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Francesco Riganello ◽

Sergio Garbarino ◽

Walter G. Sannita

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Vegetative State ◽

Communication Disorders ◽

Affective States ◽

Experimental Conditions ◽

Cardiovascular Research ◽

Sensory Stimuli ◽

Additional Information ◽

Brain Injured

Measures of heart rate variability (HRV) are major indices of the sympathovagal balance in cardiovascular research. These measures are thought to reflect complex patterns of brain activation as well and HRV is now emerging as a descriptor thought to provide information on the nervous system organization of homeostatic responses in accordance with the situational requirements. Current models of integration equate HRV to the affective states as parallel outputs of the central autonomic network, with HRV reflecting its organization of affective, physiological, “cognitive,” and behavioral elements into a homeostatic response. Clinical application is in the study of patients with psychiatric disorders, traumatic brain injury, impaired emotion-specific processing, personality, and communication disorders. HRV responses to highly emotional sensory inputs have been identified in subjects in vegetative state and in healthy or brain injured subjects processing complex sensory stimuli. In this respect, HRV measurements can provide additional information on the brain functional setup in the severely brain damaged and would provide researchers with a suitable approach in the absence of conscious behavior or whenever complex experimental conditions and data collection are impracticable, as it is the case, for example, in intensive care units.

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Indices of Heart Rate Variability and Performance During a Response-Conflict Task Are Differently Associated With ADHD and Autism

Journal of Attention Disorders ◽

10.1177/1087054720972793 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 108705472097279

Author(s):

Alessio Bellato ◽

Iti Arora ◽

Puja Kochhar ◽

Chris Hollis ◽

Madeleine J. Groom

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Sensory Information ◽

Response Conflict ◽

Mediation Model ◽

Conflict Task ◽

Accurate Performance ◽

And Performance ◽

Comorbid Adhd ◽

The Relationship

We investigated autonomic arousal, attention and response conflict, in ADHD and autism. Heart rate variability (HRV), and behavioral/electrophysiological indices of performance, were recorded during a task with low and high levels of response conflict in 78 children/adolescents (7–15 years old) with ADHD, autism, comorbid ADHD+autism, or neurotypical. ANOVA models were used to investigate effects of ADHD and autism, while a mediation model was tested to clarify the relationship between ADHD and slower performance. Slower and less accurate performance characterized ADHD and autism; however, atypical electrophysiological indices differently characterized these conditions. The relationship between ADHD and slower task performance was mediated by reduced HRV in response to the cue stimulus. Autonomic hypo-arousal and difficulties in mobilizing energetic resources in response to sensory information (associated with ADHD), and atypical electrophysiological indices of information processing (associated with autism), might negatively affect cognitive performance in those with ADHD+autism.

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A higher degree of insight impairment in stabilized schizophrenia patients is associated with reduced cardiac vagal tone as indexed by resting-state high-frequency heart rate variability

Asian Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102171 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 53 ◽

pp. 102171 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Chin-Chao Ma ◽

Yu-Chen Kao ◽

Nian-Sheng Tzeng ◽

Che-Yi Chao ◽

Chuan-Chia Chang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Resting State ◽

High Frequency ◽

Vagal Tone ◽

Cardiac Vagal Tone

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Heart rate variability interacts with recovery of resting-state connectivity in amygdala circuitry and the persistence of symptoms after sport-related concussion

Neurology ◽

10.1212/01.wnl.0000720016.51384.d0 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 95 (20 Supplement 1) ◽

pp. S15.2-S16

Author(s):

Kevin Bickart ◽

Christopher Andrew Sheridan ◽

Corey M. Thibeault ◽

Robert Hamilton ◽

James LeVangie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Resting State ◽

Autonomic Function ◽

Network Connectivity ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Network Recovery ◽

Symptom Persistence ◽

Resting State Connectivity ◽

Over Time

ObjectiveWe investigated longitudinal trajectories of resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI), autonomic function, and graded symptoms after sport-related concussion (SRC).BackgroundLimbic circuitry may be particularly vulnerable to traumatic brain injury, which could explain the affective and autonomic dysfunction that some patients develop. Relatively few studies have performed longitudinal rsfMRI analyses in concussion and fewer have combined imaging with autonomic and symptom data. We leveraged published limbic rsfMRI networks centered on the amygdala that include core affective and autonomic structures to test whether athletes with SRC would have altered connectivity, and that network recovery would be related to measures of autonomic function and symptom persistence.Design/MethodsWe compared rsfMRI connectivity of amygdala networks in college athletes with SRC (N = 31, female = 14) at three time points after concussion (T1 = 4 days, T2 = 10–14 days, T3 = 2–3 months) and matched controls with no concussion (in-sport control [ISC] N = 36, female = 17).ResultsSRCs show greater amygdala network connectivity as compared to ISCs (T1 p = 0.003, T2 p = 0.014) that normalizes over time (T3 p = 0.182). However, SRCs with higher versus lower heart rate variability (HRV), as measured by pNN50 at T1, have opposing trajectories of connectivity. That is, SRCs with higher HRV have connectivity that starts high and normalizes over time (T1 p = 0.001, T2 p = 0.055, T3 p = 0.576) whereas SRCs with lower HRV have connectivity that increases over time (T1 p = 0.429, T2 p = 0.050, T3 p = 0.002). Furthermore, SRCs with greatest connectivity at T3, presumably the least recovered, have the most symptoms on the Graded Symptom Checklist at ∼3 months (r = 0.635, p = 0.001).ConclusionsHeightened connectivity of amygdala circuitry acutely after a concussion and its normalization over time may be protective, and with HRV, may be a biomarker of symptom persistence.

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