Measures of RSA Suppression, Attentional Control, and Negative Affect Predict Self-Ratings of Executive Functions

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 164-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Healy ◽  
Aaron Treadwell ◽  
Mandy Reagan
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Executive Processes ◽  
Sinus Arrhythmia ◽  
Low Levels

The current study was an attempt to determine the degree to which the suppression of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and attentional control were influential in the ability to engage various executive processes under high and low levels of negative affect. Ninety-four college students completed the Stroop Test while heart rate was being recorded. Estimates of the suppression of RSA were calculated from each participant in response to this test. The participants then completed self-ratings of attentional control, negative affect, and executive functioning. Regression analysis indicated that individual differences in estimates of the suppression of RSA, and ratings of attentional control were associated with the ability to employ executive processes but only when self-ratings of negative affect were low. An increase in negative affect compromised the ability to employ these strategies in the majority of participants. The data also suggest that high attentional control in conjunction with attenuated estimates of RSA suppression may increase the ability to use executive processes as negative affect increases.

Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia During Sleep and Waking

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Stoakley ◽  
Karen J. Mathewson ◽  
Louis A. Schmidt ◽  
Kimberly A. Cote
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia ◽  
Slow Wave Sleep ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Nrem Sleep ◽  
Sinus Arrhythmia ◽  
Affective Style ◽  
Waking State ◽  
Optimal Period ◽  
The Stability

Abstract. Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is related to individual differences in waking affective style and self-regulation. However, little is known about the stability of RSA between sleep/wake stages or the relations between RSA during sleep and waking affective style. We examined resting RSA in 25 healthy undergraduates during the waking state and one night of sleep. Stability of cardiac variables across sleep/wake states was highly reliable within participants. As predicted, greater approach behavior and lower impulsivity were associated with higher RSA; these relations were evident in early night Non-REM (NREM) sleep, particularly in slow wave sleep (SWS). The current research extends previous findings by establishing stability of RSA within individuals between wake and sleep states, and by identifying SWS as an optimal period of measurement for relations between waking affective style and RSA.

Assessment of parasympathetic control of heart rate by a noninvasive method

1984 ◽  
Vol 246 (6) ◽  
pp. H838-H842 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. M. Fouad ◽  
R. C. Tarazi ◽  
C. M. Ferrario ◽  
S. Fighaly ◽  
C. Alicandri
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia ◽  
Separate Group ◽  
Noninvasive Method ◽  
Sinus Arrhythmia ◽  
Beta Adrenergic ◽  
Normal Volunteers ◽  
Vagal Control ◽  
Parasympathetic Control ◽  
The Relationship

The degree of parasympathetic control of heart rate was assessed by the abolition of respiratory sinus arrhythmia with atropine. Peak-to-peak variations in heart periods (VHP) before atropine injection correlated significantly (r = 0.90, P less than 0.001) with parasympathetic control, indicating that VHP alone may be used as a noninvasive indicator of the parasympathetic control of heart rate. Pharmacologic blockade of beta-adrenergic supply in a separate group of normal volunteers did not alter the relationship between VHP and parasympathetic control, indicating that the condition of the experiment (complete rest in a quiet atmosphere) allows the use of VHP alone without pharmacologic interventions to characterize the vagal control of heart rate in humans.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia in the denervated human heart

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 1447-1455 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Bernardi ◽  
F. Keller ◽  
M. Sanders ◽  
P. S. Reddy ◽  
B. Griffith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia ◽  
Human Heart ◽  
Normal Subjects ◽  
Respiratory Frequency ◽  
Autonomic Tone ◽  
Sinus Arrhythmia ◽  
Transplant Patients ◽  
Myocardial Wall ◽  
Analysis Technique

We performed this study to test whether the denervated human heart has the ability to manifest respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). With the use of a highly sensitive spectral analysis technique (cross correlation) to define beat-to-beat coupling between respiratory frequency and heart rate period (R-R) and hence RSA, we compared the effects of patterned breathing at defined respiratory frequency and tidal volumes (VT), Valsalva and Mueller maneuvers, single deep breaths, and unpatterned spontaneous breathing on RSA in 12 normal volunteers and 8 cardiac allograft transplant recipients. In normal subjects R-R changes closely followed changes in respiratory frequency (P less than 0.001) but were little affected by changes in VT. On the R-R spectrum, an oscillation peak synchronous with respiration was found in heart transplant patients. However, the average magnitude of the respiration-related oscillations was 1.7–7.9% that seen in normal subjects and was proportionally more influenced by changes in VT. Changes in R-R induced by Valsalva and Mueller maneuvers were 3.8 and 4.9% of those seen in normal subjects, respectively, whereas changes in R-R induced by single deep breaths were 14.3% of those seen in normal subjects. The magnitude of RSA was not related to time since the heart transplantation, neither was it related to patient age or sex. Thus the heart has the intrinsic ability to vary heart rate in synchrony with ventilation, consistent with the hypothesis that changes, or rate of changes, in myocardial wall stretch might alter intrinsic heart rate independent of autonomic tone.

Psychophysiological influences on personality trajectories in adolescent females exposed to child maltreatment

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 1390-1401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raha Hassan ◽  
Harriet L. MacMillan ◽  
Masako Tanaka ◽  
Louis A. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Adolescent Females ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Personality Factors ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Sinus Arrhythmia ◽  
Psychophysiological Measures

AbstractAlthough child maltreatment is a major public health concern, which adversely affects psychological and physical development, we know relatively little concerning psychophysiological and personality factors that may modify risk in children exposed to maltreatment. Using a three-wave, short-term prospective design, we examined the influence of individual differences in two disparate psychophysiological measures of risk (i.e., resting frontal brain electrical activity and respiratory sinus arrhythmia) on the trajectories of extraversion and neuroticism in a sample of female adolescents (N = 55; M age = 14.02 years) exposed to child maltreatment. Adolescents exposed to child maltreatment with relatively higher left frontal absolute alpha power (i.e., lower brain activity) at rest exhibited increasing trajectories of extraversion, and adolescents exposed to child maltreatment with relatively lower respiratory sinus arrhythmia at rest displayed increasing trajectories of neuroticism over 1 year. Individual differences in psychophysiological measures indexing resting central and peripheral nervous system activity may therefore differentially influence personality characteristics in adolescent females exposed to child maltreatment.

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