Using Resting State Heart Rate Variability and Skin Conductance Response to Detect Depression in Adults

In this research, heart rate variability (HRV), pulse rate variability (PRV) and human skin conductance (SC) of all acupoints on Heart Meridian were used to evaluate the effects of electrical acupuncture (EA) on acupoint BL15 (Bladder Meridian). Ten healthy volunteers (aged 23 ± 6) were selected as the control group on the first day, and then used again as the experimental group on the second day. The control group received sham EA during the study, while subjects of the experimental group were stimulated by 2 Hz EA on acupoint BL15 for 10 minutes. Electrocardiogram (ECG), wrist blood pressure pulse meter and skin conductance response (SCR) device were used to measure and analyze HRV, PRV and SCR for the two groups before and after stimulation. From the spectrum analysis of ECG and pulse pressure graph, we found that the EA applied on BL15 could induce a significant increase in the normalized high frequency power (nHFP) component of HRV and PRV, as well as a significant decrease in the normalized low frequency power (nLFP) part ( p < 0.05). Moreover, both the heart rate and pulse rate were reduced in the analysis of the time domain of ECG and PRV. Furthermore, most of the SCR values at acupoints were decreased after stimulation. These results also indicate that the stimulation of BL15 by EA could cause relaxation, calmness and reduce feeling of tension or distress.

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Normatively Irrelevant Affective Cues Affect Risk-Taking under Uncertainty: Insights from the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), Skin Conductance Response, and Heart Rate Variability

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11030336 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 336

Author(s):

Giulia Priolo ◽

Marco D’Alessandro ◽

Andrea Bizzego ◽

Nicolao Bonini

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Skin Conductance ◽

Risk Taking ◽

Skin Conductance Response ◽

Iowa Gambling Task ◽

Incongruent Condition ◽

Congruent Condition ◽

Gambling Task ◽

Affective Cues

Being able to distinguish between safe and risky options is paramount in making functional choices. However, deliberate manipulation of decision-makers emotions can lead to risky behaviors. This study aims at understanding how affective reactions driven by normatively irrelevant affective cues can interfere with risk-taking. Good and Bad decks of the Iowa Gambling Task have been manipulated to make them unpleasant through a negative auditory manipulation. Anticipatory skin conductance response (SCR) and heart rate variability (HRV) have been investigated in line with the somatic marker hypothesis. Results showed fewer selections from Good decks when they were negatively manipulated (i.e., Incongruent condition). No effect of the manipulation was detected when Bad decks were negatively manipulated (i.e., Congruent condition). Higher anticipatory SCR was associated with Bad decks in Congruent condition. Slower heart rate was found before selections from Good decks in Control and Congruent condition and from Bad decks in Incongruent condition. Differences in heart rate between Bad and Good decks were also detected in Congruent condition. Results shed light on how normatively irrelevant affective cues can interfere with risk-taking.

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Stress Markers for Mental States and Biotypes of Depression and Anxiety: A Scoping Review and Preliminary Illustrative Analysis

Chronic Stress ◽

10.1177/24705470211000338 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

pp. 247054702110003

Author(s):

Megan Chesnut ◽

Sahar Harati ◽

Pablo Paredes ◽

Yasser Khan ◽

Amir Foudeh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Skin Conductance ◽

Neural Circuit ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Mental States ◽

Classification Model ◽

Depression And Anxiety ◽

Stress Markers ◽

Physiological Markers

Depression and anxiety disrupt daily function and their effects can be long-lasting and devastating, yet there are no established physiological indicators that can be used to predict onset, diagnose, or target treatments. In this review, we conceptualize depression and anxiety as maladaptive responses to repetitive stress. We provide an overview of the role of chronic stress in depression and anxiety and a review of current knowledge on objective stress indicators of depression and anxiety. We focused on cortisol, heart rate variability and skin conductance that have been well studied in depression and anxiety and implicated in clinical emotional states. A targeted PubMed search was undertaken prioritizing meta-analyses that have linked depression and anxiety to cortisol, heart rate variability and skin conductance. Consistent findings include reduced heart rate variability across depression and anxiety, reduced tonic and phasic skin conductance in depression, and elevated cortisol at different times of day and across the day in depression. We then provide a brief overview of neural circuit disruptions that characterize particular types of depression and anxiety. We also include an illustrative analysis using predictive models to determine how stress markers contribute to specific subgroups of symptoms and how neural circuits add meaningfully to this prediction. For this, we implemented a tree-based multi-class classification model with physiological markers of heart rate variability as predictors and four symptom subtypes, including normative mood, as target variables. We achieved 40% accuracy on the validation set. We then added the neural circuit measures into our predictor set to identify the combination of neural circuit dysfunctions and physiological markers that accurately predict each symptom subtype. Achieving 54% accuracy suggested a strong relationship between those neural-physiological predictors and the mental states that characterize each subtype. Further work to elucidate the complex relationships between physiological markers, neural circuit dysfunction and resulting symptoms would advance our understanding of the pathophysiological pathways underlying depression and anxiety.

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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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THE QUEST FOR AN OBJECTIVE MEASURE OF BLADDER SENSIBILITY: A NEW APPROACH USING HEART RATE VARIABILITY AND SKIN CONDUCTANCE LEVEL ANALYSIS IN URODYNAMICS

The Journal of Urology ◽

10.1016/s0022-5347(08)61531-1 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 179 (4S) ◽

pp. 519-519

Author(s):

Ulrich Mehnert ◽

Peter A Knapp ◽

Andre Reitz ◽

Brigitte Schurch

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Skin Conductance ◽

Skin Conductance Level ◽

Objective Measure ◽

New Approach ◽

Level Analysis ◽

Conductance Level

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Human Psychophysiology and PTSD

10.1093/med/9780190215422.003.0015 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Tanja Jovanovic ◽

Seth Davin Norrholm

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Clinical Research ◽

Fear Conditioning ◽

Skin Conductance ◽

Symptom Severity ◽

Muscle Contractions ◽

Pavlovian Fear Conditioning ◽

Psychophysiological Measures ◽

Biological Assessments

Psychophysiological measures provide useful tools for investigating neurobiological mechanisms of trauma-related sequalae. In addition, they can serve as objective biological assessments of symptom severity in clinical research. This chapter describes the methods for collection of psychophysiological measures. These include muscle contractions (startle), electrodermal skin conductance, heart rate, and heart rate variability (HRV) at baseline, under stress, and following Pavlovian fear conditioning. These approaches are important both for understanding biology as well as for providing objective biomarkers that can be compared translationally from animals to humans. It also reviews the literature that has used these measures in PTSD. The evidence to date strongly suggests that these data provide robust correlates of PTSD severity.

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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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