Psychophysiological Regulation and Classroom Climate Influence First and Second Graders’ Well-Being: The Role of Body Mass Index

This study examines the associations between physical and emotional well-being and classroom climate, cardiac vagal response, and body mass index (BMI) in a sample of 6- to-8-year-olds. Specifically, we expected a direct link between classroom climate, vagal withdrawal, BMI and children’s physical and emotional comfort. Furthermore, we explored whether these individual and environmental characteristics influenced well-being in an interactive fashion. Participants were 142 (63 boys, 44%) first and second graders living in the North of Italy who were interviewed on their emotional and physical comfort. Heart rate and a measure of vagal influence on the heart (cardiac vagal tone) were recorded at rest and during an oral academic test. Height and weight were collected. Classroom climate was positively linked with physical well-being, whereas emotional well-being was negatively related with BMI. In addition, an inverted U-shaped effect of cardiac vagal withdrawal (i.e., cardiac vagal tone during stress minus resting vagal tone) on emotional well-being was found. Two regression models highlighted the role played by BMI when interacting with vagal withdrawal in predicting children’s physical and emotional well-being. The interplay between BMI and cardiac vagal withdrawal played an important role in primary school children’s well-being. From a clinical perspective, preventive training to improve autonomic regulation in concert with interventions promoting healthy eating attitudes might be critical for supporting primary school children’s emotional and physical health.

Associations between Acoustic Features of Maternal Speech and Infants' Emotion Regulation following a Social Stressor

Caregiver voices may provide cues to mobilize or calm infants. This study examined whether maternal prosody predicted changes in infants' biobehavioral state during the Still Face, a stressor in which the mother withdraws and reinstates social engagement. Ninety-four dyads participated in the study (infant age 4-8 months). Infants' heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (measuring cardiac vagal tone) were derived from an electrocardiogram (ECG). Infants' behavioral distress was measured by negative vocalizations, facial expressions, and gaze aversion. Mothers' vocalizations were measured with spectral analysis and spectro-temporal modulation using a two-dimensional fast Fourier transformation of the audio spectrogram. High values on the maternal prosody composite were associated with decreases in infants' heart rate (β=-.26, 95% CI: [-.46, -.05]) and behavioral distress (β=- .20, 95% CI: [-.38, -.02]), and increases in cardiac vagal tone in infants whose vagal tone was low during the stressor (1 SD below mean β=.39, 95% CI: [.06, .73]). High infant heart rate predicted increases in the maternal prosody composite (β=.18, 95% CI: [.03, .33]). These results suggest specific vocal acoustic features of speech that are relevant for regulating infants' biobehavioral state and demonstrate mother-infant bi-directional dynamics.

Environmental sensitivity and cardiac vagal tone as moderators of the relationship between family support and well-being in low SES children: An exploratory study

This cross-sectional study explored whether the association between perceived family support and child well-being was moderated by the individual trait of Environmental Sensitivity (the ability to register, process, and respond to stimuli) and cardiac vagal tone (CVT, an index of self-regulation) in a sample of children living in socioeconomically disadvantaged families. Participating children ( N = 131, M age = 7.20 years, 47% boys) were individually interviewed about the support received within the family as well as their physical and emotional well-being. Children’s sensitivity was assessed via a series of behavioral tasks, and CVT was recorded at rest. Hierarchical cluster analysis on the behavioral items yielded three sensitivity groups: “Low sensitive” (43%), “Moderately sensitive” (33%), and “Highly sensitive” (24%). The three groups of children did not differ in baseline CVT. However, linear regression analyses revealed that at low and average levels of family support, highly sensitive children with higher resting CVT reported better well-being than those with low resting CVT, whereas no effect was observed among children in the other two groups. In the context of high family support, children reported high levels of well-being irrespective of their levels of vagal activity or sensitivity. The findings suggest that among low SES families, when children experience a poorly supportive family environment and are highly sensitive to negative experiences, having a higher resting CVT may confer an advantage in terms of well-being. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Evening Binge Alcohol Disrupts Cardiovagal Tone and Baroreflex Function During Polysomnographic Sleep

Study Objectives Binge alcohol consumption is associated with increased cardiovascular risk. The effects of evening binge alcohol consumption (i.e., 4-5 beverages within two hours) on the vagal components of HRV and cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity (cvBRS) during sleep remain largely equivocal. The present study examined the effects of evening binge alcohol consumption on nocturnal cardiac vagal tone and baroreflex sensitivity during stage N2, slow wave (SWS), and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. We hypothesized that evening binge drinking would reduce HRV and cvBRS in each sleep stage. Methods Following a familiarization night within the laboratory, twenty-three participants were examined following a night of binge alcohol consumption and a fluid control (randomized, crossover design). A quality nocturnal beat-to-beat blood pressure signal was obtained in both conditions in 16 participants (7 men, 9 women; 25±1 years). Results Binge drinking reduced both the high frequency (HF) and time-domain components (i.e., pNN50 and RMSSD) of HRV in stage N2 sleep, SWS, and REM. In addition, cvBRS up-up (vagal activation) was reduced following binge alcohol consumption in stage N2 (21±3 vs. 15±3 ms/mmHg, P=0.035) and REM (15[11-28] vs. 11[9-18] ms/mmHg, P=0.009). Binge alcohol consumption reduced cvBRS down-down (vagal withdrawal) in stage N2 (23±2 vs. 14±2 ms/mmHg, P<0.001), SWS (20[14-30] vs. 14[9-17] ms/mmHg, P=0.022), and REM (14[11-24] vs. 10[7-15] ms/mmHg, P=0.006). Conclusions Evening binge alcohol consumption disrupts cardiac vagal tone and baroreflex function during nearly all sleep stages. These findings provide mechanistic insight into the potential role of binge drinking and alcohol abuse on cardiovascular risk.

Cardiac Vagal Tone and Stress

Based on its distinctive innervation between the brain and body, the vagal nerve has long been considered to play an important role in explaining how exposure to stress leads to numerous psychiatric disorders and cardiac diseases. In contrast to activation of the sympathetic nervous system during exposures to stress, the vagal nerve is responsible for parasympathetic regulation of visceral activity including cardiac functioning that often but not always co-occurs during periods of stress. Although methods exist to measure vagal nerve influences on the heart directly, most of the literature on both human and animal participants’ responses to stress employs the measurement of heart rate variability (HRV). HRV, the tendency for the heart rate to increase and decrease in adaptation to the changing physiological and external environment, can be easily detected using surface electrodes; several HRV parameters have been shown to be valid indicators of parasympathetic nerve activity. Theories of the evolutionary heritage of the vagal nerve, like Porges’ polyvagal theory and the subsequent neurovisceral integration perspective of Thayer and colleagues that traces the autonomic regulation of the heart into higher cortical regions, have served as important conceptual works to guide empirical work examining the effects of stress on both tonic and phasic vagal activity. A number of methodological approaches have been employed to evaluate whether exposure to stress affects vagal tone, including use of animal models, case-control samples of humans exposed to stressful living situations, and samples of humans diagnosed with a range of psychiatric disorders. Findings from studies comprising this literature support a relation between exposure to stress and reduced cardiac vagal tone. Both humans and animals typically exhibit reductions in daily HRV when exposed to a range of stressful situations or contexts. The relation between stress and phasic alterations in vagal functioning, the magnitude of the acute change in HRV in response to an acute stressor, is more complicated, likely involving significant moderating variables that have yet to be elucidated. In sum, considerable evidence supports an important neuroregulatory role of the vagal nerve in modulating the body’s response to environmental stress and potentially serving as an avenue for understanding how exposure to stress increases risk for psychiatric disorders as well as cardiovascular disease.

The heart as judge: Association of heart rate variability with moral judgment—A replication study

There is growing research into contributing processes and biological correlates of differences in moral judgements with process dissociation procedures allowing independent quantifica-tion of utilitarian and deontic tendencies underlying moral decisions. Recently, Park et al. (2016) reported that estimated utilitarianism showed negative associations with heart rate variability (HRV) at rest. Resting HRV is an indicator of cardiac vagal tone and thus of para-sympathetic activity and has also been suggested to be a marker of neuro-visceral integra-tion. We aimed to replicate and extend these findings. Using the same set of moral dilemmas in N = 157 young adults, we found no such association in the total sample. However, when taking sex and the use of hormonal contraceptives into account, we found a positive associa-tion between HRV at rest and estimated deontology in women using combined oral contra-ceptives and men, while in free cycling women there was a negative association. While we did not replicate the original findings, our results partly indicate similar behavioral conse-quences of increased HRV, since both reduced utilitarianism (cf. Park et al., 2016) and in-creased deontology are linked to decreased endorsement of harmful actions. Furthermore, there were no associations between sympathetic activity (assessed via electro-dermal activi-ty) and moral judgements.