A behavioral link between the oculomotor and cardiovascular systems

Although the eyes and the heart serve very different purposes, each receives autonomic innervation. Capitalizing on recent theoretical and technological innovations in the understanding and assessment of oculomotor and cardiovascular behavior, three experiments measured behavioral covariation between the oculomotor and cardiovascular systems. Measures of dark focus and dark vergence indexed oculomotor tone, and the spectral decomposition of variations in heart rate indexed cardiovascular control mechanisms. In Experiment 1, individual differences in cardiovascular parameters could predict individuals’ dark vergence (R²=.806) but not their dark focus (R²=.404). In Experiment 2, the same parameters were measured from subjects who experience either panic attacks (n=11) or blood phobia (n=9). Heart rate was positively correlated with dark vergence and the two subject groups were separable based on both oculomotor and cardiovascular variables. Using a within-subjects approach, Experiment 3 found that both dark vergence and dark focus tended to be nearer during sympathetic dominance of the heart than during parasympathetic dominance, within-subjects variations in cardiovascular parameters could predict dark focus, and between-subjects variations in interbeat intervals could predict dark vergence. Shared patterns of autonomic activation may be responsible for this eye-heart link.     

Depression and heart rate variability in cardiac rehabilitation patients: exploring the roles of physical activity and fitness

Cardiac patients with depression have shown altered autonomic nervous system functioning, expressed as reduced heart rate variability. This may be associated with poorer physical fitness and less physical activity among depressed patients. These relationships were explored among patients enrolled in outpatient cardiac rehabilitation. 22 depressed and 22 nondepressed patients, matched for sex and age, were assessed at enrollment. The Beck Depression Inventory and structured interviews were used to measure depression. Patients completed ambulatory monitoring of ECG (i.e., Holter) and physical activity, as well as a treadmill stress test. Depression was associated with several measures of heart rate variability. Activity and fitness were lower among the depressed patients. Although exploratory, accounting for activity and fitness attenuated the relationship between depression and heart rate variability. This suggests that altered fitness and activity may help explain altered autonomic tone that characterizes patients with cardiovascular diseases who are psychologically depressed.     

Spectral indices of cardiovascular adaptations to short-term simulated microgravity exposure

We investigated the effects of exposure to microgravity on the baseline autonomic balance in cardiovascular regulation using spectral analysis of cardiovascular variables measured during supine rest. Heart rate, arterial pressure, radial flow, thoracic fluid impedance and central venous pressure were recorded from nine volunteers before and after simulated microgravity, produced by 20 hours of 6° head down bedrest plus furosemide. Spectral powers increased after simulated microgravity in the low frequency region (centered at about 0.03 Hz) in arterial pressure, heart rate and radial flow, and decreased in the respiratory frequency region (centered at about 0.25 Hz) in heart rate. Reduced heart rate power in the respiratory frequency region indicates reduced parasympathetic influence on the heart. A concurrent increase in the low frequency power in arterial pressure, heart rate, and radial flow indicates increased sympathetic influence. These results suggest that the baseline autonomic balance in cardiovascular regulation is shifted towards increased sympathetic and decreased parasympathetic influence after exposure to short-term simulated microgravity.     

Aroused at Home: Basic Autonomic Regulation during Orthostatic and Physical Activation is Altered in Children with Social Anxiety Disorder

Previous research has documented altered autonomic nervous system (ANS) reactivity to laboratory-based social stress tasks in children with social anxiety disorder (SAD). It is unclear, however, whether these alterations are caused by the unfamiliar and possibly threatening lab environment or whether they generalize to other, more representative contexts. Sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic functioning was assessed in the home (minimizing environmental threat) during a supine baseline phase and two physical activation phases (orthostatic stress, stair stepping) in children (9–13 years) with SAD (n?=?27) and healthy control children (n?=?27). Relative to controls, children with SAD showed tonic autonomic hyperarousal as indicated by higher heart rate and electrodermal activity during the supine baseline phase. Further, there was evidence for stronger cardiac and vascular sympathetic reactivity (T-wave amplitude, pulse wave transit time) to moderate physical activation in children with SAD. Higher autonomic arousal during rest was related to measures of trait social anxiety and general psychopathology. Groups did not differ on parasympathetic parameters. Our results extend previous laboratory findings and provide the first evidence for alterations in children with SAD during basal autonomic regulation and in the absence of explicit social evaluative threat. They may further help to clarify conflicting study results from previous laboratory studies. The findings underline the importance of psychophysiological assessment using different environments and tasks to elucidate the physiological bases of SAD.     

Emotional appraisal is influenced by cardiac afferent information

Influential models highlight the central integration of bodily arousal with emotion. Some emotions, notably disgust, are more closely coupled to visceral state than others. Cardiac baroreceptors, activated at systole within each cardiac cycle, provide short-term visceral feedback. Here we explored how phasic baroreceptor activation may alter the appraisal of brief emotional stimuli and consequent cardiovascular reactions. We used functional MRI (fMRI) to measure brain responses to emotional face stimuli presented before and during cardiac systole. We observed that the processing of emotional stimuli was altered by concurrent natural baroreceptor activation. Specifically, facial expressions of disgust were judged as more intense when presented at systole, and rebound heart rate increases were attenuated after expressions of disgust and happiness. Neural activity within prefrontal cortex correlated with emotionality ratings. Activity within periaqueductal gray matter reflected both emotional ratings and their interaction with cardiac timing. Activity within regions including prefrontal and visual cortices correlated with increases in heart rate evoked by the face stimuli, while orbitofrontal activity reflected both evoked heart rate change and its interaction with cardiac timing. Our findings demonstrate that momentary physiological fluctuations in cardiovascular afferent information (1) influence specific emotional judgments, mediated through regions including the periaqueductal gray matter, and (2) shape evoked autonomic responses through engagement of orbitofrontal cortex. Together these findings highlight the close coupling of visceral and emotional processes and identify neural regions mediating bodily state influences on affective judgment.     

Idiodynamics Vis-à-vis Psychophysiology: An Idiodynamic Portrayal of Cardiovascular Reactivity

Idiodynamics offers a conceptual foundation upon which alternatives to the prevailing model of cardiovascular reactivity could be advanced, built upon systematic investigations of individuals. The origins of a union of idiodynamics and psychophysiology are described, accompanied by an empirical study that exemplifies this synthesis. In the study, a montage of cardiovascular measures was used to assess autonomic patterns in six subjects across a range of laboratory tasks on three occasions. Cardiovascular profiles were derived with p-technique factor analysis and then group aggregated with chain p-technique. The group pattern suggested three components: rate, contractility, and peripheral resistance. When individual profiles were compared to the group, consistencies and disparities appeared. Differences in the number of factors, percentage of variance explained, and dominance of specific components distinguished subjects from one another, leading to a hypothesis about underlying cardiovascular complexity. Idiodynamics, combined with novel methodologies, can expand the construct of reactivity beyond traditional stimulus-response conceptualizations.     

Effects of threatening and reassuring components of fear appeals on physiological and verbal measures of emotion and attitudes

Physiological processes are integral components of (a) many conceptualizations of emotion, (b) the emotion of fear, and (c) the fear-as-acquired-drive model of attitude change. Nevertheless, few studies of fear and persuasion have simultaneously measured self-reports of fear and autonomic activity. The present factorial experiment manipulated high versus low fear and high versus low reassurance and monitored self-reports and cardiovascular and electrodermal activity. The results disclosed that heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SC) were highly correlated (r = .70). Although the multiple correlation among HR, SC, and a self-report measure of fear was a modest .44 (p < .05), additional evidence suggested that self-reports were the most sensitive measure of the construct of fear. The fear-film manipulation, which is typical of many fear-arousing communications, had identical effects upon the autonomic and self-report measures of fear. These data support the construct validity of the self-report measure of fear and increase our confidence that “fear” has been aroused in previous studies of fear and persuasion. Neither the fear-film manipulation nor the autonomic components of fear were associated with attitude change. The reassurance variable facilitated attitude change. Overall, the findings emphasized the importance of cognitive mediational processes rather than an emotional state of fear.     

Cardiovascular changes during social competition in a mixed-motive game.

Male and female subjects played a mixed-motive game against a male confederate under either a 20% cooperative or an 80% cooperative strategy while cardiovascular responses were computer monitored. Females had larger heart rate responses than males during play against the competitive strategy, and the opposite was true during play against the cooperative strategy. Subjects who were more competitive during the game or who scored higher on a coronary-prone (Type A) behavior scale or who reported having an action orientation toward life stress tended to have larger heart rate responses during the game than the remaining subjects. The results draw attention to the importance of covert autonomic responses for understanding overt behavioral choices in mixed-motive games and to the potential utility of this behavioral model for studying the role of psychosocial factors in psychosomatic illnesses.     

Effects of nutritive and non-nutritive sucking on infant heart rate variability during the first 6 months of life

The effects of eating on heart rate variability (HRV) differ between adults and newborns. This may reflect the impact of suckling on the overall psychophysiological and autonomic nervous system maturation. The purpose of the present study was to explore whether the reactions of HRV during feeding change towards the adult pattern during the first 6 months of life. In addition, the effects of non-nutritive and nutritive sucking on heart rate (HR) and HRV were compared. The participants were 23 infants on whom recordings were performed as newborns and at 6, 12 and 24 weeks old. Nutritive sucking caused an increase in HR and a decline in HRV. The results were consistent with previous reports of a decrease in high frequency components of HRV during feeding in newborns, reflecting a decrease in parasympathetic activity. This response was apparent in all four ages studied, and remained similar throughout the 6-month period. However, age as an independent factor seemed to influence both HR and HRV. Pacifier sucking had no significant effects on HRV at any age. The results demonstrate the physical strain that sucking imposes on the baby, with a specific autonomic nervous system response involved. We consider this response an essential part of the overall psychophysiological maturation of infants.     

Conditional fear,anxiety, and morphine-seeking behavior

TwoCebus albifrons monkeys were given discriminative operant conditioning with visual stimuli, with Sidman avoidance and punishment as the components. The instrumental response was an unelicited increase in skin conductance. Both animals had surgically implanted catheters for automatic injection of morphine into the heart. After autonomic conditioning, the animals were given the opportunity to self-administer the morphine by touching the primate press panel that displayed the visual stimuli. One contingency-free segment per session was used for morphine injection, while the contingencies remained in force during the other segments. One of the monkeys made significantly more skin conductance responses during avoidance than during punishment, and this monkey received ten times as many shocks in punishment. This monkey also made more responses overall and had a much higher heart rate than the other animal. The other monkey did not differentiate significantly autonomically and received equal numbers of shocks in avoidance and punishment. The monkey that showed autonomic differentiation made significantly (and increasingly) more panel-presses during punishment than during avoidance. The other animal showed hardly any tendency at all to panel-press.     

Cardiac autonomic reactivity and recovery in predicting carotid atherosclerosis: the cardiovascular risk in young Finns study.

The present study examined the association of cardiac autonomic task-induced reactivity and recovery to preclinical atherosclerosis. Thirty-three men and 33 women aged 24-39 years participated in the ongoing epidemiological Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study. The authors measured heart rate (HR), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and preejection period (PEP) during the mental arithmetic and speech tasks in 1999. Carotid atherosclerosis was assessed by measuring the thickness of the common carotid artery intima-media complex (IMT) with ultrasound in 2001. Higher HR, RSA, and PEP reactivity were associated with lower IMT values even after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors (lipid levels, obesity, and blood pressure). In addition, better HR recovery after the mental arithmetic task was associated with lower IMT values, and this association persisted after all adjustments. Thus, higher task-induced cardiac autonomic reactivity and better HR recovery were related to less preclinical atherosclerosis. The authors concluded that cardiac pattern of reactivity and quick recovery may be associated with better cardiovascular health, and therefore all reactivity occurring in challenging situations should not automatically be considered as potentially pathological.     

Effect of electronic device use while driving on cardiovascular reactivity

Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death in people ages 5–34 in the US, and secondary task engagement, such as talking on a cell phone, is a leading contributor to motor vehicle collisions. The negative effects of secondary task engagement on driving performance has become a prominent recent topic of study given the increasing amount of time drivers engage in distracted driving. However, few studies have examined the effects of secondary task engagement while driving on health related outcomes such as cardiovascular reactivity. Cardiovascular reactivity, as measured by heart rate and blood pressure, has been used in previous studies as a means of measuring effort in task engagement as well as a means to predict cardiovascular disease and stroke. This study investigates the effect of secondary task (talking on a cell phone, texting, and driving with no task) while driving in a simulator on cardiovascular reactivity. Using difference scores between baseline (a period of inactivity) and stimulus (driving with no task and driving with secondary tasks), a repeated measures analysis of variance using a mixed model approach was used to determine the effect of secondary task on cardiovascular reactivity. Findings indicated that talking on a cell phone while driving significantly increased cardiovascular reactivity via heart rate and blood pressure compared to driving with no task. Texting while driving did not differ significantly from driving with no task. This study demonstrates the need for more research on the long term effects of secondary tasks while driving on cardiovascular reactivity and for assessing the risks associated with secondary task use while driving on developing cardiovascular disease or stroke.     

Emotional responsivity to nonveridical heart rate feedback as a function of anxiety

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the effects of nonveridical heart rate feedback and anxiety on electrodermal responses and verbal reports to emotionally laden stimuli. Forty-eight female subjects were divided into high and low anxious groups on the basis of their Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale scores and resting level electrodermal activity. All subjects viewed 10 autopsy slides while hearing continuous auditory tones supposedly representing their own heartbeats. Twenty-four subjects heard the tones increase in rate with slide onset. The other 24 subjects heard no change in rate with slide onset. The high resting autonomic activity group responded with significantly larger electrodermal responses to the heart rate feedback-slide combination than the low resting level autonomic activity group. The high autonomic activity group also reported that the slides were significantly more unpleasant than the low autonomic activity group, particularly those slides accompanied by an increase in heart rate feedback. Implications of these findings for a cognitive-visceral model of emotion are discussed.     

正负性情绪的自主神经反应及应用

情绪可以唤醒自主神经系统, 伴随有一系列的生理变化。从基础研究的角度来看, 正负性情绪可以诱发心血管系统(如心率、血压、心率变异性)、皮肤电系统(如皮肤电导水平)、呼吸系统(如呼吸阻力、每分通气量)和其他系统(如瞳孔直径、胃肌电等)的活动及其变化。在应用研究方面, 正负性情绪诱发的自主神经反应可以应用在多个领域, 主要包括用户体验中的情绪测量、基于生理信号的人-机情感交互系统的开发, 以及消费者态度和偏好的测查等。对于现有研究结果中存在的分歧, 从被试的个体差异、诱导范式的不一致性和诱导效果的可靠性, 以及刺激材料属性的多样化等方面进行了分析, 指出了未来研究应该注意的问题。     

Reward Influence on the Heart: Cardiovascular Response as a Function of Incentive Value at Five Levels of Task Demand

This study examined cardiovascular effects of incentive value in men and women confronted with cognitive challenges that were more and less difficult to meet. Participants performed computer memory tasks varying in difficulty from low to high, with instructions that they could earn chances toward a $100 prize or $10 prize by attaining a 90% success rate. Analysis of cardiovascular responses assessed during work revealed an interaction between difficulty and incentive value for heart rate. Participants' heart rate responses were proportional to task difficulty and unaffected by incentive value in all conditions except for the most difficult one. Where difficulty was greatest, $100 participants showed relatively high heart rate responsiveness, whereas $10 participants showed low heart rate responsiveness. This heart rate finding corroborates and extends cardiovascular results from previous experiments, and lends further support to the view that cardiovascular responses will be proportional to incentive value only under some task conditions.     

Constructions of emotion: Discrepancy,arousal, and mood

An interactive adventure-type computer game was used to explore the constructive components of emotional experience — sympathetic nervous system arousal and evaluative cognitions — postulated by discrepancy/evaluation theory. Manipulations of expectations produced significant and large heart rate changes for both positive and negative discrepancies. Autonomic response also reflected the degree of interruption/discrepancy produced by an event. Negatively toned (discrepant) events tended to produce significant intensity and higher overall autonomic arousal. In addition, subjects' intensity of experience was related to their autonomic response.The research and preparation of this report were supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation. We are grateful to Carol Beards, Barbara Lagana, and Jeffrey McIntosh for assistance in data collection and data analysis. Special thanks go to Mark Wallen for programming Rogue and much of the data analysis.     

Reflective and ruminative processing of positive emotional memories in bipolar disorder and healthy controls

Recent evidence suggests that reflective (i.e., distanced-why), as compared to ruminative (i.e., immersed-why), processing of negative memories is associated with reductions in negative affect. The present study extended this line of work by examining the effect of these two processing conditions on positive memories among persons with bipolar disorder (BD; n = 27) and a healthy control group (CT; n = 27). After a resting baseline period, participants were instructed to recall a happy autobiographical memory. Using a within-subjects design, participants were asked to process the happy memory in two different experimental conditions (reflective, ruminative) while their experiential, behavioral, and autonomic responses were measured. Consistent with hypotheses, reflective processing was associated with lower self-reported positive affect, positive thoughts, and heart rate compared to ruminative processing for all participants. When current symptoms were controlled for, BD participants reported greater positive affect across both conditions relative to CT participants. Prospective studies are needed to test the extent to which processing of positive emotion contributes to the course of symptoms in bipolar disorder.     

Working memory performance after acute exposure to the cold pressor stress in healthy volunteers

Effects of acute stress exposure on learning and memory have been frequently studied in both animals and humans. However, only a few studies have focused specifically on working memory performance and the available data are equivocal. The present study examined working memory performance during the Sternberg item recognition task after exposure to a predominantly adrenergic stressor. Twenty four healthy subjects were randomly assigned to a stress group or a control group. The stress group was exposed to the cold pressor stress test (CPS; i.e. insertion of the dominant hand into ice water for 60s), while 37 °C warm water was used with the control group. Twenty minutes after the stress exposure, working memory performance was tested with the Sternberg item recognition task with three levels of cognitive load. Sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis activation during CPS, were assessed by measuring heart rate and salivary cortisol before and during (heart rate) or 30 min after (cortisol) the stress procedure. Exposure to the CPS test was associated with a significant increase in heart rate but no increase in salivary cortisol. Participants exposed to the stress procedure showed significantly shorter reaction times during trials with higher cognitive load but tended to show higher false alarm rates than control subjects. The present results indicate that exposure to CPS can be associated with signs of both enhanced and impaired working memory performance. The observed behavioral pattern might represent a form of streamlined information processing advantageous in a threatening situation.     

An open-source LabVIEW application toolkit for phasic heart rate analysis in psychophysiological research.

The cardiovascular system has been extensively measured in a variety of research and clinical domains. Despite technological and methodological advances in cardiovascular science, the analysis and evaluation of phasic changes in heart rate persists as a way to assess numerous psychological concomitants. Some researchers, however, have pointed to constraints on data analysis when evaluating cardiac activity indexed by heart rate or heart period. Thus, an off-line application toolkit for heart rate analysis is presented. The program, written with National Instruments' LabVIEW, incorporates a variety of tools for off-line extraction and analysis of heart rate data. Current methods and issues concerning heart rate analysis are highlighted, and how the toolkit provides a flexible environment to ameliorate common problems that typically lead to trial rejection is discussed. Source code for this program may be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society Web archive at www.psychonomic.org/archive/.