Toward a social psychophysiology of vagally mediated heart rate variability: Concepts and methods in self‐regulation,emotion, and interpersonal processes

Theory and research on self‐regulation, emotional adjustment, and interpersonal processes focus increasingly on parasympathetic functioning, using measures of vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) or respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). This review describes models of vmHRV in these areas, and issues in measurement and analysis. We propose a framework organizing theory and research as examining (a) vmHRV as an individual difference or a situational response, and (b) resting, reactive, or recovery levels. Evidence supports interpretation of individual differences in resting vmHRV as a broad biomarker for adaptive functioning, but its specificity and underlying mechanisms require elaboration. Individual differences in vagal reactivity (i.e., trait‐like differences in vmHRV decreases during challenge or stress) are less commonly studied in adults and results are mixed. Many stressors and challenges evoke temporary decreases in vmHRV, and in some research self‐regulatory effort evokes increases. In a smaller literature, positive interpersonal experiences and some restorative processes increase resting vmHRV, whereas depletion of self‐regulatory capacity through related effort decreases it. Greater attention to conceptual distinctions regarding vmHRV constructs and several methodological issues will strengthen future research. Importantly, researchers should exercise caution in equating vmHRV with specific psychosocial constructs, especially in the absence of converging assessments and precise experimental manipulations.     

Discrimination of individual vocalizations by black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla)

The auditory perceptual abilities of male black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla) were examined using an operant go/no-go discrimination among 16 individual vocalizations recorded at 5 m. The birds learned to discriminate about equally well among eight male chickadee fee-bee songs and eight female zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) distance calls. These results do not indicate that chickadees have a species-specific advantage in individual recognition for conspecific over heterospecific vocalizations. We then transferred the chickadees to a discrimination of the same songs and calls rerecorded at a moderate distance. These results showed accurate transfer of discrimination from 16 vocalizations recorded at 5 m to novel versions of the same 16 songs and calls rerecorded at 25 m. That is, chickadees recognized individual songs and calls despite degradation produced by rerecording at 25 m. Identifying individual vocalizations despite their transformation by distance cues is here described as a biologically important example of perceptual constancy.     

Neuroticism as mental noise: a relation between neuroticism and reaction time standard deviations

Those higher in neuroticism are often more variable in their behavior and experience. On the basis of this observation, the authors hypothesized that the trait of neuroticism might be correlated with the variability of performance pertaining to relatively basic cognitive operations. Three studies involving 242 college undergraduates supported this prediction in that neuroticism correlated positively with the variability of performance across trials of reaction time tasks. These results link neuroticism to cognitive noise that intervenes between stimulus and response. Such noise has been associated with executive dysfunctions (e.g., frontal lobe injury) in previous research. The present findings are potentially useful for understanding why neuroticism often correlates with variations in the functionality of cognition and behavior.     

Don't worry, be happy? Neuroticism, trait-consistent affect regulation, and performance

People regulate their affect either to feel good or to achieve instrumental success. The present experiments show that when driven by performance goals, people can be motivated to experience unpleasant affect when it is trait-consistent, because of its instrumental benefits (e.g., M. Tamir & M. D. Robinson, 2004). In 4 studies, individuals high in neuroticism were more likely than those low in neuroticism to choose to increase their level of worry, as indicated by self-reported preferences (Study 1) and by behavioral choices in experimental settings (Studies 2-4). As predicted, such preferences were evident when expecting to perform demanding tasks but not when expecting an undemanding task (Study 2). Study 4 suggests that such preferences for short-term unpleasant affect may be beneficial to performance.     

Changing views about personality disorders: Comment about the prospective studies CIC, CLPS, and MSAD

Three large-scale prospective studies (Children in the Community Study [CIC; Cohen, Crawford, Johnson, & Kasen, this issue], Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study [CLPS; Skodol et al., this issue], and the McLean Study of Adult Development [MSAD; Zanarini, Frankenburg, Hennen, Reich, & Silk, this issue]) are discussed with respect to the following issues: shared and complementary features of the study designs, evidence for stable and changing personality disorder features, methodological issues (reliability, stability, and invariance), the relationship between Axis I and II disorders, and dimensional versus categorical representations of personality disorders.     

A facilitative role for corticosterone in the acquisition of a spatial task under moderate stress

Emotionally charged experiences alter memory storage via the activation of hormonal systems. Previously, we have shown that compared with rats trained for a massed spatial learning task in the water maze in warm water (25°C), animals that were trained in cold water (19°C) performed better and showed higher levels of the stress hormone corticosterone. Here, we examined whether manipulating the levels of corticosterone can determine the strength of spatial information acquisition and retention. Rats were injected with metyrapone (25, 50, and 75 mg/kg, i.p.) or with corticosterone (10 and 25 mg/kg, i.p.) and trained in a massed spatial task in either cold (19°C) or warm (25°C) water. We found that whereas animals injected with vehicle performed well in the spatial task in cold water (moderate stress), rats injected with the intermediate metyrapone dose showed impairment in performance. Moreover, whereas animals injected with vehicle on average did not perform well in warm water (mild stress), rats injected with the lower corticosterone dose showed improvement in performance in warm water. These two mirror experiments of corticosterone blockade and enhancement strongly suggest that corticosterone is instrumental in the acquisition and retention of the spatial learning task.     

Something from nothing: exploring dimensions of children's knowing through the repeated reading of favourite books

Witte‐Townsend and DiGiulio explore some of the dimensions of knowing that children, teachers and parents may engage together during story‐time. They reflect on some of their own long‐term relationships with children and children's books, especially Phoebe Gilman's Gilman P 1992 Something from nothing (New York, NY, Scholastic Inc)  [Google Scholar] Something from nothing (published in 1992) and Simms Taback's Taback S 1999 Joseph had a little overcoat (New York, NY, Viking‐Penguin)  [Google Scholar] Joseph had a little overcoat, published in 1999. The authors probe issues such as why children ask to hear a favourite story over and over and why they suddenly abandon all interest and move on to a new book. They explore the meaning of the silences that sometimes arise during story‐time, pooling around the young listeners as the last words of the book are read. Witte‐Townsend and DiGiulio remind us of the value of literature in the lives of children and they affirm that the reading and re‐reading of favourite stories enables the understanding of complex human issues and contributes significantly to social, emotional and spiritual growth.     

Timing and classifying brief acoustic stimuli by songbirds and humans.

The durations of animals' brief vocalizations provide conspecifics with important recognition cues. In the present experiments, zebra finches and humans (trained musicians) were rewarded for responding after S+ (standard) auditory signals from 56 to 663 ms and not for responding after shorter or longer S- (comparison) durations from 10 to 3684 ms. With either a single standard (Experiment 1) or multiple standards (Experiment 2), both zebra finches and humans timed brief signals to about the same level of accuracy. The results were in qualitative agreement with predictions from scalar timing theory and its connectionist implementation in both experiments. The connectionist model provides a good quantitative account of temporal gradients with a single standard (Experiment 1) but not with multiple standards (Experiment 2).