Aug 2026· Biological Psychology· pp.
109369
· 1 citation· 134 references
Medicine
TL;DR
Longer periods (>6min) of substantial increases in aHR (aHR periods) in 24-hour recordings of electrocardiogram and accelerometer signals in a healthy sample are identified and their association with individual characteristics and affective states is examined.
Abstract
Repeated physiological stress responding in daily life is a main mediator of the association between chronic stress and somatic disease. Scalable methods to detect physiological stress responses in daily life are lacking. A potential solution is "additional heart rate" (aHR), which estimates cardiac autonomic responses to psychological stress by subtracting the expected heart rate based on physical activity and posture from the observed heart rate. Here, we identified prolonged periods (>6min) of substantial increases (>10 BPM) in aHR (aHR periods) in 24-hour recordings of electrocardiogram and accelerometer signals in a healthy sample (n=827). We examined the heritability and test-retest reliability of the total duration and mean intensity of aHR periods in an exploratory analysis, and then their association with individual characteristics and affective states. Results revealed moderate temporal test-retest reliability (r=.42 and.40) and modest heritability (h²=.15 and.11) of the duration and intensity of aHR periods. Duration and intensity of aHR periods decreased significantly with age (R2=.02) and BMI (R2=.01), and males exhibited longer aHR periods than females (3.93 vs 3.20min/hour, t=3.16). Neuroticism and exercise behavior were not associated with duration or intensity of aHR periods. Within-person analyses revealed a marginal positive association of aHR periods with momentary negative affect (β=0.095, p=.033), but not with positive affect. Correcting heart rate for physical activity and posture can thus enable detection of physiological stress responses in daily life, but monitoring over longer periods of weeks to months is necessary to characterize individual risk for stress-related disease outcomes.
Though mixed, results establish an initial proof-of-concept required to justify larger studies investigating the effects of YT on HRV and self-reported ANS functioning in adults after cancer treatment and establish an initial proof-of-concept required to justify larger studies investigating the effects of YT on HRV and self-reported autonomic nervous system functioning.
J. Brunet, Julia Hussien, Anne Pitman et al.· BioPsychoSocial Medicine· 0 citations
Introduction Laboratory stress paradigms provide controlled conditions to study autonomic stress responses and their relevance to health and disease. The autonomic nervous system adapts dynamically during stress, yet traditional heart rate variability (HRV) averages overlook rapid allodynamic adjustments. Few studies have characterized within-task HRV dynamics across multiple stressors or considered individual stress-related traits. This study examined fine-grained HRV responses to mental, noise, and pain stressors and assessed how perceived chronic stress and noise sensitivity contribute to these autonomic patterns. Method Thirty healthy adults completed mental arithmetic, noise exposure, and cold pressor tasks while electrocardiogram (ECG) was recorded. HRV (MeanNN, RMSSD) was computed in 30-s windows, and perceived stress and noise sensitivity were assessed with validated questionnaires. Results Mental stress elicited the largest global HRV reductions, pain affected only MeanNN, and noise produced no global changes. However, time-resolved analyses revealed distinct HRV dynamics across all stressors that were not captured by global averages. Chronic stress and noise sensitivity had little effects on global HRV but significantly moderated fine-grained responses to mental and noise stress during anticipation, stress, or recovery phases. Discussion Autonomic stress reactivity is best understood through its temporal dynamics, as global HRV metrics obscure stressor-specific responses and the influence of individual vulnerability. Temporal analyses revealed distinct autonomic signatures for mental, noise, and pain stressors, indicating that they may engage partially distinct autonomic pathways and should not be treated as interchangeable experimental proxies of “stress.” The modulation by chronic stress and noise sensitivity highlights the importance of integrating trait-level factors when modeling autonomic adaptation. In line with the allodynamic framework, these findings suggest that high-resolution temporal analyses may provide a relevant approach for studying autonomic stress responses and their links to environmental stress exposure and health.
Bérangère Villatte, Danielle Benesch, Alain Vinet et al.· Frontiers in Neuroscience· 0 citations
Objective Alterations in autonomic nervous system activity – measured by heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate (HR) - have been proposed as a relevant biopsychological mechanism in several psychiatric disorders. However, only few studies have examined these parameters in OCD, and evidence from pediatric samples is particularly limited. The aim of this study was to investigate autonomic activity in pediatric OCD. Methods A five minute resting state electrocardiogram was recorded in adolescents with OCD (n = 64) and age- and IQ-matched healthy controls (HC, n = 52). Autonomic activity was compared using the logarithmized root mean square of differences between successive R-R intervals (logRMSSD), the logarithmized high-frequency HRV (logHF-HRV), the percentage of adjacent NN intervals differing from each other by more than 50 ms (pNN50) and HR. Associations with psychotropic medication status and symptom severity were assessed. Results Adolescents with OCD showed lower logRMSSD and higher HR than HC, whereas logHF-HRV and pNN50 did not differ between groups. No associations were found between cardiac measures and OCD symptom severity. Exploratory subgroup analyses suggested lower logHF-HRV and logRMSSD in medicated adolescents with OCD. Conclusions Our findings add to evidence for altered autonomic activity in pediatric OCD, reflected by elevated HR and lower RMSSD. The observed reduction in HRV did not increase with greater symptom severity and appeared most pronounced among medicated adolescents with OCD. Significance The autonomic imbalance observable in adolescents with OCD is common across anxiety disorders and has been linked to cardiovascular risk.
Manuel Burkart, Sophie P. Scheer, Lea L. Backhausen et al.· Clinical Neurophysiology Pra...· 0 citations
Abstract Objective NeoNatal Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS-II) measures behavioral signs of stress according to systems, including the autonomic and central nervous systems. These systems influence heart rate variability (HRV), which is a biomarker for regulatory capacity. The present study aims to investigate whether patterns of autonomic dysregulation are evident in both behavioral and physiological measures. Study Design HRV metrics—short- and long-term fractal scaling exponents (α1, α2) and root mean square fluctuations (RMS1, RMS2)—were calculated from the heart rates of 51 preterm infants at 33 weeks postmenstrual age. The NNNS-II assessments were conducted at term-equivalent age. Results Linear regression revealed that higher total stress signs were associated with increased α2 ( β = 0.366, p = 0.006), indicating reduced long-scale autonomic complexity. Autonomic and central nervous systems–specific stress signs were significantly associated with elevated α2 ( β = 0.349, p = 0.022). Individual items such as high-frequency tremors were also associated with increased α2 ( β = 0.303, p = 0.018) whereas startles were not ( p = 0.096). Conclusion Neurobehavioral stress signs, particularly those associated with the central nervous system (CNS), are linked to early diminished autonomic variation in infants. These findings can help researchers and clinicians interpret the significance of neurobehavioral stress signs to autonomic tone in preterm infants. Key Points Neurobehavioral stress is linked to HRV. CNS stress predicts reduced autonomic complexity. Tremors were most strongly related to HRV.
Elan L Donnellan, J. Ngwa, N. Andescavage et al.· American Journal of Perinato...· 0 citations
Cardiovascular markers such as heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and blood pressure (BP) are promising for low-intrusive monitoring of mental states relevant to safety-critical performance, yet evidence is mixed regarding which measures are most sensitive to cognitive workload, stress, and fatigue across different task types and time frames. Sixty adults (33 women; M age = 28.1 years, SD = 7.9) completed a 90-120 minute laboratory protocol including four cognitive workload tasks (Judgment of Line Angle and Position, Corsi Block-Tapping, Balloon Analogue Risk Task, Stroop), a modified Trier Social Stress Test (preparation, speech, arithmetic), and a fatigue condition operationalized as time-on-task during a prolonged Stroop (15 min) and Psychomotor Vigilance Task (10 min), each divided into three intervals. Continuous beat-to-beat HR, interbeat interval (IBI), and systolic/diastolic BP were recorded using the CareTaker device; HRV indices (RMSSD, high-frequency power) were derived from IBI using Kubios. Difference scores (task minus baseline) were analyzed using linear mixed models (random intercepts for participants; age and gender covariates), with Tukey-corrected pairwise comparisons to quantify sensitivity across conditions. HR and IBI consistently differentiated multiple workload and stress phases and distinguished Stroop-based fatigue from PVT intervals. HRV-RMSSD showed selective sensitivity, differentiating specific cognitive tasks (notably Stroop relative to other workload tasks), but only demonstrated a trend toward detecting fatigue-related differences at later time intervals. High-frequency HRV showed task-dependent effects only within the cognitive workload condition. Continuous BP did not reliably differentiate tasks, showing at most marginal (uncorrected) effects during TSST phase comparisons. Cardiovascular reactivity patterns depended on task type and temporal dynamics. HR and IBI provided the most robust sensitivity across workload, stress, and fatigue within a prolonged, multi-task protocol, while HRV indices contributed complementary but more task-specific information. The results support multi-metric monitoring approaches for real-time mental state transitions in high-risk operational settings.
Pétur Kristófersson, Sigrún Þóra Sveinsdóttir, Sóley María Kristínardóttir et al.· bioRxiv· 0 citations
Stress is frequently cited as a barrier to physical activity, yet evidence from daily life remains inconclusive and may depend on the stress aspect (perceived stress, physiology), physical activity indicator (e.g., steps, vigorous activity), and temporal window studied. We investigated associations between multiple momentary stress aspects and subsequent physical activity across several time lags in daily life. Seventy-six adults in weight loss maintenance participated in a 7-day ecological momentary assessment study. Participants completed hourly smartphone surveys assessing perceived stress and safety and wore a chest-mounted sensor to derive vagally-mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV), steps, and time spent in physical inactivity, light physical activity (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Multilevel two-part models estimated within-person associations between stress and occurrence and amount of physical activity at 10-, 30-, 60-, and 120-minute lags. Within-person associations between stress indicators and subsequent physical activity were often non-significant, varied across time lags and physical activity indicators but were consistent across stress aspects in direction. When significant, higher stress was associated with a small increase in subsequent physical activity, particularly steps and for shorter time lags. Significant associations for physical inactivity were largely restricted to vmHRV, indicating that activity in stress-related physiology related to higher probability of engaging in physical activity. While the results for vmHRV largely converged with those for perceived stress, it also revealed additional associations, highlighting complementary information across stress aspects. Together, these findings emphasize the value of multimodal stress assessments and time-lagged analyses for understanding how stress relates to physical activity in everyday life.
Melanie Bamert, J. Inauen, A. Ruf· Psychology of Sport And Exer...· 0 citations
We use cookies to run the site and, with your consent, for analytics and to show ads.
See our Cookie Policy.
