Individual differences in cardiac vagal tone are associated with differential neural responses to facial expressions at different spatial frequencies: An ERP and sLORETA study

Abstract

A previous study has shown that greater cardiac vagal tone, reflecting effective self-regulatory capacity, was correlated with superior visual discrimination of fearful faces at high spatial frequency Park et al. (Biological Psychology 90:171-178, 2012b). The present study investigated whether individual differences in cardiac vagal tone (indexed by heart rate variability) were associated with different event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in response to fearful and neutral faces. Thirty-six healthy participants discriminated the emotion of fearful and neutral faces at broad, high, and low spatial frequencies, while ERPs were recorded. Participants with low resting heart rate variability-characterized by poor functioning of regulatory systems-exhibited significantly greater N200 activity in response to fearful faces at low spatial frequency and greater LPP responses to neutral faces at high spatial frequency. Source analyses-estimated by standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA)-tended to show that participants with low resting heart rate variability exhibited increased source activity in visual areas, such as the cuneus and the middle occipital gyrus, as compared with participants with high resting heart rate variability. The hyperactive neural activity associated with low cardiac vagal tone may account for hypervigilant response patterns and emotional dysregulation, which heightens the risk of developing physical and emotional problems.

From the heart to the mind: cardiac vagal tone modulates top-down and bottom-up visual perception and attention to emotional stimuli

“…In contrast, lower resting HRV is associated with hypoactive prefrontal regulation; this results in hyperactive subcortical structures, which leads to maladaptive cognitive and emotional self-regulation. For example, people with lower resting HRV often fail to recognize safety cues or to habituate to novel, neutral stimuli (hyper-vigilance; for a review, see Hansen et al, 2003; Friedman, 2007; Park et al, 2012a). Additionally, people with lower resting HRV responded to neutral stimuli with heightened startle and neural responses as if the stimuli were emotionally negative (Ruiz-Padial et al, 2003; Park et al, 2012a).…”

“…For example, people with lower resting HRV often fail to recognize safety cues or to habituate to novel, neutral stimuli (hyper-vigilance; for a review, see Hansen et al, 2003; Friedman, 2007; Park et al, 2012a). Additionally, people with lower resting HRV responded to neutral stimuli with heightened startle and neural responses as if the stimuli were emotionally negative (Ruiz-Padial et al, 2003; Park et al, 2012a). Evidently there is a link between HRV and the prefrontal-subcortical circuits critical for cognitive and emotional self-regulation.…”

“…To further isolate neuro-cognitive mechanisms, we presented faces at different spatial frequencies which are defined as the energy distribution in the scale specified as the number of cycles per degree of visual angle and/or the number of cycles per image (see Figure 2 from Parker et al, 1996; Morrison and Schyns, 2001; Park et al, 2013b). Broad spatial frequency (BSF) images contain all spatial frequency ranges and can be filtered to contain either high or low spatial frequencies (Vuilleumier et al, 2003; Holmes et al, 2005; Park et al, 2012a,b). Research has indicated that distinctive visual pathways are selectively sensitive to different ranges of spatial frequency information (Goffaux et al, 2005).…”

Influence of spatial frequency and emotion expression on face processing in patients with panic disorder

“…Spatial frequency refers to the energy distribution in a scale specified as the number of cycles per degree of visual angle and/or the number of cycles per image (Morrison and Schyns, 2001;Park et al, 2012). Broad spatial frequency (BSF) images, which contain all SF ranges, can be filtered to contain either high spatial frequency (HSF) or low spatial frequency (LSF) (Vuilleumier et al, 2003).…”

At the Heart of Morality Lies Neuro-Visceral Integration: Lower Cardiac Vagal Tone Predicts Utilitarian Moral Judgment

“…In this research, a Polar RS800cx HR monitor (Polar Electro, Finland; www.polar.fi) was used to record electrocardiographic activity (Park et al, 2012c). The RS800cx is a portable heart rate (HR) monitor tool that is sampled at 1000 Hz, which yields timeand frequency-domain estimates of HRV comparable to those obtained via standard 3-or 12-electrode ECG setups (e.g.…”