Mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: The importance of the vagus nerve for biopsychosocial resilience

Dedoncker, Josefien; Vanderhasselt, M.; Ottaviani, Cristina; Slavich, George M.

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.02.010

Cited by 31 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 120 publications

(148 reference statements)

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“…Lastly, we do not have measures of emotional regulation strategies at T0, which would have allowed to obtain stronger evidence of the role of HRV as a predictor of coping styles during stressful situations. Notwithstanding these limitations, the present results support the implementation of HRV assessment to identify individuals who are at higher risk to suffer from stress-related symptoms (34) and encourage the use of early interventions such as transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation, HRV biofeedback and compassion focused interventions to increase vmHRV as a way to foster resilience during challenging pandemic periods and beyond (35, 36).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Safe in my heart: resting heart rate variability longitudinally predicts emotion regulation, worry and sense of safeness during COVID-19 lockdown

Makovac

Carnevali

Hernandez-Medina

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Due to its ability to reflect the capacity to engage in context-appropriate responses, tonic heart rate variability (HRV) is considered a putative biomarker of stress resilience. However, most studies are cross-sectional, precluding causal inferences. The high levels of uncertainty and fear at a global level that characterize the COVID-19 pandemic offer a unique opportunity to investigate the longitudinal role of HRV in stress resilience. The present study examined whether HRV, measured about 2 years earlier (Time 0), could predict emotion regulation strategies and daily affect in healthy adults during the May 2020 lockdown (Time 1). Moreover, we evaluated the association between HRV measures, emotion regulation strategies, subjective perception of COVID-19 risk, and self-reported depressive symptoms at Time 1. Higher tonic HRV at Time 0 resulted a significant predictor of a stronger engagement in more functional emotion regulation strategies, as well as of higher daily feelings of safeness and reduced daily worry at Time 1. Moreover, depressive symptoms negatively correlated with HRV and positively correlated with the subjective perception of COVID-19 risk at Time 1. Current data support the view that HRV might be not only a marker but also a precursor of resilience under stressful times.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Safe in my heart: resting heart rate variability longitudinally predicts emotion regulation, worry and sense of safeness during COVID-19 lockdown

Makovac

Carnevali

Hernandez-Medina

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…Thus here high LF/HF ratio is ought to reflect a greater vagal cardiac control. A recent review article highlighted the importance of stimulating the vagus nerve for improving resilience, notably for coping with the COVID-19 [1]. The improvement is thought to rely on body-mind interactions, which are carried out via a bidirectional communication pathway between the central nervous system and the body through the vagus nerve [1].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent review article highlighted the importance of stimulating the vagus nerve for improving resilience, notably for coping with the COVID-19 [1]. The improvement is thought to rely on body-mind interactions, which are carried out via a bidirectional communication pathway between the central nervous system and the body through the vagus nerve [1]. Here, the increased LH/HF ratio through the BFB + TDCS intervention might offer an efficient non-invasive method of simulating the vagus nerve.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Combining proactive transcranial stimulation and cardiac biofeedback to substantially manage harmful stress effects

et al. 2021

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This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

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“…While the vagus nerve is one of several responses systems contributing to the experience of wellbeing, it has a regulatory role over many including the sympathetic nervous system (Porges, 2011;Deuchars et al, 2018), hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis (Porges, 2011), immune functioning (Tracey, 2002;Pavlov and Tracey, 2012), brain-gut interactions (Bonaz et al, 2018;Fülling et al, 2019) neurogenesis and epigenetic mechanisms (Follesa et al, 2007;Biggio et al, 2009;O'Leary et al, 2018). Research now links vagal function to positive emotions (Geisler et al, 2010;Kok and Fredrickson, 2010;Kok et al, 2013), meaning and purpose in life (Zilioli et al, 2015;Dang et al, 2021), emotion regulation (Geisler et al, 2010;Williams et al, 2015), executive function (Williams et al, 2019;Eggenberger et al, 2020), psychological flexibility (Kashdan and Rottenberg, 2010;Colzato et al, 2018), prosocial behaviours (Kemp et al, 2012;Geisler et al, 2013;Kok et al, 2013), positive health behaviours (Werner et al, 2015;Young and Benton, 2018), biopsychosocial resilience (Dedoncker et al, 2021), time spent in nature (Richardson et al, 2016;De Brito et al, 2020) and future morbidity and mortality (Hillebrand et al, 2013;Jandackova et al, 2016;Fang et al, 2020). Various theoretical models have been proposed within which these findings have been interpreted.…”

Section: The Vagus Nerve and Wellbeingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving Beyond Disciplinary Silos Towards a Transdisciplinary Model of Wellbeing: An Invited Review

2021

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The construct of wellbeing has been criticised as a neoliberal construction of western individualism that ignores wider systemic issues such as inequality and anthropogenic climate change. Accordingly, there have been increasing calls for a broader conceptualisation of wellbeing. Here we impose an interpretative framework on previously published literature and theory, and present a theoretical framework that brings into focus the multifaceted determinants of wellbeing and their interactions across multiple domains and levels of scale. We define wellbeing as positive psychological experience, promoted by connections to self, community and environment, supported by healthy vagal function, all of which are impacted by socio-contextual factors that lie beyond the control of the individual. By emphasising the factors within and beyond the control of the individual and highlighting how vagal function both affects and are impacted by key domains, the biopsychosocial underpinnings of wellbeing are explicitly linked to a broader context that is consistent with, yet complementary to, multi-levelled ecological systems theory. Reflecting on the reciprocal relationships between multiple domains, levels of scale and related social contextual factors known to impact on wellbeing, our GENIAL framework may provide a foundation for a transdisciplinary science of wellbeing that has the potential to promote the wellbeing of individuals while also playing a key role in tackling major societal challenges.

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Mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: The importance of the vagus nerve for biopsychosocial resilience

Cited by 31 publications

References 120 publications

Safe in my heart: resting heart rate variability longitudinally predicts emotion regulation, worry and sense of safeness during COVID-19 lockdown

Safe in my heart: resting heart rate variability longitudinally predicts emotion regulation, worry and sense of safeness during COVID-19 lockdown

Combining proactive transcranial stimulation and cardiac biofeedback to substantially manage harmful stress effects

Moving Beyond Disciplinary Silos Towards a Transdisciplinary Model of Wellbeing: An Invited Review

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