Methods for analyzing infant heart rate variability: A preliminary study

Abstract

Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) reflect autonomic development in infants. To better understand the autonomic response in infants, reliable HRV recordings are vital, yet no protocol exists. The purpose of this paper is to present reliability of a common procedure for analysis from two different file types. In the procedure, continuous electrocardiograph recordings of 5-10 min are obtained at rest in infants at 1 month of age by using a Hexoskin Shirt-Junior's (Carre Technologies Inc., Montreal, QC, Canada). Electrocardiograph (ECG; .wav) and R-R interval (RRi; .csv) files are extracted. The RRi of the ECG signal is generated by VivoSense (Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies, Independence, OH). Two MATLAB (The MathWorks, Inc., Natick, MA) scripts converted files for analysis with Kubios HRV Premium (Kubios Oy, Kuopio, Finland). A comparison was made between RRi and ECG files for HR and HRV parameters, and then tested with t tests and correlations via SPSS. There are significant differences in root mean squared successive differences between recording types, with only HR and low-frequency measures significantly correlated together. Recording with Hexoskin and analysis with MATLAB and Kubios enable infant HRV analysis. Differences in outcomes exist between procedures, and standard methodology for infant HR analysis is needed.

Infant emotion regulation in the context of stress: Effects of heart rate variability and temperament

“…One HRV frequency band is commonly used in research as a measure of ANS regulation: high frequency HRV (HF-HRV). There is extensive evidence to support the validity and reliability of HF-HRV as a measure of parasympathetic activity (Champéroux et al, 2018;Shaffer et al, 2014), including among infants (Claiborne et al, 2023;Hashiguchi et al, 2020;Weiner & McGrath, 2017). A higher tonic (resting) level in HF-HRV and a greater magnitude of HF-HRV change in response to a stressor are described as indices of good parasympathetic or vagal control, and proposed to underlie the ability to regulate emotions effectively (Appelhans & Luecken, 2006;Berna et al, 2014;Koval et al, 2013;Laborde et al, 2017;Shaffer & Ginsberg, 2017).…”

Exercise FITT‐V during pregnancy: Association with birth outcomes

“…Research suggests that there may be a dose-dependent beneficial effect of prenatal exercise for mothers (Allman et al, 2022;Claiborne, Williams, et al, 2023;Jevtovic & May, 2022;May et al, 2023;McDonald et al, 2021McDonald et al, , 2022. Based on a preponderance of evidence, worldwide guidelines support 150 min of moderate intensity exercise spread over three to four times per week to obtain the benefits of prenatal exercise (McDonald et al, 2016;Takami et al, 2018).…”