Pause and plan: Self-regulation and the heart.

Abstract

Self-regulation, or the ability to modulate one's thoughts, actions and emotions, is necessary for achieving one's goals and functioning well. Poor self-regulation can lead to ineffective problem solving, passive coping techniques, difficulties altering one's mood, and difficulties in overriding impulses (Vohs & Baumeister, 2004). Evidence of self-regulatory failure can be seen in many of the problems plaguing society, such as obesity, aggression, and drug and alcohol abuse. The process of self-regulation may be conscious and deliberate or unconscious and automatic. Likewise, the substrates of selfregulation may be accessible or inaccessible to consciousness. Although individuals have some insight into their typical self-regulatory capacity, they are often unaware of phasic decrements in their ability to meet self-regulatory demands (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, & Tice, 1998;Vohs & Baumeister, 2004). Therefore, self-regulation is a more expansive concept than self-control, which typically connotes only conscious control over the self. Furthermore, self-regulation can encompass both psychosocial and physiological systems; indeed, one aim of this chapter is to demonstrate how psychological and cardiac regulation are related.

Effort deficits and depression: The influence of anhedonic depressive symptoms on cardiac autonomic activity during a mental challenge

“…At the between-person level, depressive symptoms did not predict either the RMSSD intercept ( b 2.03, SE = 6.88, p = .768) or change in RMSSD from baseline to task ( b = −1.66, SE = 2.36, p .483). The main effect of time—an increase in RMSSD from baseline to task—is consistent with Segerstrom’s proposal that HRV can reflect increased self-regulatory control under some circumstances (Segerstrom, Hardy, Evans, & Winters, 2012). …”

“…It isn’t clear how the theory would be expanded to address parasympathetic processes, but in some respects findings such as the present results—strong and expected sympathetic effects and no parasympathetic effects—indicate that the heavy focus on sympathetic processes is warranted. Other literatures, however, have proposed that HRV is a core marker of self-regulation, effort, and self-control (e.g., Graziano & Derefinko, 2013; Segerstrom et al, 2012). Ironically, these literatures are a mirror image of the motivational intensity literature: they focus heavily on HRV yet ignore the large literature on sympathetic markers of effort.…”

Does baseline heart rate variability reflect stable positive emotionality?

“…Known as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) or high-frequency heart rate variability (HRV), this variability in heart rate due to breathing reflects activity of the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system on the heart. It has attracted enormous interest in psychophysiology (Berntson, Cacioppo, & Quigley, 1993), largely because it appears to relate to self-regulation and emotional control (Graziano & Derefinko, 2013; Segerstrom, Hardy, Evans, & Winters, 2012), among many other things.…”

Creative motivation: Creative achievement predicts cardiac autonomic markers of effort during divergent thinking

“…Although motivational intensity theory is primarily concerned with sympathetic processes, several studies have explored possible parasympathetic effects (Richter, 2010; Silvia, Eddington, Beaty, Nusbaum, & Kwapil, 2013). Some research points to HRV as a marker of self-regulation and effort in its own right (Segerstrom, Hardy, Evans, & Winters, 2012; Segerstrom & Nes, 2007), and HRV is prominent in studies of stress, frustration, and emotional control (Graziano & Derefinko, 2013). Research on HRV uses several metrics (Allen, Chambers, & Towers, 2007; Grossman & Taylor, 2007).…”