Resting sympathetic arousal moderates the association between parasympathetic reactivity and working memory performance in adults reporting high levels of life stress

Abstract

The neurovisceral integration model stipulates that autonomic function plays a critical role in the regulation of higher-order cognitive processes, yet most work to date has examined parasympathetic function in isolation from sympathetic function. Furthermore, the majority of work has been conducted on normative samples, which typically demonstrate parasympathetic withdrawal to increase arousal needed to complete cognitive tasks. Little is known about how autonomic regulation supports cognitive function in populations exposed to high levels of stress, which is critical given that chronic stress exposure alters autonomic function. To address this, we sought to characterize how parasympathetic (high-frequency heart rate variability, HF-HRV) and sympathetic (preejection period, PEP) measures of cardiac function contribute to individual differences in working memory (WM) capacity in a sample of high-risk women. HF-HRV and PEP were measured at rest and during a visual change detection measure of WM. Multilevel modeling was used to examine within-person fluctuations in WM performance throughout the task concurrently with HF-HRV and PEP, as well as between-person differences as a function of resting HF-HRV and PEP levels. Results indicate that resting PEP moderated the association between HF-HRV reactivity and WM capacity. Increases in WM capacity across the task were associated with increases in parasympathetic activity, but only among individuals with longer resting PEP (lower sympathetic arousal). Follow-up analyses showed that shorter resting PEP was associated with greater cumulative risk exposure. These results support the autonomic space framework, in that the relationship between behavior and parasympathetic function appears dependent on resting sympathetic activation.

Acute psychological stress promotes general alertness and attentional control processes: An ERP study

“…Significant correlations between the HF‐HRV block effect and the N1 block effect were found. This is in line with previous studies in which HF‐HRV has been shown to be related to arousal level (Giuliano et al, ; ). HRV provides valuable information about the capacity of the organism to effectively function in a complex environment (Thayer et al, ).…”

Cumulative risk exposure moderates the association between parasympathetic reactivity and inhibitory control in preschool‐age children

“…What evidence does exist suggests that studies of samples characterized by sociodemographic risk report smaller effect sizes between RSA and cognitive function than studies not reporting sociodemographic risk (Holzman & Bridgett, 2017). Similarly, we have previously demonstrated that RSA reactivity shows stronger associations with cognitive function in adults reporting lower levels of cumulative life stress and whom have lower resting sympathetic nervous system activity, relative to adults reporting higher life stress with higher sympathetic activity at rest (Giuliano, Gatzke-Kopp, Roos, & Skowron, 2017). Therefore, we predict that relationships between RSA and IC observed here will be less pronounced in children with higher cumulative risk exposure.…”

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity across empirically based structural dimensions of psychopathology: A meta‐analysis

“…Studies were excluded if participants with psychopathology were screened out (which would leave only healthy controls), had medical conditions that affect RSA (obesity, cardiovascular disease), or were younger than age 18 years. Participants with eating disorders were also excluded, given effects of excessively low and high body mass index (BMI) on RSA (Fraley, Birchem, Senkottaiyan, & Alpert, 2005;Galetta et al, 2003). Although not all eating disorders are defined by altered BMI, all eating-disordered samples were excluded to avoid potential confounds.…”

“…We also focused on bivariate associations between RSA reactivity and psychopathology. Some studies have examined interactions between psychopathology and (a) resting RSA and RSA reactivity (Hinnant & El-Sheikh, 2013;Yaroslavsky et al, 2013), and (b) both RSA and measures of sympathetic nervous system responding (Giuliano, Gatzke-Kopp, Roos, & Skowron, 2017). Given few examples of such studies, we could not include them.…”