Project description:Autonomic imbalance, a feature of both diabetes and hypertension, may contribute to adverse cardiovascular outcomes. In animal models, sympathetic nerve activity contributes to renal damage but the extent to which autonomic dysfunction precedes the development of CKD and ESRD in humans is unknown. We measured resting heart rate and heart rate variability in 13,241 adults (45- to 64-years old) followed for a median of 16 years in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. We examined heart rate parameters by quartiles, defining those in the lowest quartile (by time and frequency domain measures separately) as the risk group of interest. We identified 199 cases of incident ESRD and 541 patients with CKD-related hospitalizations; higher resting heart rate and lower heart rate variability associated with both outcomes. The fully adjusted hazard ratios for ESRD were 1.98 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.45 to 2.70) among those in the highest heart rate quartile and 1.56 (95% CI 1.14 to 2.14) for high-frequency power. Other time and frequency domain measures were similarly and significantly associated with ESRD and CKD-related hospitalizations. These results suggest that autonomic dysfunction may be an important risk factor for ESRD and CKD-related hospitalizations and call for further studies to define the mechanisms that underlie these associations.
Project description:BackgroundOur group has shown a positive dose-response in maximal cardiorespiratory exercise capacity (VO(2max)) and heart rate variability (HRV) to 6 months of exercise training but no improvement in VO(2max) for women ≥60 years. Here, we examine the HRV response to exercise training in postmenopausal women younger and older than 60 years.MethodsWe examined 365 sedentary, overweight, hypertensive, postmenopausal women randomly assigned to sedentary control or exercise groups exercising at 50% (4 kcal/kg/week, [KKW]), 100% (8 KKW) and 150% (12 KKW) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Development Panel physical activity guidelines. Primary outcomes included time and frequency domain indices of HRV.ResultsOverall, our analysis demonstrated a significant improvement in parasympathetic tone (rMSSD and high frequency power) for both age strata at 8 KKW and 12 KKW. For rMSSD, the age-stratified responses were: control, <60 years, 0.20 ms, 95% confidence interval (CI)-2.40, 2.81; ≥60 years, 0.07 ms, 95% CI -3.64, 3.79; 4 KKW, <60 years, 3.67 ms, 95% CI 1.55, 5.79; ≥60 years, 1.20 ms, 95% CI -1.82, 4.22; 8-KKW, <60 years, 3.61 ms, 95% CI 0.88, 6.34; ≥60 years, 5.75 ms, 95% CI 1.89, 9.61; and 12-KKW, <60 years, 5.07 ms, 95% CI 2.53, 7.60; ≥60 years, 4.28 ms, 95% CI 0.42, 8.14.ConclusionsVO(2max) and HRV are independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. Despite no improvement in VO(2max), parasympathetic indices of HRV increased in women ≥60 years. This is clinically important, as HRV has important CVD risk and neurovisceral implications beyond cardiorespiratory function.
Project description:We introduce a novel and simple method for assessing audiences' emotional responses to audiovisuals (e.g. films). Viewers (N = 21) watched movies and TV commercials from different genres while wearing photoplethysmography (PPG) optic sensors on their wrists. Heart rate variability (HRV) synchrony was observed among the audience. Based on this between-subject synchrony measure, we identified emotionally arousing segments from the materials. New participants (N = 24; N = 16) were then invited to watch these identified segments along with some randomly selected segments as control; they reported that the former was more engaging (effect size w = .67; w = .5). This finding was confirmed in an online study with a larger cohort (N = 300). While some specific effects varied depending on movie genre or gender, HRV-based editing generally performed better than the control. These findings suggest that HRV synchrony can be used as a new tool for audience psychology, and potentially also for automatically creating short trailers out of movies in a principled manner while taking into account the human perspective.
Project description:In France, new cancer cases keep on increasing with around 150 000 deaths yearly. Cancer therapy research is constantly evolving. Indeed, several studies explore new treatments or their combination with conventional cancer treatments. But, at the same time, complementary and alternative medicines, as osteopathy, remain little explored upon their role in the combination with conventional therapy.
Several studies showed indirect interaction between vagus nerve and cancer. Firstly, vagus nerve regulates homeostasis and immunity by reducing systemic inflammation while maintaining local inflammation and antitumor effects. Secondly, vagus nerve stimulation increases Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Moreover, a higher HRV is associated with an improvement of vital prognosis in cancer patients. Vagus nerve could be stimulated by noninvasive osteopathic manipulations.
This prospective, monocentric and randomized study is a collaboration between the Centre Hospitalier d’Avignon and the Institut de Formation en Ostéopathie du Grand Avignon. It focuses on using noninvasive osteopathic mobilizations to stimulate vagus nerve. Indeed, this study aims to evaluate effects of vagus nerve osteopathic stimulations on HRV in patients with lung cancer, colorectal cancer, Non Hodgkin Lymphoma or Multiple Myeloma. More specifically, this study will tell us whether vagus nerve noninvasive osteopathic stimulations induce increase of HRV associated with a decrease of systemic inflammation and an improvement of patient’s quality of life.
Project description:Moral rules are a cornerstone of many societies. Most moral rules are concerned with the welfare of other individuals, reflecting individuals' innate aversion against harming other individuals. Harming others is associated with aversive experiences, implying that individuals who are sensitive to the aversiveness of these experiences are more likely to follow moral rules than individuals who are insensitive to the aversiveness of these experiences. Individuals' sensitivity for aversive experiences depends on individuals' ability to integrate the underlying neural and physiological processes: Individuals who are more efficient in integrating these processes are more sensitive to the aversiveness that is associated with moral rule violations than individuals who are less efficient in integrating these processes. Individuals who differ in their ability to integrate these processes may, thus, also differ in their inclination to follow moral rules. We tested this assumption in a sample of healthy individuals (67 males) who completed measures of moral rule adherence and integration abilities. Moral rule adherence was assessed with self-report measure and integration abilities were assessed with a resting state measure of heart rate variability (HRV), which reflects prefrontal-(para-)limbic engagement during the integration of physical and neural processes. We found a positive association between individuals' HRV and individuals' moral rule adherence, implying that individuals with efficient integration abilities were more inclined to follow moral rules than individuals with inefficient integration abilities. Our findings support the assumption that individuals with different integration abilities also differ in moral rule adherence, presumably because of differences in aversiveness sensitivity.
Project description:This study examined the cardiac autonomic responses, as measured by heart rate variability (HRV), during cycling exercise and short-term rest after energy drink consumption. Seventeen participants (seven males and 10 females; age: 22.8 ± 3.5 years; BMI: 24.3 ± 3.3 kg/m2) completed this double-blind, placebo-controlled, counterbalanced crossover design study. Participants received an energy drink formula containing 140 mg of caffeine and a placebo in a randomized order before completing a 10-min steady-state warm up (WUP) and a graded exercise test to exhaustion (GXT) followed by a 15-min short-term rest (STR) period. Heartbeat intervals were recorded using a heart rate monitor. Data were divided into WUP, GXT, and STR phases, and HRV parameters were averaged within each phase. Additionally, root mean square of the standard deviation of R-R intervals (RMSSD) during GXT was analyzed to determine the HRV threshold. Separate two-way (sex (male vs. female) x drink (energy drink vs. placebo)) repeated measures ANOVA were utilized. Significant increases in high frequency (HF) and RMSSD were shown during WUP after energy drink consumption, while interactions between drink and sex were observed for HRV threshold parameters (initial RMSSD and rate of RMSSD decline). No significant differences were noted during STR. Energy drink consumption may influence cardiac autonomic responses during low-intensity exercise, and sex-based differences in response to graded exercise to exhaustion may exist.
Project description:Previous evidence suggests that the dual-specific A kinase-anchoring protein 2 functional polymorphism (AKAP10 (A/G) I646V) influences heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) in mice and humans (N=122) with cardiovascular disease. Here, we asked whether this AKAP10 variant predicts HR and HRV in a large sample of healthy humans. Resting HR and short-term time and frequency domain measures of HRV (5 min during paced and unpaced respiration conditions) were assessed in a U.S. community sample (N=1,033) of generally healthy men and women (age 30-54) of European ancestry. Each person was genotyped for the AKAP10 variant. As with previous work, the AKAP10 Val allele predicted greater resting HR (Paced p<.01; Unpaced p<.03) and diminished HRV (Paced ps <.05) suggesting that this variant may modulate the sensitivity of cardiac pacemaker cells to autonomic inputs, possibly conferring risk for arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.
Project description:Higher resting heart rate variability (HRV)-an index of more flexible response to environmental stressors, including noxious stimuli-has been linked to reduced perception of experimentally induced pain. However, as stress responses are adapted to one's chronic environments, we propose that chronic exposure to threats captured by one's subjective socioeconomic status (SSS) may shape different adaptations that produce distinct pain responses linked to higher resting HRV. Specifically, lower SSS individuals with more threat exposures may prioritize threat detection by upregulating sensitivity to stressors, such as acute pain. Therefore, higher HRV would predict greater perceived acute pain among lower SSS individuals. In contrast, higher SSS individuals with less threat exposures may instead prioritize affective regulation by downregulating sensitivity to stressors, producing lower pain perception with higher HRV. We examined this stress response moderation by SSS in 164 healthy young adults exposed to experimental pain via the cold pressor test (CPT). Resting HRV, indexed by the root-mean-square of successive differences in heart rate, and self-reported SSS were measured at rest. Pain perception indexed by self-reported pain and pain tolerance indexed by hand-immersion time during the CPT were assessed. Results revealed that among higher SSS individuals, higher resting HRV predicted lower pain reports and subsequently greater pain tolerance during the CPT. Conversely, among lower SSS individuals, higher resting HRV predicted higher pain reports and subsequently lower pain tolerance. These findings provide preliminary evidence that environmental stress exposures linked to one's SSS may shape unique biological adaptations that predict distinct pain responses.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-023-00234-w.
Project description:PurposeInterstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome and myofascial pelvic pain are frequently comorbid chronic pelvic pain disorders. Differences in bladder function between interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome and myofascial pelvic pain suggest that efferent autonomic function may differentiate these syndromes. Heart rate variability, defined as the difference in duration of successive heartbeats, serves as an index of autonomic function by measuring its ability to modify heart rate in response to neurophysiological changes. High frequency heart rate variability was used as a reflection of more rapid vagally mediated (parasympathetic) changes. Low frequency heart rate variability signified slower fluctuations related to the baroreflex and sympathetic outflow.Materials and methodsHeart rate variability was derived by autoregressive frequency analysis of the continuous electrocardiogram recording of heart rate with the subject supine for 10 minutes, tilted 70 degrees with the head up for 30 minutes and supine again for 10 minutes. This institutional review board approved study included 105 female subjects, including 32 who were healthy, and 26 with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome, 12 with myofascial pelvic pain and 35 with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome plus myofascial pelvic pain.ResultsIn all positions healthy controls had higher high frequency heart rate variability than women with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome and interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome plus myofascial pelvic pain. Subjects with myofascial pelvic pain were similar to controls with greater high frequency heart rate variability at baseline (supine 1) and in upright positions than subjects with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome. Differences in low frequency heart rate variability were less evident while low-to-high frequency ratio differences appeared to be driven by the high frequency heart rate variability component.ConclusionsSubjects with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome had diminished vagal activity and a shift toward sympathetic nervous system dominance. Overall these data support the hypothesis that changes in autonomic function occur in interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome but not in myofascial pelvic pain. These changes may result from interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome or contribute to its pathophysiology through abnormal self-regulatory function.