A tale of two mechanisms: A meta‐analytic approach toward understanding the autonomic basis of cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress

Abstract

A series of meta-analyses was undertaken to determine the contributions of sympathetic and parasympathetic activation to cardiovascular stress reactivity. A literature search yielded 186 studies of sufficient quality that measured indices of sympathetic (n = 113) and/or parasympathetic activity (n = 73). A range of psychological stressors perturbed blood pressure and heart rate. There were comparable aggregate effects for sympathetic activation, as indexed by increased plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine, and shortened pre-ejection period and parasympathetic deactivation, as indexed by heart rate variability measures. Effect sizes varied with stress task, sex, and age. In contrast to alpha-adrenergic blockade, beta-blockade attenuated cardiovascular reactivity. Cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress would appear to reflect both beta-adrenergic activation and vagal withdrawal to a largely equal extent.

The enemy in the mirror: self-perception-induced stress results in dissociation of psychological and physiological responses in patients with dissociative disorder

“…In contrast, in the HCs, the small autonomic changes could probably be attributed to insufficient stress levels, rather than to impaired autonomic adaptability. The significant reduction in lnRMSSD during CFM when simultaneously thinking about the negative cognition in the HCs is in line with the results of a meta-analysis by Brindle, Ginty, Phillips, and Carroll (2014) who found a significant decline in parasympathetic drive under stressful conditions in healthy subjects and might signify well-developed autonomic adaptability/flexibility in the HCs.…”

A Brain Phenotype for Stressor‐Evoked Blood Pressure Reactivity

“…Acute stressor‐evoked cardiovascular reactions arise from proximal changes in autonomic nervous system outflow to the heart and vasculature, typified by increases in the activity of the sympathetic limb and decreases in the parasympathetic limb of the autonomic nervous system 8. These autonomic changes are generated and regulated by evolutionarily conserved brain areas 9, 10, 11.…”

Self-forgiveness and forgiveness-seeking in response to rumination: Cardiac and emotional responses of transgressors

“…However, vagal deregulation has been associated with disruption in several measures of biopsychosocial well-being, such as positive emotions, social connectedness (Kok et al, 2013), satisfaction with life, depression, and global functioning (Kogan, Gruber, Shallcross, Jord, & Mauss, 2013). Some studies also suggest that parasympathetic deregulation may contribute to physical disorders such as hypertension due to an increase in cardiac output (Brindle et al, 2014), and a number of disorders associated with inflammatory processes (Shenhar-Tsarfaty et al, 2014). These observations suggest that ruminating about one's wrongdoing may also negatively impact emotional and physical well-being.…”

“…Our hypothesis predicted that ruminating about one's transgression would elicit reciprocal sympathetic activation and parasympathetic inhibition, a pattern observed in tasks involving engagement of central processing resources (Backs, Rohdy, & Barnard, 2005), mild psychological stress, such as those using the Stroop Word Color Conflict Test with monetary inducement (Delaney & Brodie, 2000), and tasks eliciting acute psychological stress, such as those involving speech, mental arithmetic, or reaction time (Brindle et al, 2014). However, we observed a different autonomic mode of control, known as uncoupled parasympathetic inhibition (no sympathetic changes with parasympathetic inhibition - Berntson, Cacioppo, & Quigley, 1993).…”

“…In this study, we predicted that imagery of being begrudged -compared to rumination about one's wrongdoing -would elicit cardiac arousal (Iffland, Sansen, Catani, & Neuner, 2012) and more negative ratings of valence, anger, anxiety, and sadness, along with lower subjective ratings of guilt, perceived control, and empathy for the victim (Witvliet et al, 2002). We also predicted that imagery of being begrudged forgiveness would elicit cardiac arousal associated with parasympathetic withdrawal and sympathetic activation (Brindle, Binty, Phillips, & Carroll, 2014;Delaney & Brodie, 2000).…”