Association between Attention and Heart Rate Fluctuations in Pathological Worriers

Abstract

Recent data suggests that several psychopathological conditions are associated with alterations in the variability of behavioral and physiological responses. Pathological worry, defined as the cognitive representation of a potential threat, has been associated with reduced variability of heart beat oscillations (i.e., decreased heart rate variability; HRV) and lapses of attention indexed by reaction times (RTs). Clinical populations with attention deficit show RTs oscillation around 0.05 and 0.01 Hz when performing a sustained attention task. We tested the hypothesis that people who are prone to worry do it in a predictable oscillating pattern revealed through recurrent lapses in attention and concomitant oscillating HRV. Sixty healthy young adults (50% women) were recruited: 30 exceeded the clinical cut-off on the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ; High-Worry, HW); the remaining 30 constituted the Low-Worry (LW) group. After a diagnostic assessment, participants performed two 15-min sustained attention tasks, interspersed by a standardized worry-induction procedure. RTs, HRV and moods were assessed. The analyses of the frequency spectrum showed that the HW group presents a significant higher and constant peak of RTs oscillation around 0.01 Hz (period 100 s) after the induction of worry, in comparison with their baseline and with the LW group that was not responsive to the induction procedure. Physiologically, the induction significantly reduced high-frequency HRV and such reduction was associated with levels of self-reported worry. Results are coherent with the oscillatory nature of the default mode network (DMN) and further confirm an association between cognitive rigidity and autonomic nervous system inflexibility.

Decrease in Attentional Performance After Repeated Bouts of High Intensity Exercise in Association-Football Referees and Assistant Referees

“…Rimmele et al (2007) documented significantly lower cortisol and heart rate responses to psychosocial stress in trained men compared with untrained men. In addition, higher physical fitness is associated with lower inflammatory cytokine responses to a mental stressor, as well as greater parasympathetic control, as indicated by less reduction in heart rate variability (Hamer and Steptoe, 2007; Thayer et al, 2012; Ottaviani et al, 2015; Gazzellini et al, 2016). Consequently, this result indicates that physical fitness is a modulator of attention functioning at rest condition in referees and assistant referees who took the FIFA-Test.…”

“…The compromised neural circuitry related to the executive control may be related to the simultaneous effect of both mental and physical stressors on the PFC (Sänger et al, 2014). Increased VRT has been found in disturbances of the dopaminergic system, executive dysfunctions, and hyperactivation of the midline cortical structures associated with the default mode network (Northoff and Bermpohl, 2004; Gazzellini et al, 2016). The activation of the default mode network is related to lapses of attention during task-oriented activity (Gazzellini et al, 2016).…”

Mind wandering, together with test anxiety and self‐efficacy, predicts student's academic self‐concept but not reading comprehension skills

“…As reviewed by Christoff, Irving, Fox, Spreng, and Andrews‐Hanna (), negatively valenced MW might turn out to be better defined as rumination or worry (Christoff et al ., ; Ottaviani, Medea, Lonigro, Tarvainen, & Couyoumdjian, ; Ottaviani, Shapiro, & Couyoumdjian, ). It is likely that in students with higher test anxiety and lower self‐efficacy, MW takes the form of anxious worry, which has indeed been linked to attentional impairments (Gazzellini et al ., ) and worse scholastic performance (Seipp, for a meta‐analysis; Zhang & Henderson, ).…”

Worry alters speed-accuracy tradeoffs but does not impair sustained attention

“…Previous work in this area has tended to suffer from low statistical power, despite complex designs (e.g., N = 32 for a between-subjects design, Tallon et al, 2016; N = 60 for a 2 x 4 x 2 mixed analysis of covariance; Gazzellini et al, 2016). Other methodological limitations include pre-post (uncontrolled) designs that limit inferences about specificity (Gazzellini et al, 2016;Makovac et al, 2016;Ruscio & Borkovec, 2004) and reliance on novel tasks with unclear psychometric properties, or that have not been validated as measures of sustained attention (Makovac et al, 2016;Ottaviani et al, 2013;Ruscio & Borkovec, 2004). Single "doses" of worry that dissipate quickly have also been identified as a common and potentially important limitation (Beckwé & Deroost, 2016).…”