Effects of stress on heart rate complexity—A comparison between short-term and chronic stress

Abstract

This study examined chronic and short-term stress effects on heart rate variability (HRV), comparing time, frequency and phase domain (complexity) measures in 50 healthy adults. The hassles frequency subscale of the combined hassles and uplifts scale (CHUS) was used to measure chronic stress. Shortterm stressor reactivity was assessed with a speech task. HRV measures were determined via surface electrocardiogram (ECG). Because respiration rate decreased during the speech task (p < .001), this study assessed the influence of respiration rate changes on the effects of interest. A series of repeatedmeasures analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) with Bonferroni adjustment revealed that short-term stress decreased HR D2 (calculated via the pointwise correlation dimension PD2) (p < .001), but increased HR mean (p < .001), standard deviation of R-R (SD RR ) intervals (p < .001), low (LF) (p < .001) and high frequency band power (HF) (p = .009). Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and LF/HF ratio did not change under short-term stress. Partial correlation adjusting for respiration rate showed that HR D2 was associated with chronic stress (r = −.35, p = .019). Differential effects of chronic and short-term stress were observed on several HRV measures. HR D2 decreased under both stress conditions reflecting lowered functionality of the cardiac pacemaker. The results confirm the importance of complexity metrics in modern stress research on HRV.

Welfare implication of measuring heart rate and heart rate variability in dairy cattle: literature review and conclusions for future research

“…Research mainly focused on understanding the changes in HRV related to long-term stressors on autonomic nervous system activity. Schubert et al (2009) reported that certain non-linear HRV parameters were useful to detect chronic stress while others found that chronically stressed individuals show decreased HR (Furlan et al, 2000;Lucini et al, 2005).…”

“…Research mainly focused on understanding the changes in HRV related to long-term stressors on autonomic nervous system activity. Schubert et al (2009) reported that certain non-linear HRV parameters were useful to detect chronic stress while others found that chronically stressed individuals show decreased HR (Furlan et al, 2000;Lucini et al, 2005).The study of Mohr et al (2002) involving dairy calves suffering from BVD showed that RQA parameters in describing the response to a pathological load.The application of the above mentioned non-linear parameters is promising, however, further research is required to better understand the welfare impact of chronic stress Kovács, Jurkovich, Bakony, Szenci, Póti and Tőzsér 326 and disease-indicated loads by finding clearer relations with non-linear HRV.On the base of associations of suppressed immune state and chronic stress, another way to interpret long-term effects of challenged situations is the study of HRV together with, for example, somatic cell count (SCC) investigation and immunological tests, hereby chronic stress may be more extensively studied. Consequently, a more integrated view of stress reactions in farm animals is needed for the expansion of approaches how chronic stress can be conceptualised in research on HRV.…”

Heart Rate Variability and Urinary Catecholamines from Job Stress in Korean Male Manufacturing Workers According to Work Seniority

“…Means (± standard deviation) of heart rate variability and urinary catecholamine levels described 17,18) . As well, exposure to high levels of stress in the workplace increases the log LF power [ln(ms 2 /Hz)] 9) .…”

Assessment of systolic and diastolic cycle duration from speech analysis in the state of anger and fear

“…Further the formant frequency analysis has been carried out with a DSP Tool (PRAAT) to obtain the various formant frequencies [2] and F1, F2 and F3 formant frequency vs utterances duration response is plotted to observe the RR-cycle in the state of anger and fear [4,[10][11][12][13][14][15] .…”