Resilience and vagal tone predict cardiac recovery from acute social stress

Abstract

Previous studies showed that heart period decreases during and recovers after an acute stress. We investigated if individual predispositions and emotional priming influence heart period recovery after a speech stress task. Psychometric scales and resting cardiac vagal tone were used to measure individual traits. The presentation of a sequence of either pleasant or unpleasant pictures, as emotional primers, preceded the speech stress. Heart period was measured throughout the experiment. Stress induced tachycardia irrespective of emotional priming or traits. In the recovery period, participants with higher resting cardiac vagal tone or presenting higher resilience significantly reduced the heart acceleration. Furthermore, these traits interacted synergistically in the promotion of the recovery of heart period. Pleasant priming also improved recovery for participants with lower negative affect. In conclusion, the stress recovery measured through heart period seemed dependent upon individual predispositions and emotional priming. These findings further strengthen previous observations on the association between greater cardiac vagal tone and the ability to regulate emotion.

Stability of resting frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry and cardiac vagal tone in adolescent females exposed to child maltreatment

“…Studies of adults have noted that low resting vagal tone predicts slower cardiovascular recovery following stress (Lane, Adcock, & Burnett, 1992;Souza et al, 2007), greater central reactivity to affective challenge (O'Connor, Harald, McRae, & Lane, 2007), and shyness and low sociability (Schmidt & Fox, 1994). Low vagal tone has also been reported in patients with various psychiatric disorders (Austin, Riniolo, & Porges, 2007;Friedman, 2007;McCraty, Atkinson, Tomasino, & Stuppy, 2001;Rechlin, Weis, Spitzer, & Kaschka, 1994;Thayer, Friedman, & Borkovec, 1996).…”

Insights into the clinical and functional significance of cardiac autonomic dysfunction in Chagas disease

“…Difficulty in coping with social stress and in controlling emotions can also occur in subjects with systemic autonomic impairment or even in just cardiac autonomic impairment, because the integrity of parasympathetic homeostatic function is important for the adequate performance of these tasks, and the heart is crucial to providing functional adaptation for them 82,83,90 . Therefore, chagasic subjects may also be susceptible to psycho-functional derangements attendant on functional demands for higher cerebral processes in association with their autonomic cardiovascular adaptive disability, as suggested by some evidences 91,92 .…”

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Patients With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd): A Narrative Review

“…According to Arrebola-Moreno et al (2014) self-efficacy -a component of resilience -was negatively related to both myoglobin and troponin after the acute coronary event suggesting that resilience decreases the extent of the myocardial infarction by affecting the inflammatory response and so showing a protective effect. Cardiac vagal tone and resilience interact synergistically in the promotion of stress recovery (Souza et al 2007). It is presumed that positive emotions and cognitions facilitate resilience to acute and chronic stress as well as that greater vagal tone is associated with more endurance under stressful and traumatic situations.…”