Resting state heart rate variability and false memories

Feeling, Nicole R.; Williams, DeWayne P.; Speller, Lassiter F.; Loftus, Elizabeth F.; Koenig, Julian; Thayer, Julian F.

doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.08.009

Cited by 7 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…This suggests that neurophysiological stimulation and not any placebo effect triggered cognitive enhancement. This idea is in line with previous findings that demonstrated a link between vagally mediated HRV and selective attention ( Giuliano et al, 2018 ) as well as with the discrimination performance of false from true memories ( Feeling et al, 2021 ). A change of response strategy that may change the interpretation of these results seems unlikely as speed and accuracy with respect to go-/no-go responses during the Sustained Attention to Response Task did not change from pre- to post-test in either group.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia during biofeedback is linked to persistent improvements in attention, short-term memory, and positive self-referential episodic memory

2022

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BackgroundHeart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback, an intervention based on the voluntary self-regulation of autonomic parameters, has been shown to affect prefrontal brain functioning and improve executive functions. The interest in using HRV biofeedback as cognitive training is typically ascribed to parasympathetic activation and optimized physiological functioning deriving from increased cardiac vagal control. However, the persistence of cognitive effects is poorly studied and their association with biofeedback-evoked autonomic changes has not yet been explored. In addition, no study has so far investigated the influence of HRV biofeedback in adults on long-term episodic memory, which is particularly concerned with self-referential encoding processing.MethodsIn the present study, a novel training system was developed integrating HRV and respiratory biofeedback into an immersive virtual reality environment to enhance training efficacy. Twenty-two young healthy adults were subjected to a blinded randomized placebo-controlled experiment, including six self-regulation training sessions, to evaluate the effect of biofeedback on autonomic and cognitive changes. Cardiac vagal control was assessed before, during, and 5 min after each training session. Executive functions, episodic memory, and the self-referential encoding effect were evaluated 1 week before and after the training program using a set of validated tasks.ResultsLinear mixed-effects models showed that HRV biofeedback greatly stimulated respiratory sinus arrhythmia during and after training. Moreover, it improved the attentional capabilities required for the identification and discrimination of stimuli (ηp2 = 0.17), auditory short-term memory (ηp2 = 0.23), and self-referential episodic memory recollection of positive stimuli (ηp2 = 0.23). Episodic memory outcomes indicated that HRV biofeedback reinforced positive self-reference encoding processing. Cognitive changes were strongly dependent on the level of respiratory sinus arrhythmia evoked during self-regulation training.ConclusionThe present study provides evidence that biofeedback moderates respiration-related cardiac vagal control, which in turn mediates improvements in several cognitive processes crucial for everyday functioning including episodic memory, that are maintained beyond the training period. The results highlight the interest in HRV biofeedback as an innovative research tool and medication-free therapeutic approach to affect autonomic and neurocognitive functioning. Finally, a neurocognitive model of biofeedback-supported autonomic self-regulation as a scaffolding for episodic memory is proposed.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia during biofeedback is linked to persistent improvements in attention, short-term memory, and positive self-referential episodic memory

2022

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“…Studies examining the impact of HRV during wakefulness on episodic LTM also show mixed results. One study demonstrated that people with poor vagal autonomic functioning (low resting HRV) show greater false memory errors ( 102 ). In addition, cardiac vagal tone has been shown to positively correlate with better memory for emotionally charged stimuli ( 103 , 104 ), albeit no relation with memory for neutral stimuli.…”

Section: Cns and Ans Contributions To Long-term Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the roles of central and autonomic activity during sleep in the improvement of working memory and episodic memory

Chen

Zhang

Thayer

et al. 2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The last decade has seen significant progress in identifying sleep mechanisms that support cognition. Most of these studies focus on the link between electrophysiological events of the central nervous system during sleep and improvements in different cognitive domains, while the dynamic shifts of the autonomic nervous system across sleep have been largely overlooked. Recent studies, however, have identified significant contributions of autonomic inputs during sleep to cognition. Yet, there remain considerable gaps in understanding how central and autonomic systems work together during sleep to facilitate cognitive improvement. In this article we examine the evidence for the independent and interactive roles of central and autonomic activities during sleep and wake in cognitive processing. We specifically focus on the prefrontal–subcortical structures supporting working memory and mechanisms underlying the formation of hippocampal-dependent episodic memory. Our Slow Oscillation Switch Model identifies separate and competing underlying mechanisms supporting the two memory domains at the synaptic, systems, and behavioral levels. We propose that sleep is a competitive arena in which both memory domains vie for limited resources, experimentally demonstrated when boosting one system leads to a functional trade-off in electrophysiological and behavioral outcomes. As these findings inevitably lead to further questions, we suggest areas of future research to better understand how the brain and body interact to support a wide range of cognitive domains during a single sleep episode.

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“…Moreover, RMSSD was not linked to cognitive control over long-term memory. Contrary to this work, previous studies assessing cognitive control over long-term memory (Feeling et al, 2021;Gillie et al, 2014Gillie et al, , 2015Magnon et al, 2022) did not consider repeated measures over the same experimental session. An exploratory analysis (Data S8-SR3) revealed that the psychophysiological relationship changed over repeated measures due to baseline changes in cardiac control (i.e., mean heart rate and RMSSD).…”

Section: Vmhrv Does Not Correlate To Cognitive Control Over Long-term...mentioning

confidence: 73%

“…Consequently, based on theoretical and structural ties, cardiac vagal control indexed by vmHRV should be associated with cognitive control over memory. One study recently demonstrated such a link between resting-state vmHRV with the production of false memories using the DRM task (Feeling et al, 2021). However, like in most HRV studies, the correlation between cognitive functioning and vmHRV was established for physiological measures recorded only at resting-state.…”

Section: Introduction 1| Autonomic and Cognitive Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomic and cognitive control in memory: Investigating the psychophysiological link using heart rate variability biofeedback

Bögge,

Colás‐Blanco,

Ferragu

et al. 2024

Psychophysiology

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Vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) at resting state has been associated to cognitive functions dependent on cognitive control, such as memory. However, little is known about the phasic interaction between cognitive and autonomic control. In a pre‐registered within‐between‐subject designed experiment, the potential of vmHRV biofeedback to simultaneously stimulate vmHRV during memory processing and cognitive control over long‐term memory was tested, along with investigating psychophysiological association. 71 young healthy adults completed (twice) a false memory task in virtual reality. Immediately before memory encoding and retrieval, participants practiced either vmHRV biofeedback or a control breathing exercise. Cognitive control over long‐term memory was assessed as the confidence toward false memories and the capability to discriminate them from true memories. Resting‐state vmHRV before each test and phasic vmHRV during memory encoding and retrieval were measured as the root mean square differences (RMSSD) in the heart period. vmHRV biofeedback had neither an immediate effect on measures of cognitive control over long‐term memory nor on phasic RMSSD. Moreover, neither resting‐state nor phasic vmHRV correlated to the cognitive scores. Consequently, the utility of HRV biofeedback as a psychophysiological stimulation tool and a link between vmHRV and cognitive control over long‐term memory could not be verified. Exploratory analyses revealed that baseline shift in parasympathetic activity confounded the psychophysiological association. Future directions are provided that could shed light on the relationship between cognition and vmHRV.

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Resting state heart rate variability and false memories

Cited by 7 publications

References 50 publications

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia during biofeedback is linked to persistent improvements in attention, short-term memory, and positive self-referential episodic memory

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia during biofeedback is linked to persistent improvements in attention, short-term memory, and positive self-referential episodic memory

Understanding the roles of central and autonomic activity during sleep in the improvement of working memory and episodic memory

Autonomic and cognitive control in memory: Investigating the psychophysiological link using heart rate variability biofeedback

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