Resting-state heart rate variability (HRV) mediates the association between perceived chronic stress and ambiguity avoidance

Abstract

Chronic stress is associated with profound behavioral and physiological alterations, including intolerance to uncertainty and reduced resting-state heart-rate-variability (HRV). Critically, uncertainty may arise in situations with known probabilities (risk) or unknown probabilities (ambiguity). Whether associations between chronic stress and decision-making under uncertainty are dependent on the specific type of uncertain decisions, and whether physiological alterations play a role in these putative associations is not yet clear. Here, ninety-two healthy adults that exhibit various levels of perceived chronic stress underwent resting-state HRV recording before completing a behavioral task that involves decision-making under either risk or ambiguity. Computational modelling quantified participants’ behavioral attitudes of approach and avoidance separately for risk and ambiguity. Results indicate, as expected, that perceived chronic stress is positively associated with intolerance to uncertainty and negatively associated with resting-state HRV. Contrary to expectations, behavioral attitudes towards risk and ambiguity were not directly associated with perceived chronic stress, yet HRV fully mediated the association between chronic stress and ambiguity avoidance. Taken together and given the direction of the associations, elevated HRV despite chronic stress may foster adaptive behavior in the form of avoiding ambiguous situations, and hence contribute to reduced exposure to uncertainty and to lower levels of allostatic load.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study of Risk and Ambiguity in Monetary and Medical Decision-Making

“…Risk attitudes have been associated with the structure of specific brain areas, including the posterior parietal cortex (Gilaie-Dotan et al, 2014;Grubb et al, 2016), amygdala (Jung et al, 2018), and cerebellum (Quan et al, 2022, supporting the characterization of risk attitude as a stable trait-like construct. Ambiguity, in contrast, is unstable within individuals (Dimmock et al, 2016), changes when observed by peers (Curley et al, 1986;Trautmann et al, 2008), and relates to physiological (FeldmanHall et al, 2016;Jiryis et al, 2022;Katsaros & Nicolaidis, 2012;Konova et al, 2020) and emotional states (Rubaltelli et al, 2010), supporting its view as a more state-like construct.…”

Asymptomatic Autonomic Dysregulation after Recovery from Mild COVID-19 Infection Revealed by Analysis of Heart Rate Variability Responses to Task Load

“…Psychophysical conditions including depressiveness, anxiety, stress, and fatigue were also checked by two questionnaires, State and Trait Anxiety Inventory state (STAI-state) score and Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) score [ 22 , 23 ] in both the post-COVID-19 subjects and the normal control. It has been reported that medical staff is under stressful working conditions, and a comparison between the data of the medical staff and that of the non-medical staff should be carried out carefully [ 24 ]. However, SDS score and STAI-state score were 39.4 ± 8.0 and 42.4 ± 10.9 in the post-COVID-19 subjects and were not statistically different from those in the normal control (SDS, 40.9 ± 7.9, p > 0.05; STAI-state; 40.3 ± 8.4, p > 0.05).…”

Deconstructing depression by machine learning: the POKAL-PSY study

“…A HRV measurement is performed at each follow-up. The participants are kindly asked to be in an upright position for 5 min and lie for 5 min while breathing at a normal pace to achieve a resting state measurement [ 81 ]. If needed, participants can take breaks.…”