Sex-Specific Associations Between Inter-Individual Differences in Heart Rate Variability and Inter-Individual Differences in Emotion Regulation

Abstract

Neurobiological theories suggest that inter-individual differences in vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) have the potential to serve as a biomarker for inter-individual differences in emotion regulation that are due to inter-individual differences regarding the engagement of prefrontal and (para-)limbic brain regions during emotion processing. To test these theories, we investigated whether inter-individual differences in vmHRV would be associated with inter-individual differences in emotion regulation. We determined resting state vmHRV in a sample of 176 individuals that had also completed a short self-report measure of reappraisal and suppression use. Resting state vmHRV was derived from short-term (300 s) and ultra-short-term (120 s, 60 s) recordings of participants’ heart rate to determine the robustness of possible findings. Irrespective of recording length, we found that an increase in resting state vmHRV was associated with an increase in self-reported reappraisal but not suppression use. However, this association was only evident among male but not female participants, indicating a sex-specific association between inter-individual differences in resting state vmHRV and inter-individual differences in self-reported emotion regulation. These findings, which are consistent with previous ones, support theoretical claims that inter-individual differences in vmHRV serve as a biomarker for inter-individual differences in emotion regulation. Combing (ultra-)short-term measures of resting state vmHRV with short self-report measures of emotion regulation may, thus, be useful for researchers who have to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms of emotion regulation in a time- and resource-efficient manner.

Heart Rate Variability Modulates Interoceptive Accuracy

“…Participants’ vagally mediated heart rate variability was determined during the second part of the recording session. Following an established procedure ( Lischke et al, 2018b , 2019 ), we asked the participants to sit still and to stay awake during a 300 s lasting time interval. The heartbeats that were recorded during this time interval were analyzed with Kubios HRV 2.2 ( Tarvainen et al, 2014 ).…”

The Utility of Physiological Measures in Assessing the Empathic Skills of Incarcerated Violent Offenders

“…Third, while the offender and control groups are rather well matched, future research should consider the inclusion of additional factors, such as IQ and cognitive skills, that may moderate the relationship between HRV and empathic responses (Thayer et al, 2009). Fourth, since our sample consisted of male-only participants, our findings may be not be generalizable to females in light of evidence for sex-dependent relationship of resting state HRV with emotion regulation and empathic concern (Lischke et al, 2019;Tracy & Giummarra, 2017). Fifth and finally, given evidence for age-dependent changes in empathic responding (O'Brien et al, 2013) and HRV (Yukishita et al, 2010), age-controlled longitudinal studies would be interesting in order to assess the co-evolution of empathy and HRV in prison in comparison to the general population across the life span.…”

High vagally mediated resting-state heart rate variability is associated with superior working memory function

“…Among them, the parameters that can measure the state of the PNS are indexed by the root mean square of the successive differences (rMSSD) in the time domain ( Laborde et al, 2022 ). rMSSD mainly reflects parasympathetic activity mediated by the vagus nerve ( Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology, 1996 ; Lischke et al, 2019 ). The increase in rMSSD may mean an increase in vagal efferent drive ( Shaffer and Ginsberg, 2017 ).…”