Heart Period (heart + period)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Children's narratives and patterns of cardiac reactivity

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 4 2004
Yair Bar-Haim
Abstract The present study examines the associations between narrative processing, narrative production, and cardiac rate and variability in children. Heart period (HP) and vagal tone (VT) were computed for fifty-eight 7-year-olds (29 males) during a resting baseline and during epochs in which the children listened to and completed a selected set of story-stems from the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery (I. Bretherton, D. Oppenheim, H. Buchsbaum, R. N. Emde, & the MacArthur Narrative Group, 1990). Significant decreases in HP and VT were observed between a resting baseline and epochs of story-stem presentation by the experimenter. In addition, HP was shorter and VT lower during children's narrative production to emotionally laden story-stems compared with narration to a neutral story-stem. Furthermore, narrative and cardiac responses to stories containing separation,reunion themes reflected increased emotional and cognitive load compared with responses to stories that did not contain such themes. Finally, children who showed VT suppression in response to emotion-laden stories produced more coherent and adaptive narratives compared to those of children who did not show VT suppression. The findings suggest interplay between the cognitive-emotional processes associated with narrative processing and production and cardiac activation patterns. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 44: 238,249, 2004. [source]


Does motor activity during psychophysiological paradigms confound the quantification and interpretation of heart rate and heart rate variability measures in young children?

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 5 2007
Stephen W. Porges
Abstract Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), heart period, and motor activity were monitored in preschoolers during a variety of tasks varying in required movement. The data analyses indicate: (1) that when activity increases during tasks, there are synchronous decreases in heart period and RSA; (2) that correlations between changes in RSA and heart period are related to activity only during exercise when there is a major demand for increased metabolic resources; and (3) that the covariation among the variables within each condition is low except during exercise. These findings suggest that the slight increases in motor activity (i.e., hand movements) often required in attention demanding psychophysiological protocols are not related to RSA and heart period responses. However, when tasks necessitate large increases in motor activity (e.g., exercise), the decreases in heart period and RSA are related to the change in motor activity. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 49: 485-494, 2007. [source]


Characteristic changes in the physiological components of cybersickness

PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 5 2005
Young Youn Kim
Abstract We investigated the characteristic changes in the physiology of cybersickness when subjects were exposed to virtual reality. Sixty-one participants experienced a virtual navigation for a total of 9.5 min, and were required to detect specific virtual objects. Three questionnaires for sickness susceptibility and immersive tendency were obtained before the navigation. Sixteen electrophysiological signals were recorded before, during, and after the navigation. The severity of cybersickness experienced by participants was reported from a simulator sickness questionnaire after the navigation. The total severity of cybersickness had a significant positive correlation with gastric tachyarrhythmia, eyeblink rate, heart period, and EEG delta wave and a negative correlation with EEG beta wave. These results suggest that cybersickness accompanies the pattern changes in the activities of the central and the autonomic nervous systems. [source]


Vagal Reactivity and Affective Adjustment in Infants during Interaction Challenges

CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2001
Olga V. Bazhenova
Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and heart period were evaluated in 5-month-old infants (N= 40) during interaction challenges requiring affective adjustment. The paradigm consisted of four 2-min experimental conditions designed to elicit behavioral and autonomic responses to object-mediated (Picture Attention and Toy Attention) and person-mediated (Still Face and Social Interaction) engagement. The data demonstrated that autonomic state systematically changed during engagement and disengagement with the environment. During the object-mediated challenge, increases in RSA were uniquely related to positive engagement. During the person-mediated challenge, there was a more complex integration of autonomic and behavioral responses characterized by concordant increases and decreases in RSA, heart period, positive engagement, negative affect, and motor activity. When participants were partitioned into two groups, based on their RSA response pattern during the person-mediated challenge, only participants who exhibited a pattern of RSA decrease from Toy Attention to Still Face followed by a rapid recovery during Social Interaction demonstrated regulation of behavioral activity, including concordant recovery from stress. These findings provide additional empirical support for the role of vagal regulation of the heart in the modulation of affective adjustment and engagement behavior. [source]


KETANSERIN-INDUCED BAROREFLEX ENHANCEMENT IN SPONTANEOUSLY HYPERTENSIVE RATS DEPENDS ON CENTRAL 5-HT2A RECEPTORS

CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PHARMACOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 8 2007
Fu-Ming Shen
SUMMARY 1Ketanserin may influence baroreflex function by blocking 5-HT2A receptors and/or ,1 -adrenoceptors through central and/or peripheral mechanisms. 2In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the baroreflex sensitivity (BRS)-enhancing effects of ketanserin are mediated by central 5-HT2A receptors in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). 3Using a conjugate of a monoclonal antibody to the serotonin reuptake transporter (SERT) and the toxin saporin (anti-SERT-SAP), which specifically eliminates the neurons that express SERT, the effects of ketanserin (0.3 and 3.0 mg/kg, i.g.) on BRS, blood pressure (BP), heart period (HP) and blood pressure variability (BPV) were compared between conscious intact SHR and SHR pretreated with anti-SERT-SAP. 4Immunochemistry showed that, 2 weeks after intracerebroventricular injection of the toxin, 5-HT expression was strikingly attenuated in the brain, whereas values of BRS, BPV and BP were similar to those in the sham group. In intact SHR, 0.3 mg/kg ketanserin significantly improved BRS (191% control) and reduced BPV without affecting BP; at 3.0 mg/kg, ketanserin significantly increased BRS (197% control) and decreased BPV and BP. In toxin-pretreated SHR, only the high dose of ketanserin improved BRS (132% control), neither of the ketanserin doses reduced BPV, but both significantly decreased BP. 5We conclude that the BRS-enhancing effects of ketanserin are mediated largely by central 5-HT2A receptors, whereas the antihypertensive effect of ketanserin persists even after destruction of serotonergic neurons in the central nervous system. [source]


Comparison of finger plethysmograph to ECG in the measurement of heart rate variability

PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 2 2002
Nicholas D. Giardino
Two experiments compared finger plethysmograph (FP) to electrocardiogram (ECG) in providing accurate heart periods for use in heart rate variability (HRV) calculations. In Experiment 1, simultaneous ECG and FP recordings were taken from 16 healthy subjects at rest. In Experiment 2, 10 additional healthy subjects were recorded at rest and during the Stroop Color-Word Test. In both studies, high correlations were found between FP-derived and ECG-derived band variance for high and low frequency HRV at rest. But, during the Stroop task, correlations were strongly diminished. In addition, under both conditions, HRV measures were significantly higher using the FP signal. Thus, FP may be adequate for determining HRV at rest, but, for experimental use, ECG may still be recommended. Nonetheless, further studies that include test,retest reliability assessment of both data collection techniques are warranted before a more certain determination can be made. [source]