Differential Momentary Reports of Stress and Affect Associated With Alcohol Consumption in Middle-Aged Versus Younger Adults.

Background: Stress is a motivator to consume alcohol, a well-documented relapse risk, and is known to differentially affect biological and psychological processes as people age.Objectives: Because alcohol consumption is known to acutely decrease stress and increase affect, this study examined differences in ratings of stress and affect in middle-aged versus younger adults who regularly consume alcohol.Methods: A sample of younger (n = 17) and middle-aged (n = 18) drinkers was studied during a 3-day period of typical alcohol consumption. Resting levels of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were measured during a baseline study visit since RSA is a well-documented biomarker of stress and is known to decrease with age. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) survey ratings (n = 1,598) were modeled using hierarchical regression to assess differences in stress and affect throughout the day between the two age groups.Results: As anticipated, middle-aged participants had lower RSA than those who were younger. Although the middle-aged adults showed overall lower stress, generally they also experienced higher affect than the younger adults. Middle-aged adults experienced a significant reduction in stress following drinking while no such effect was observed in the younger adults.Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first investigation using EMA methodology to examine stress and affect between younger and middle-aged adults who habitually consume alcohol. These cross-sectional data suggest potential momentary stress relief to engaging with moderate alcohol consumption in a middle-aged population. Future work must address this important motivational process in curtailing maintenance of alcohol consumption and preventing escalation of consumption.

Sluggish vagal brake reactivity to physical exercise challenge in children with selective mutism.

Cardiovascular response patterns to laboratory-based social and physical exercise challenges were evaluated in 69 children and adolescents, 20 with selective mutism (SM), to identify possible neurophysiological mechanisms that may mediate the behavioral features of SM. Results suggest that SM is associated with a dampened response of the vagal brake to physical exercise that is manifested as reduced reactivity in heart rate and respiration. Polyvagal theory proposes that the regulation of the vagal brake is a neurophysiological component of an integrated social engagement system that includes the neural regulation of the laryngeal and pharyngeal muscles. Within this theoretical framework, sluggish vagal brake reactivity may parallel an inability to recruit efficiently the structures involved in speech. Thus, the findings suggest that dampened autonomic reactivity during mobilization behaviors may be a biomarker of SM that can be assessed independent of the social stimuli that elicit mutism.

Remotely supervised home-based online chair yoga intervention for older adults with dementia: Feasibility study.

BACKGROUND: and Purpose: Social isolation and caregiver burden call for an innovative way to deliver a chair yoga (CY) intervention to older adults with dementia who cannot travel to a community center. During a remotely supervised CY session, the yoga instructor can monitor each participant's pose and correct poses to optimize efficacy of CY and reduce chances of injury. This study assessed the feasibility of a remotely supervised online CY intervention for older adults with dementia and explored the relationship between CY and clinical outcomes: pain interference, mobility, risk of falling, sleep disturbance, autonomic reactivity, and loneliness. METHODS: Using a one-group pretest/posttest design, a home-based CY intervention was delivered remotely to 10 older adults with dementia twice weekly in 60-minute sessions for 8 weeks. Psychosocial and physiological (i.e., cardiac) data were collected remotely at baseline, mid-intervention, and post-intervention. RESULTS: The results indicated that remotely supervised online CY is a feasible approach for managing physical and psychological symptoms in socially isolated older adults with dementia, based on retention (70%) and adherence (87.5%), with no injury or other adverse events. While there were no significant findings for pain interference, mobility, sleep, or social loneliness longitudinally, emotional loneliness showed a significant increase, F(1.838, 11.029) = 6.293, p = .016, η2 = 0.512, from baseline to post-intervention. Although participants were socially connected to other participants via a videoconferencing platform, emotional loneliness increased during the pandemic period. CONCLUSION: A home-based remotely supervised online CY is a feasible approach for socially isolated older adults with dementia who are unable to travel to a facility.

Breastfeeding is related to atypical autonomic and behavior regulation in infants with a history of excessive crying.

The study investigated autonomic regulation during feeding in six-month old infants with a history of excessive crying (EC) and social-behavioral development at 12 and 24 months. When contrasted with non-EC infants (NEC), EC infants had atypical autonomic responses observed as dampened reductions in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and decreases in heart period (HP) during feeding. EC infants demonstrated atypical autonomic regulation only if they were bottle-fed, while breastfed EC infants had patterns of autonomic regulation similar to NEC infants. Behavioral data suggest that while a history of EC was related to social-emotional behaviors at 12 and 24 months, breastfeeding may buffer the behavioral effects of EC on sociability at 24 months.

Real-time facial emotion recognition deficits across the psychosis spectrum: A B-SNIP Study.

Affective and non-affective psychotic disorders are associated with variable levels of impairment in affective processing, but this domain typically has been examined via presentation of static facial images. We compared performance on a dynamic facial expression identification task across six emotions (sad, fear, surprise, disgust, anger, happy) in individuals with psychotic disorders (bipolar with psychotic features [PBD] = 113, schizoaffective [SAD] = 163, schizophrenia [SZ] = 181) and healthy controls (HC; n = 236) derived from the Bipolar-Schizophrenia Network on Intermediate Phenotypes (B-SNIP). These same individuals with psychotic disorders were also grouped by B-SNIP-derived Biotype (Biotype 1 [B1] = 115, Biotype 2 [B2] = 132, Biotype 3 [B3] = 158), derived from a cluster analysis applied to a large biomarker panel that did not include the current data. Irrespective of the depicted emotion, groups differed in accuracy of emotion identification (P < 0.0001). The SZ group demonstrated lower accuracy versus HC and PBD groups; the SAD group was less accurate than the HC group (Ps < 0.02). Similar overall group differences were evident in speed of identifying emotional expressions. Controlling for general cognitive ability did not eliminate most group differences on accuracy but eliminated almost all group differences on reaction time for emotion identification. Results from the Biotype groups indicated that B1 and B2 had more severe deficits in emotion recognition than HC and B3, meanwhile B3 did not show significant deficits. In sum, this characterization of facial emotion recognition deficits adds to our emerging understanding of social/emotional deficits across the psychosis spectrum.

Autonomic regulation in fragile X syndrome.

Autonomic reactivity was studied in individuals with fragile X syndrome (FXS), a genetic disorder partially characterized by abnormal social behavior. Relative to age-matched controls, the FXS group had faster baseline heart rate and lower amplitude respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). In contrast to the typically developing controls, there was a decrease in RSA with age within the FXS group. Moreover, within the FXS group heart rate did not slow with age. The FXS group also responded with an atypical increase in RSA to the social challenge, while the control group reduced RSA. In a subset of the FXS group, the autonomic profile did not change following 2 months and 1 year of lithium treatment. The observed indices of atypical autonomic regulation, consistent with the Polyvagal Theory, may contribute to the deficits in social behavior and social communication observed in FXS.

Physiological responses to social and physical challenges in children: Quantifying mechanisms supporting social engagement and mobilization behaviors.

Physiological response patterns to laboratory-based social and physical challenges were investigated in 37 typically-developing 3- to 5-year-old children. The study was conducted to determine whether the response profiles during each challenge were similar and whether individual differences in the response profiles to the challenges were correlated. Results demonstrated challenge specific physiological response strategies. In response to the social challenge, respiratory sinus arrhythmia and heart period increased and motor activity decreased. In contrast, in response to the physical challenge, respiratory sinus arrhythmia and heart period decreased and motor activity increased. Neither challenge reliably elicited changes in salivary cortisol. Only heart period responses were correlated between the challenges.

Evaluating Sensory Processing in Fragile X Syndrome: Psychometric Analysis of the Brain Body Center Sensory Scales (BBCSS).

Individuals with fragile X syndrome (FXS), especially those co-diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), face many sensory processing challenges. However, sensory processing measures informed by neurophysiology are lacking. This paper describes the development and psychometric properties of a parent/caregiver report, the Brain-Body Center Sensory Scales (BBCSS), based on Polyvagal Theory. Parents/guardians reported on 333 individuals with FXS, 41% with ASD features. Factor structure using a split-sample exploratory-confirmatory design conformed to neurophysiological predictions. Internal consistency, test-retest, and inter-rater reliability were good to excellent. BBCSS subscales converged with the Sensory Profile and Sensory Experiences Questionnaire. However, data also suggest that BBCSS subscales reflect unique features related to sensory processing. Individuals with FXS and ASD features displayed more sensory challenges on most subscales.

Cardiac vagal dysfunction moderates patterns of craving across the day in moderate to heavy consumers of alcohol.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol craving, a known correlate of vulnerability to Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), has been found to be inversely related to cardiac vagal tone (CVT). Here we examine how resting CVT, CVT reactivity to a postural challenge, and their interaction influence craving during imposed alcohol abstinence and their usual drinking among moderate to heavy drinkers. METHODS: Participants were recruited from the local community (final n = 29) and assessed for CVT functioning via respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) at rest (RSA-rest) and during a postural challenge (RSA-react). Craving intensity was assessed throughout the day during 3-day periods of imposed alcohol abstinence (abstained days) and drinking as usual (normal days) via Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). Multilevel statistical modeling assessed relationships between patterns of CVT and diurnal craving. The primary hypothesis of interest was that the interaction of RSA-rest with RSA-react would be significantly associated with increased craving across the day. RESULTS: Overall, craving increased throughout the day and significantly decreased after drinking (p < 0.001). There was a significant interaction between RSA-rest and RSA-react with plots revealing that this effect was driven by an aberrant craving pattern among participants with higher RSA-rest and a sluggish vagal brake in response to a postural shift-atypical RSA-react. CONCLUSION: Although additional research is needed to corroborate these findings, our results suggest that moderate-heavy drinkers characterized by higher RSA-rest and atypical RSA-react exhibit aberrant patterns of craving across the day that may represent a risk factor for AUD.

College females with maltreatment histories have atypical autonomic regulation and poor psychological wellbeing.

OBJECTIVES: This study uniquely examined the impact of maltreatment (without a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD]) on physiological responses to a physical and an emotional stressor. The study sample was composed exclusively of women, because men may differ in maltreatment experience and neural regulation of physiological reactivity. METHOD: Participants were 60 female college students. A significant proportion of the participants reported experiencing childhood maltreatment without a history of PTSD. Participants completed measures assessing psychological and PTSD symptomatology. Heart rate was monitored before, during, and after riding a stationary bike (physical stressor) and viewing a video of a child being maltreated (emotional stressor). Baseline and stressor related patterns of heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were quantified from the beat-to-beat heart rate. RESULTS: Women with maltreatment histories reported more psychological distress and PTSD symptomatology, had lower levels of RSA and faster heart rate, and reacted to the stressors with atypical vagal regulation of RSA and heart rate. CONCLUSION: Accompanying psychological difficulties, women with maltreatment histories exhibit atypical physiological regulation to stressors consistent with clinical observations of lower thresholds to defensiveness and other manifestations of compromised resilience. The findings are consistent with polyvagal theory, which emphasizes the role of the "vagal brake" in social engagement and coregulation behaviors-features frequently compromised in survivors of emotional and physical abuse. Future research should investigate whether these features of atypical autonomic regulation are lead indicators of mental and physical health risks and whether these features can be reversed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Accuracy of the LifeShirt (Vivometrics) in the detection of cardiac rhythms.

The use of heart rate measures in research requires accurate detection and timing of beat-to-beat values. Numerous technologies are available to researchers; however, benchmarking of a specific apparatus is seldom conducted. Since heart rate variability provides a portal to the neural regulation of the heart, accurate detection and timing of beat-to-beat values is essential to both basic physiological research and the clinical application of heart rate variability measures. The current study evaluated the accuracy of an ambulatory system, the LifeShirt (Vivometrics), relative to a standard laboratory-based heart rate monitoring equipment (Biopac), during baseline and exercise conditions. LifeShirt performed equivalently to the Biopac during both conditions, experienced few errors of detection, generated similar times between sequential heart periods, and produced similar summary indices of heart rate and heart rate variability.

Sucrose and warmth for analgesia in healthy newborns: an RCT.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Increasing data suggest that neonatal pain has long-term consequences. Nonpharmacologic techniques (sucrose taste, pacifier suckling, breastfeeding) are effective and now widely used to combat minor neonatal pain. This study examined the analgesic effect of sucrose combined with radiant warmth compared with the taste of sucrose alone during a painful procedure in healthy full-term newborns. METHODS: A randomized, controlled trial included 29 healthy, full-term newborns born at the University of Chicago Hospital. Both groups of infants were given 1.0 mL of 25% sucrose solution 2 minutes before the vaccination, and 1 group additionally was given radiant warmth from an infant warmer before the vaccination. We assessed pain by comparing differences in cry, grimace, heart rate variability (ie, respiratory sinus arrhythmia), and heart rate between the groups. RESULTS: The sucrose plus warmer group cried and grimaced for 50% less time after the vaccination than the sucrose alone group (P < .05, respectively). The sucrose plus warmer group had lower heart rate and heart rate variability (ie, respiratory sinus arrhythmia) responses compared with the sucrose alone group (P < .01), reflecting a greater ability to physiologically regulate in response to the painful vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of sucrose and radiant warmth is an effective analgesic in newborns and reduces pain better than sucrose alone. The ready availability of this practical nonpharmacologic technique has the potential to reduce the burden of newborn pain.

Reducing auditory hypersensitivities in autistic spectrum disorder: preliminary findings evaluating the listening project protocol.

Auditory hypersensitivities are a common feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the present study, the effectiveness of a novel intervention, the listening project protocol (LPP), was evaluated in two trials conducted with children diagnosed with ASD. LPP was developed to reduce auditory hypersensitivities. LPP is based on a theoretical "neural exercise" model that uses computer altered acoustic stimulation to recruit the neural regulation of middle ear muscles. Features of the intervention stimuli were informed by basic research in speech and hearing sciences that has identified the specific acoustic frequencies necessary to understand speech, which must pass through middle ear structures before being processed by other components of the auditory system. LPP was hypothesized to reduce auditory hypersensitivities by increasing the neural tone to the middle ear muscles to functionally dampen competing sounds in frequencies lower than human speech. The trials demonstrated that LPP, when contrasted to control conditions, selectively reduced auditory hypersensitivities. These findings are consistent with the polyvagal theory, which emphasizes the role of the middle ear muscles in social communication.

The covariation of acoustic features of infant cries and autonomic state.

The evolution of the autonomic nervous system provides an organizing principle to interpret the adaptive significance of physiological systems in promoting social behavior and responding to social challenges. This phylogenetic shift in neural regulation of the autonomic nervous system in mammals has produced a neuroanatomically integrated social engagement system, including neural mechanisms that regulate both cardiac vagal tone and muscles involved in vocalization. Mammalian vocalizations are part of a conspecific social communication system, with several mammalian species modulating acoustic features of vocalizations to signal affective state. Prosody, defined by variations in rhythm and pitch, is a feature of mammalian vocalizations that communicate emotion and affective state. While the covariation between physiological state and the acoustic frequencies of vocalizations is neurophysiologically based, few studies have investigated the covariation between vocal prosody and autonomic state. In response to this paucity of scientific evidence, the current study explored the utility of vocal prosody as a sensitive index of autonomic activity in human infants during the Still Face challenge. Overall, significant correlations were observed between several acoustic features of the infant vocalizations and autonomic state, demonstrating an association between shorter heart period and reductions in heart period and respiratory sinus arrhythmia following the challenge with the dampening of the modulation of acoustic features (fundamental frequency, variance, 50% bandwidth, and duration) that are perceived as prosody.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia and auditory processing in autism: modifiable deficits of an integrated social engagement system?

The current study evaluated processes underlying two common symptoms (i.e., state regulation problems and deficits in auditory processing) associated with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders. Although these symptoms have been treated in the literature as unrelated, when informed by the Polyvagal Theory, these symptoms may be viewed as the predictable consequences of depressed neural regulation of an integrated social engagement system, in which there is down regulation of neural influences to the heart (i.e., via the vagus) and to the middle ear muscles (i.e., via the facial and trigeminal cranial nerves). Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and heart period were monitored to evaluate state regulation during a baseline and two auditory processing tasks (i.e., the SCAN tests for Filtered Words and Competing Words), which were used to evaluate auditory processing performance. Children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were contrasted with aged matched typically developing children. The current study identified three features that distinguished the ASD group from a group of typically developing children: 1) baseline RSA, 2) direction of RSA reactivity, and 3) auditory processing performance. In the ASD group, the pattern of change in RSA during the attention demanding SCAN tests moderated the relation between performance on the Competing Words test and IQ. In addition, in a subset of ASD participants, auditory processing performance improved and RSA increased following an intervention designed to improve auditory processing.

Multiscale analysis of heart rate variability in non-stationary environments.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is highly non-stationary, even if no perturbing influences can be identified during the recording of the data. The non-stationarity becomes more profound when HRV data are measured in intrinsically non-stationary environments, such as social stress. In general, HRV data measured in such situations are more difficult to analyze than those measured in constant environments. In this paper, we analyze HRV data measured during a social stress test using two multiscale approaches, the adaptive fractal analysis (AFA) and scale-dependent Lyapunov exponent (SDLE), for the purpose of uncovering differences in HRV between chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients and their matched-controls. CFS is a debilitating, heterogeneous illness with no known biomarker. HRV has shown some promise recently as a non-invasive measure of subtle physiological disturbances and trauma that are otherwise difficult to assess. If the HRV in persons with CFS are significantly different from their healthy controls, then certain cardiac irregularities may constitute good candidate biomarkers for CFS. Our multiscale analyses show that there are notable differences in HRV between CFS and their matched controls before a social stress test, but these differences seem to diminish during the test. These analyses illustrate that the two employed multiscale approaches could be useful for the analysis of HRV measured in various environments, both stationary and non-stationary.

Accuracy of the StressEraser in the detection of cardiac rhythms.

StressEraser is a commercially marketed biofeedback device designed to enhance heart rate variability. StressEraser makes its internal calculations on beat-to-beat measures of finger pulse intervals. However, the accuracy and precision of StressEraser in quantifying interbeat intervals using finger pulse intervals has not been evaluated against standard laboratory equipment using R-R intervals. Accuracy was assessed by simultaneously recording interbeat intervals using StressEraser and a standard laboratory ECG system. The interbeat intervals were highly correlated between the systems. The average deviation in interbeat interval recordings between the systems was approximately 6 ms. Moreover, correlations approached unity between the systems on estimates of heart period, heart rate, and heart rate variability. Feedback from StressEraser is based on an interbeat time series that provides sufficient information to provide an excellent estimate of the dynamic changes in heart rate and heart rate variability. The slight variations between StressEraser and the laboratory equipment in quantifying heart rate and heart rate variability are due to features related to monitoring heart rate with finger pulse: (1) a lack in precision in the peak of the finger pulse relative to the clearly defined inflection point in the R-wave, and (2) contribution of variations in pulse transit time.

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

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.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia and tympanic membrane compliance predict spontaneous eye gaze behaviors in young children: a pilot study.

The Polyvagal theory proposes the Social Engagement System as a theoretical model linking social behavior with the neural regulation of the heart (via the vagus) and the striated muscles of the face and head (via special visceral efferent pathways). The current pilot study tested the feasibility of this model with typically developing 3-5-year-old children by evaluating the relation between spontaneous social engagement behavior measured by eye gaze behaviors and the visceromotor (e.g., respiratory sinus arrhythmia) and somatomotor (e.g., right tympanic membrane compliance) components of the Social Engagement System. Regression analyses supported the hypothesis that the visceromotor and somatomotor components of the Social Engagement System significantly predict social behavior (indexed by spontaneous eye gazes). Future studies assessing indices of visceral regulation and middle ear muscle function may provide insights into neural mechanisms mediating features of developmental disorders, such as autism, that have deficits in spontaneous eye gaze, auditory processing, and social behavior.