When rumination counts: Perceived social support and heart rate variability in daily life.

Rumination and social support could modulate cardiac activity. Although both variables are somehow interrelated, they are often studied independently, and their interplay is seldom considered. We aimed to analyze the interaction of rumination and perceived social support on vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV) in daily life. The sample consisted of 117 healthy participants (57% female, mean age = 27.9, SD = 5.5 years). Ambulatory HRV (root mean squared successive differences), respiration, body position, and body movements were recorded continuously on three consecutive weekdays. Momentary social, situational, and cognitive-affective variables (affect, ruminative thoughts, perceived social support) were assessed using a computerized diary. There was a significant interaction between momentary rumination and perceived social support on ambulatory HRV: When participants were involved in social interactions with low social support, concurrent rumination was associated with attenuated HRV. However, when rumination was accompanied by a strong sense of support, HRV significantly increased. The quality of social interactions and rumination seem to interact in daily life to predict cardiac autonomic control. The results stress the necessity to consider the interplay of psychological and social factors in order to evaluate beneficial or adverse effects on cardiac health.

Daily positive affect and nocturnal cardiac activation.

BACKGROUND: Positive affect (PA) has been suggested to benefit health via psychobiological pathways. Studies found higher cardiac vagal tone in individuals who exhibit a positive emotional style. PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine the relationship between momentary-assessed PA and nocturnal heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) in everyday life. METHODS: Participants were 60 healthy adults who provided multiple ratings of activated (e.g., dynamic, activated) and deactivated PA (e.g., relaxed, even-tempered) and negative affect (NA) throughout one day. HR and HRV were recorded the subsequent night. RESULTS: Aggregated deactivated PA throughout the day was associated with higher nocturnal HRV and lower HR. Activated PA and NA were unrelated with both cardiac variables. Findings were independent of other demographic and behavioral confounds. CONCLUSIONS: Feeling relaxed, calm, content, and even-tempered throughout the day might have beneficial effects on the heart during sleep, although the causality of this effect remains speculative because of the correlational design of this study.

The manifold effects of positive affect on heart rate variability in everyday life: distinguishing within-person and between-person associations.

OBJECTIVE: Positive affect (PA) has been related to better health. However, the biological pathways underlying this link are not well understood. Different facets of PA (e.g., low activated vs. high activated) and both state and trait PA might have different effects on physiology. METHOD: This study aimed to relate low- and high-activated facets of momentary assessed (i.e., state) and aggregated (i.e., trait-like) PA to cardiac vagal tone (heart rate variability; HRV) in everyday life (N = 122, with 3 successive recording days). RESULTS: Aggregated activated PA was associated with higher ambulatory HRV, whereas activated momentary PA was accompanied by lower HRV. Moreover, momentary deactivated PA was accompanied by higher HRV, but aggregated deactivated PA was not. Findings were independent of negative affect and various other demographic and behavioral confounds. CONCLUSIONS: Together the findings suggest a more complex picture of the health-related effects of PA. Whereas state-related fluctuations in PA seem to exert both activating and deactivating effects on the heart, activated PA on an aggregated level seems to dampen cardiac arousal, thus suggesting beneficial effects for health.

Is the blunted blood pressure reactivity in dysphoric individuals related to attenuated behavioral approach?

Depressive symptoms have been related to autonomic nervous system dysregulation. Recent research found attenuated cardiovascular reactivity to self-relevant tasks. The aim of this study was to examine whether blunted blood pressure reactivity in dysphoric individuals is moderated by impaired effort mobilization and behavioral approach. Seventy-five individuals were instructed to sing a song in front of a camera. Depressive symptoms, blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability as well as subjective and other-rated indicators of behavioral approach were recorded. Depressive symptoms were positively correlated with heart rate and inversely associated with heart rate variability during baseline. Moreover, higher depression scores were accompanied by attenuated systolic blood pressure reactivity during singing, thus supporting previous research. This finding was neither mediated by subjective nor other-rated indicators of behavioral approach. Although confirming recent evidence of blunted blood pressure reactivity and altered autonomic baseline function in dysphoric individuals, the findings call for further research on the role of behavioral approach in depression-related blunted physiological reactivity.