Increased cardiac vagal tone in childhood-only, adolescent-only, and persistently antisocial teenagers: the mediating role of low heart rate.
Psychol Med
; : 1-9, 2024 Mar 12.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38469880
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Cardiac vagal tone is an indicator of parasympathetic nervous system functioning, and there is increasing interest in its relation to antisocial behavior. It is unclear however whether antisocial individuals are characterized by increased or decreased vagal tone, and whether increased vagal tone is the source of the low heart rate frequently reported in antisocial populations.METHODS:
Participants consisted of four groups of community-dwelling adolescent boys aged 15.7 years (1) controls, (2) childhood-only antisocial, (3) adolescent-only antisocial, and (4) persistently antisocial. Heart rate and vagal tone were assessed in three different conditions rest, cognitive stressor, and social stressor.RESULTS:
All three antisocial groups had both lower resting heart rates and increased vagal tone compared to the low antisocial controls across all three conditions. Low heart rate partially mediated the relationship between vagal tone and antisocial behavior.CONCLUSIONS:
Results indicate that increased vagal tone and reduced heart rate are relatively broad risk factors for different developmental forms of antisocial behavior. Findings are the first to implicate vagal tone as an explanatory factor in understanding heart rate - antisocial behavior relationships. Future experimental work using non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation or heart rate variability biofeedback is needed to more systematically evaluate this conclusion.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Psychol Med
Year:
2024
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States