Characterizing Stress Processes by Linking Big Five Personality States, Traits, and Day-to-Day Stressors.

The accumulation of day-to-day stressors can impact mental and physical health. How people respond to stressful events is a key mechanism responsible for the effects of stress, and individual differences in stress responses can either perpetuate or prevent negative consequences. Most research on daily stress processes has focused on affective responses to stressors, but stress responses can involve more than just affect (e.g., behavior, cognitions). Additionally, most research has studied the role of neuroticism in shaping those responses, but many other individual differences are associated with stress. In this study, we more broadly characterized daily stress processes by expanding the nomological networks of stress responses to include Big Five personality states. We also linked those stress responses to all Big Five traits, as well as individual differences in stress variety, severity, and controllability. We studied a sample of participants (N = 1,090) who reported on stressful events, their appraisal of events in terms of severity and controllability, and their Big Five personality states daily for 8-10 days (N = 8,870 observations). Multi-level structural equation models were used to separate how characteristics of the perceived stressful situation and characteristics of the person play into daily stress processes. Results showed that (1) all Big Five personality states shift in response to perceived stress, (2) all Big Five personality traits relate to average levels of perceived stress variety, severity, and controllability, (3) individual differences in personality and average perceived stress variety and perceived severity relate to the strength of personality state responses to daily stress, albeit in a more limited fashion. Our results point to new pathways by which stressors affect people in everyday life and begin to clarify processes that may explain individual differences in risk or resilience to the harmful effects of stress.

Effects of a laboratory-based aerobic exercise intervention on brain volume and cardiovascular health markers: protocol for a randomised clinical trial.

INTRODUCTION: Physical activity (PA) has beneficial effects on brain health and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Yet, we know little about whether PA-induced changes to physiological mediators of CVD risk influence brain health and whether benefits to brain health may also explain PA-induced improvements to CVD risk. This study combines neurobiological and peripheral physiological methods in the context of a randomised clinical trial to better understand the links between exercise, brain health and CVD risk. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: In this 12-month trial, 130 healthy individuals between the ages of 26 and 58 will be randomly assigned to either: (1) moderate-intensity aerobic PA for 150 min/week or (2) a health information control group. Cardiovascular, neuroimaging and PA measurements will occur for both groups before and after the intervention. Primary outcomes include changes in (1) brain structural areas (ie, hippocampal volume); (2) systolic blood pressure (SBP) responses to functional MRI cognitive stressor tasks and (3) heart rate variability. The main secondary outcomes include changes in (1) brain activity, resting state connectivity, cortical thickness and cortical volume; (2) daily life SBP stress reactivity; (3) negative and positive affect; (4) baroreflex sensitivity; (5) pulse wave velocity; (6) endothelial function and (7) daily life positive and negative affect. Our results are expected to have both mechanistic and public health implications regarding brain-body interactions in the context of cardiovascular health. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval has been obtained from the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board (IRB ID: 19020218). This study will comply with the NIH Data Sharing Policy and Policy on the Dissemination of NIH-Funded Clinical Trial Information and the Clinical Trials Registration and Results Information Submission rule. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT03841669.

Support-Giving Is Associated With Lower Systemic Inflammation.

BACKGROUND: Support-giving has emerged as a health-relevant social behavior, such that giving more support is associated with better physical health. However, biological mechanisms by which support-giving and health are linked remain unclear. Whether support-giving uniquely relates to health relative to other psychosocial factors is also an open research question. PURPOSE: Two studies test the hypothesis that support-giving is uniquely (over-and-above other psychosocial factors) related to lower systemic inflammation, a biological correlate of health. METHODS: Cross-sectional associations of support-giving with markers of systemic inflammation (i.e., interleukin-6 [IL-6], C-reactive protein [CRP]) were examined in two independent samples of midlife adults (Study 1, n = 746; Study 2, n = 350). RESULTS: Consistent with hypotheses, giving to more social targets (to family and friends, and also volunteering for various causes), but not receiving support from similar targets, was associated with lower IL-6. In conceptual replication and extension with a different measure of support-giving, higher frequency of support-giving behavior was associated with lower IL-6, even after adjusting for social network size and individual differences in social desirability. There were no associations between support-giving and CRP in either sample. CONCLUSIONS: Future research needs to establish causality and directly test mechanistic pathways, but together, findings reaffirm the health-relevance of support-giving behavior and shed light on a promising biological mechanism by which such effects may occur.

Support-giving behavior and health are linked such that more support-giving is related to better health and longevity for the person giving. How such a link occurs, however, is an open question for research. Two cross-sectional studies test the hypothesis that support-giving behavior relates to lower systemic inflammation, a potential biological pathway linking supportive behavior with health. Results of Study 1 show that giving to more social targets (to family and friends, and also volunteering) is associated with lower inflammation. Receiving support was not associated with inflammation. In a replication and extension, Study 2 shows that a greater frequency of giving is also related to lower systemic inflammation, over and above the size of one's social network and individual differences in reporting socially desirable responses. Although more research is needed to establish whether support-giving causes systemic inflammation to change, the current findings highlight a promising pathway by which support-giving behavior benefits health.

Beyond Neighborhood Disadvantage: Local Resources, Green Space, Pollution, and Crime as Residential Community Correlates of Cardiovascular Risk and Brain Morphology in Midlife Adults.

OBJECTIVE: Residing in communities characterized by socioeconomic disadvantage confers risk of cardiometabolic diseases. Residing in disadvantaged communities may also confer the risk of neurodegenerative brain changes via cardiometabolic pathways. This study tested whether features of communities-apart from conventional socioeconomic characteristics-relate not only to cardiometabolic risk but also to relative tissue reductions in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. METHODS: Participants were 699 adults aged 30 to 54 years (340 women; 22.5% non-White) whose addresses were geocoded to compute community indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage, as well as air and toxic chemical pollutant exposures, homicide rates, concentration of employment opportunities, land use (green space), and availability of supermarkets and local resources. Participants also underwent assessments of cortical and hippocampal volumes and cardiometabolic risk factors (adiposity, blood pressure, fasting glucose, and lipids). RESULTS: Multilevel structural equation modeling demonstrated that cardiometabolic risk was associated with community disadvantage ( ß = 0.10, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.01 to 0.18), as well as chemical pollution ( ß = 0.11, 95% CI = 0.02 to 0.19), homicide rates ( ß = 0.10, 95% CI = 0.01 to 0.18), employment opportunities ( ß = -0.16, 95% CI = -0.27 to -0.04), and green space ( ß = -0.12, 95% CI = -0.20 to -0.04). Moreover, cardiometabolic risk indirectly mediated the associations of several of these community features and brain tissue volumes. Some associations were nonlinear, and none were explained by participants' individual-level socioeconomic characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Features of communities other than conventional indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage may represent nonredundant correlates of cardiometabolic risk and brain tissue morphology in midlife.

Expectations of respect and appreciation in daily life and associations with subclinical cardiovascular disease.

OBJECTIVE: To test whether expectations of respect and appreciation from others, assessed in daily life, are associated with preclinical vascular disease. METHOD: Participants were an urban community sample of 483 employed adults (47% male, 17% Black, mean age = 42.8 years). Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) was measured using B-mode ultrasound. Expectations of being treated with respect and appreciation were measured using the average of hourly assessments over the course of 4 days, and home and work averages were also examined separately. RESULTS: Expectations of greater respect and appreciation from others were associated with significantly less carotid IMT even after adjustment for demographic factors, general positivity and negativity of social interactions, neuroticism, optimism, perceived discrimination, and concurrent biological risk factors. This association was similar across social contexts of work and home and also when expectations of respect and appreciation were examined separately. Lower expectations of respect and appreciation and more negative social interactions were both independently associated with greater IMT in fully adjusted models and effect sizes were similar to traditional biological risk factors such as BMI. CONCLUSIONS: Midlife adults who anticipate greater respect and appreciation from others in everyday life evidence less preclinical vascular disease. Consistent with the literature showing that anticipation of social threats and unfair treatment may increase cardiovascular risk, expectations of being valued and treated with respect by others is associated with decreased risk. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Does an Online Positive Psychological Intervention Improve Positive Affect in Young Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Meta-analyses indicate that positive psychological interventions are effective at increasing positive affect, as well as reducing anxiety and depression; however, it is unclear how well these effects generalize during periods of high stress. Therefore, the current study tested whether a 2-week online positive psychological intervention delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic, a naturalistic stressor, (1) increased positive affect; (2) improved psychological well-being, optimism, life satisfaction, perceived social support, and loneliness; (3) and reduced negative affect in college students, a group known to have high pandemic distress. Participants (N = 250; 76.9% female) ages 18-45 were recruited from the University of Pittsburgh undergraduate subject pool between September and November of 2020. Participants were randomized to the online positive psychological intervention or active control condition and stratified by trait positive affect, sex, and year in college. Participants in both conditions completed one writing activity every other day for two consecutive weeks. Control participants documented their activities for that day (e.g., meals, going to gym). Intervention participants chose from six positive psychology activities. All outcome variables were assessed pre- and post-intervention by validated questionnaires. Across both conditions, positive and negative affect decreased from pre- to post-intervention. No other psychological factor differed by condition, time, or their interaction. The current null findings are in line with a more recent meta-analysis indicating that positive psychological interventions may have smaller effects on psychological well-being and depressive symptoms than was reported pre-pandemic. Study findings may suggest reduced efficacy of virtual positive psychological interventions under highly stressful circumstances. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-022-00148-z.

Systemic Inflammation Contributes to the Association Between Childhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Midlife Cardiometabolic Risk.

BACKGROUND: Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with increased risk for chronic inflammation and cardiometabolic disease at midlife. PURPOSE: As it is presently unknown whether inflammation mediates the relationship between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and adulthood cardiometabolic risk, we investigated associations between retrospectively reported childhood SES, circulating levels of inflammatory markers, and a latent construct of cardiometabolic risk in midlife adults. METHODS: Participants were 1,359 healthy adults aged 30-54 (Adult Health and Behavior Iⅈ 52% women, 17% Black) who retrospectively reported childhood SES (parental education, occupational grade). Measures included plasma interleukin (IL)-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), and cardiometabolic risk factors. Structural equation modeling was conducted, with cardiometabolic risk modeled as a second-order latent variable with adiposity, blood lipids, glucose control, and blood pressure as first-order components. RESULTS: Lower childhood SES was associated with greater risk for cardiometabolic disease at midlife (ß = -0.08, CI[-0.04, -0.01], p = .01) in models adjusted for demographics, but this association was attenuated in models that adjusted for adulthood SES and health behaviors. In fully-adjusted models, the relationship between lower childhood SES and adult cardiometabolic risk was partially explained by higher circulating levels of CRP (ß = -0.05, CI[-0.02, -0.01], p = .001), but not by IL-6. In an exploratory model, lower adulthood SES was also found to independently contribute to the association between childhood SES and adult cardiometabolic risk (ß = -0.02, CI[-0.01, -0.001], p = .02). CONCLUSIONS: The current study provides initial evidence that systemic inflammation may contribute to childhood socioeconomic disparities in cardiometabolic risk in midlife. Future work would benefit from prospective investigation of these relationships.

The personality meta-trait of stability and carotid artery atherosclerosis.

BACKGROUND: Several personality traits increase the risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Because many of these traits are correlated, their associations with disease risk could reflect shared variance, rather than unique contributions of each trait. We examined a higher-order personality trait of Stability as related to preclinical atherosclerosis and tested whether any such relationship might be explained by correlated variation in cardiometabolic risk factors. METHOD: Among 798 community volunteers, lower-order traits of Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were modeled as latent variables (from self- and informant ratings) and used to estimate the second-order factor, Stability. Cardiometabolic risk was similarly modeled from indicators of glycemic control, blood pressure, adiposity, and lipids. Carotid artery atherosclerosis was measured as intima-media thickness (IMT) by duplex ultrasonography. RESULT: A structural equation model incorporating direct and indirect effects showed lower Stability associated with greater IMT, and this relationship was accounted for by the indirect pathway via cardiometabolic risk. Secondary analyses showed that: (1) Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were unrelated to IMT independent of Stability; and (2) Stability predicted variation in IMT when estimated from informant-, but not self-rated, traits. CONCLUSION: Personality traits may associate with atherosclerotic burden through their shared, rather than unique, variance, as reflected in Stability.

DNA methylation-based measures of biological aging and cognitive decline over 16-years: preliminary longitudinal findings in midlife.

DNA methylation-based (DNAm) measures of biological aging associate with increased risk of morbidity and mortality, but their links with cognitive decline are less established. This study examined changes over a 16-year interval in epigenetic clocks (the traditional and principal components [PC]-based Horvath, Hannum, PhenoAge, GrimAge) and pace of aging measures (Dunedin PoAm, Dunedin PACE) in 48 midlife adults enrolled in the longitudinal arm of the Adult Health and Behavior project (56% Female, baseline AgeM = 44.7 years), selected for discrepant cognitive trajectories. Cognitive Decliners (N = 24) were selected based on declines in a composite score derived from neuropsychological tests and matched with participants who did not show any decline, Maintainers (N = 24). Multilevel models with repeated DNAm measures within person tested the main effects of time, group, and group by time interactions. DNAm measures significantly increased over time generally consistent with elapsed time between study visits. There were also group differences: overall, Cognitive Decliners had an older PC-GrimAge and faster pace of aging (Dunedin PoAm, Dunedin PACE) than Cognitive Maintainers. There were no significant group by time interactions, suggesting accelerated epigenetic aging in Decliners remained constant over time. Older PC-GrimAge and faster pace of aging may be particularly sensitive to cognitive decline in midlife.

An online Trier social stress paradigm to evoke affective and cardiovascular responses.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, prior studies have modified the Trier Social Stress Test to be conducted remotely. The current study aimed to extend these studies to test whether a remote Trier Social Stress Test (rTSST) can elicit (a) affective, (b) blood pressure, and (c) heart rate responses relative to a control condition and whether these responses were reliable when assessed 1 week later. Participants (N = 99, 19.7 ± 3.5 years, 55% female) were randomized to a control or stress condition. Participants received blood pressure monitors in person. Controls completed easier versions of the tasks with a single, friendly researcher. Stress participants performed more difficult versions of the task in front of two judges who participants believed were rating their performance. Blood pressure and heart rate were measured every 2 min throughout, while affect was assessed at baseline, after the final task, and following recovery. The rTSST was feasible to administer with minimal technical issues reported. Participants reported lower positive affect and higher negative affect during the tasks in the stress condition relative to controls. Similarly, stress participants had higher cardiovascular responses during the tasks relative to controls, except that blood pressure was not elevated during mental arithmetic in stress participants relative to controls. Cardiovascular responses demonstrated good test-retest reliability when assessed 1 week later, especially when computed using area under the curve methods. Overall, a rTSST can be used to elicit affective and cardiovascular reactivity and provides an opportunity to increase the accessibility of research participation among diverse populations.

Refining the maturity principle of personality development by examining facets, close others, and comaturation.

Across adulthood, people tend to experience psychologically adaptive personality trait change, a robust finding known as the maturity principle of personality development. We identify three open areas of inquiry regarding personality maturation and address them in a preregistered study, using a sample of U.S. adults ages 30-70 who completed a battery of personality questionnaires and were rated by two close others twice over an 11- to 16-year period (Nwave1 = 1,785, Nwave2 = 401). First, it is unclear whether the maturity principle applies to narrower facet-level traits, as there has been little research into facet development across adulthood. We examined 47 facet scales and found that most developed adaptively across ages 30-70, but some did not mature, and three healthy facets (activity, openness to feelings, and social potency) declined significantly across adulthood, counter to the maturity principle. Second, no longitudinal research has tested whether personality maturation is perceived similarly by close others. We compared self- and other-rated development and found that close others perceived greater maturation than the self in Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and five facets. Finally, few studies have examined whether traits comature in adulthood. We found that correlated change between healthy facets was small in magnitude. Additionally, we found tighter comaturation in other-reported development than self-reported development. We use these results and past research to expand and refine our understanding of personality maturation across adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Psychometric Evaluation of a Big Five Personality State Scale for Intensive Longitudinal Studies.

Despite enthusiasm for using intensive longitudinal designs to measure day-to-day manifestations of personality underlying differences between people, the validity of personality state scales has yet to be established. In this study, we evaluated the psychometrics of 20-item and 10-item daily, Big Five personality state scales in three independent samples (N = 1,041). We used multilevel models to separately examine the validity of the scales for assessing personality variation at the between- and within-person levels. Results showed that a five-factor structure at both levels fits the data well, the scales had good convergent and discriminative associations with external variables, and personality states captured similar nomological nets as established global, self-report personality inventories. Limitations of the scales were identified (e.g., low reliability, low correlations with external criterion) that point to a need for more, systematic psychometric work. Our findings provide initial support for the use of personality state scales in intensive longitudinal designs to study between-person traits, within-person processes, and their interrelationship.

Conscientiousness and Cardiometabolic Risk: A Test of the Health Behavior Model of Personality Using Structural Equation Modeling.

BACKGROUND: High trait conscientiousness is associated with lower cardiometabolic risk, and health behaviors are a putative but relatively untested pathway that may explain this association. PURPOSE: To explore the role of key health behaviors (diet, physical activity, substance use, and sleep) as links between conscientiousness and cardiometabolic risk. METHODS: In a cross-sectional analysis of 494 healthy, middle-aged working adults (mean age = 42.7 years, 52.6% women, 81.0% White), participants provided self-reports of conscientiousness, physical activity, substance use, diet, and sleep, and wore monitors over a 7-day monitoring period to assess sleep (Actiwatch-16) and physical activity (SenseWear Pro3). Cardiometabolic risk was expressed as a second-order latent variable from a confirmatory factor analysis involving insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, obesity, and blood pressure. Direct, indirect, and specific indirect effect pathways linking conscientiousness to health behaviors and cardiometabolic risk were examined. Unstandardized indirect effects for each health behavior class were computed separately using bootstrapped samples. RESULTS: After controlling for demographics (sex, age, race, and education), conscientiousness showed the predicted, inverse association with cardiometabolic risk. Among the examined health behaviors, objectively-assessed sleep midpoint variability (b = -0.003, p = .04), subjective sleep quality (b = -0.003, p = .025), and objectively-assessed physical activity (b = -0.11, p = .04) linked conscientiousness to cardiometabolic risk. CONCLUSIONS: Physical activity and sleep partially accounted for the relationship between conscientiousness and cardiometabolic risk.

Cortisol activity partially accounts for a relationship between community socioeconomic position and atherosclerosis.

Compared to others, individuals living in communities of socioeconomic disadvantage experience more atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) and a greater extent of preclinical atherosclerosis. Although the mechanisms underlying these associations remain unclear, it is widely hypothesized that alterations in normative cortisol release from the Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) axis may play a role in linking lower community socioeconomic position (C-SEP) to CVD risk. The current study examined this hypothesis in relation to a marker of preclinical atherosclerosis among 488 healthy midlife adults (30-54 years, Mean age= 43, 52% Female, 81% White). All participants were employed and without clinical CVD. C-SEP was estimated from census tract data, and atherosclerosis was measured as intima-medial thickness of the carotid arteries (cIMT) by duplex ultrasonography. Four indicators of HPA activity [cortisol at awakening and the cortisol awakening response (CAR), rate of diurnal decline in cortisol (diurnal slope), and total output expressed as area under the curve (AUC)] were derived from salivary cortisol measurements obtained from 5 samples on each of 3 working days. Path analyses were used to examine associations of C-SEP with cIMT and HPA activity and to test whether individual differences in HPA activity could account for any association of C-SEP with cIMT using bootstrapping (5000 iterations). All models were adjusted for age, sex, race, and composite measures of both individual-level socioeconomic position (income, education, occupation), and cardiometabolic risk (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, waist circumference, fasting lipids and glucose). Lower C-SEP was related to both greater cIMT (b = -0.004, p = .021) and a flatter diurnal slope of cortisol (b = -0.001, p = .039). An indirect effect showed attenuated diurnal slope to partially mediate the relationship between C-SEP and cIMT (95% CI = -0.0018 to -0.0001), and a residual direct effect of C-SEP on cIMT remained significant (95% CI = -0.0097 to -0.004). These results suggest that low C-SEP associations with preclinical atherosclerosis may be due in part to correlated variation in adrenocortical activity.

Long-Term Ambient Air Pollution Exposures and Circulating and Stimulated Inflammatory Mediators in a Cohort of Midlife Adults.

BACKGROUND: Chronic exposure to air pollution may prime the immune system to be reactive, increasing inflammatory responses to immune stimulation and providing a pathway to increased risk for inflammatory diseases, including asthma and cardiovascular disease. Although long-term exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with increased circulating markers of inflammation, it is unknown whether it also relates to the magnitude of inflammatory response. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine associations between chronic ambient pollution exposures and circulating and stimulated levels of inflammatory mediators in a cohort of healthy adults. METHODS: Circulating interleukin (IL)-6, C-reactive protein (CRP) (n=392), and lipopolysaccharide stimulated production of IL-1ß, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α (n=379) were measured in the Adult Health and Behavior II cohort. Fine particulate matter [particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 µm (PM2.5)] and constituents [black carbon (BC), and lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), and iron (Fe)] were estimated for each residential address using hybrid dispersion land use regression models. Associations between pollutant exposures and inflammatory measures were examined using linear regression; models were adjusted for age, sex, race, education, smoking, body mass index, and month of blood draw. RESULTS: There were no significant correlations between circulating and stimulated measures of inflammation. Significant positive associations were found between exposure to PM2.5 and BC with stimulated production of IL-6, IL-1ß, and TNF-α. Pb, Mn, Fe, and Zn exposures were positively associated with stimulated production of IL-1ß and TNF-α. No pollutants were associated with circulating IL-6 or CRP levels. DISCUSSION: Exposure to PM2.5, BC, Pb, Mn, Fe, and Zn was associated with increased production of inflammatory mediators by stimulated immune cells. In contrast, pollutant exposure was not related to circulating markers of inflammation. These results suggest that chronic exposure to some pollutants may prime immune cells to mount larger inflammatory responses, possibly contributing to increased risk for inflammatory disease. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP7089.

Day-to-day associations between sleep characteristics and affect in community dwelling adults.

Despite the high co-occurrence of sleep and mood disturbances, day-to-day associations between sleep characteristics (sleep duration, continuity, and timing) and dimensions of mood (positive affect and negative affect) remain unclear. The present study aimed to test whether there is a daily, bidirectional association between these sleep characteristics and affective states, while addressing methodological limitations in the extant literature by using actiography and ecological momentary assessment methods. Participants were community dwelling, midlife adults (aged 30-54 years, N = 462, 47% male) drawn from the Adult Health and Behavior Project-Phase 2 study. Participants' sleep patterns were assessed with actiography over a 7-day monitoring period, and on 4 of those days, participants completed an ecological momentary assessment protocol that included hourly assessments of positive affect and negative affect during their wake intervals. Using hierarchical linear modelling, we tested whether participants' sleep characteristics on a given night predicted next-day affect and vice versa. We also explored whether nocturnal sleep characteristics would differentially associate with affect at different times of day (morning, afternoon, and evening) while controlling for multiple health behaviours. We found that when participants reported higher positive affect on a given day, they slept later that night (B = 0.22, p = .010). Although we found no other statistically significant associations in our primary analyses (all p > .05), we found several sleep-affect associations specific to time of day (B ranges: 0.01-0.18, all p ≤ .02), which warrants further study. Overall, our findings suggest that healthy adults may be resilient to daily fluctuations in their sleep and mood.

Cortical thickness and resting-state cardiac function across the lifespan: A cross-sectional pooled mega-analysis.

Understanding the association between autonomic nervous system [ANS] function and brain morphology across the lifespan provides important insights into neurovisceral mechanisms underlying health and disease. Resting-state ANS activity, indexed by measures of heart rate [HR] and its variability [HRV] has been associated with brain morphology, particularly cortical thickness [CT]. While findings have been mixed regarding the anatomical distribution and direction of the associations, these inconsistencies may be due to sex and age differences in HR/HRV and CT. Previous studies have been limited by small sample sizes, which impede the assessment of sex differences and aging effects on the association between ANS function and CT. To overcome these limitations, 20 groups worldwide contributed data collected under similar protocols of CT assessment and HR/HRV recording to be pooled in a mega-analysis (N = 1,218 (50.5% female), mean age 36.7 years (range: 12-87)). Findings suggest a decline in HRV as well as CT with increasing age. CT, particularly in the orbitofrontal cortex, explained additional variance in HRV, beyond the effects of aging. This pattern of results may suggest that the decline in HRV with increasing age is related to a decline in orbitofrontal CT. These effects were independent of sex and specific to HRV; with no significant association between CT and HR. Greater CT across the adult lifespan may be vital for the maintenance of healthy cardiac regulation via the ANS-or greater cardiac vagal activity as indirectly reflected in HRV may slow brain atrophy. Findings reveal an important association between CT and cardiac parasympathetic activity with implications for healthy aging and longevity that should be studied further in longitudinal research.

Is stressor-evoked cardiovascular reactivity a pathway linking positive and negative emotionality to preclinical cardiovascular disease risk?

Stressor-evoked cardiovascular reactivity, trait positive emotionality, and negative emotionality are all associated with cardiovascular disease. It is unknown, however, whether cardiovascular reactivity may constitute a pathway by which trait positive or negative emotionality relates to disease risk. Accordingly, this study modeled the cross-sectional relationships between trait positive and negative emotionality, stressor-evoked cardiovascular reactivity, and severity of a subclinical vascular marker of cardiovascular risk, carotid artery intima-media thickness (CA-IMT). The sample consisted of healthy, midlife adults free from clinical cardiovascular disease (N = 286; ages 30-54; 50% female). Trait positive and negative emotionality were measured by three questionnaires. Heart rate and blood pressure reactivity were assessed across three stressor tasks. CA-IMT was assessed by ultrasonography. Latent factors of positive and negative emotionality, blood pressure reactivity, heart rate reactivity, and CA-IMT were created using structural equation modeling. Greater negative emotionality was marginally associated with more CA-IMT (ß = .21; p = .049), but lower blood pressure reactivity (ß = -.19; p = .03). However, heightened blood pressure (ß = .21; p = .03), but not heart rate reactivity (ß = -.05; p = .75), associated with greater CA-IMT. Positive emotionality was uncorrelated with cardiovascular reactivity (blood pressure: ß = -.04; p = .61; heart rate: ß = .16; p = .11) and CA-IMT (ß = .16; p = .07). Although trait negative emotionality associates with a known marker of cardiovascular disease risk, independent of positive emotionality, it is unlikely to occur via a stressor-evoked cardiovascular reactivity pathway.

Relationship between Dispositional Mindfulness, Psychological Health, and Diet Quality among Healthy Midlife Adults.

Mindfulness, a practice of non-judgmental awareness of present experience, has been associated with reduced eating psychopathology and emotion-driven eating. However, it remains unclear whether mindfulness relates to diet quality. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine whether dispositional mindfulness is associated with diet quality and to explore psychological factors relating dispositional mindfulness to diet quality. Community-dwelling adults (N = 406; Mage = 43.19, SD = 7.26; Mbody mass index [BMI] = 27.08, SD = 5.28; 52% female) completed ratings of dispositional mindfulness, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA). Dietary intake was assessed using the Block Food Frequency Questionnaire, from which the 2015 Healthy Eating Index was derived. Analyses were conducted using the "lavaan" package in R with bias-corrected bootstrapped confidence intervals (BootCI). Age, sex, race, education, and BMI were entered as covariates in all models. Higher dispositional mindfulness was associated with higher diet quality (ß = 0.11, p = 0.03), and this effect was mediated through lower depressive symptoms (indirect effect ß = 0.06, p = 0.02, BootCI = 0.104-1.42, p = 0.03). Dispositional mindfulness was negatively correlated with perceived stress (ß = -0.31, p < 0.01) and NA (ß = -0.43, p < 0.01), as well as positively correlated with PA (ß = -0.26, p < 0.01). However, these factors were unrelated to diet quality. These cross-sectional data provide initial evidence that dispositional mindfulness relates to diet quality among midlife adults, an effect that may be explained in part by less depressive symptomatology. Given that lifestyle behaviors in midlife are leading determinants of risk for cardiovascular disease and neurocognitive impairment in late life, interventions to enhance mindfulness in midlife may mitigate disease risk. Additional research assessing the impact of mindfulness interventions on diet quality are warranted.

Adiposity covaries with signatures of asymmetric feedback learning during adaptive decisions.

Unhealthy weight gain relates, in part, to how people make decisions based on prior experience. Here we conducted post hoc analysis on an archival data set to evaluate whether individual differences in adiposity, an anthropometric construct encompassing a spectrum of body types, from lean to obese, associate with signatures of asymmetric feedback learning during value-based decision-making. In a sample of neurologically healthy adults (N = 433), ventral striatal responses to rewards, measured using fMRI, were not directly associated with adiposity, but rather moderated its relationship with feedback-driven learning in the Iowa gambling task, tested outside the scanner. Using a biologically inspired model of basal ganglia-dependent decision processes, we found this moderating effect of reward reactivity to be explained by an asymmetrical use of feedback to drive learning; that is, with more plasticity for gains than for losses, stronger reward reactivity leads to decisions that minimize exploration for maximizing long-term outcomes. Follow-up analysis confirmed that individual differences in adiposity correlated with signatures of asymmetric use of feedback cues during learning, suggesting that reward reactivity may especially relate to adiposity, and possibly obesity risk, when gains impact future decisions more than losses.