Autonomic Arousal Research Articles

Impact of visual eccentricity on emotional reactivity: implications for anxious and depressive symptomatology

• Better categorisation of emotion in both central (CV) and peripheral vision (PV). • An opposite pattern of autonomic arousal was observed between CV and PV. • Depression was associated with better categorisation of emotional pictures in CV. • Anxiety was associated with a response bias to unpleasant pictures in PV. Behavioural and autonomic dysregulation of emotion is reported in anxiety and depression. However, most experiments have focused on emotional stimuli presented in central vision (CV), although affective saliency has been observed in peripheral vision (PV). Unpleasant (U), pleasant (P) and neutral (N) pictures from the International Affective Picture System were presented to 40 participants at three eccentricities (CV: 0°; PV: -12 and 12°). Anxious and depressive symptomatology was evaluated with STAI and BDI scores respectively. Participants had to categorise pictures on their emotional content while skin conductance (SC), heart rate (HR), and pupillary responses (PR) were recorded. Emotional pictures were better categorised than neutral ones in both CV and PV. Unpleasant pictures were better categorised than pleasant ones in CV but not in PV. An opposite pattern of autonomic arousal (SC, HR, PR) was observed between CV and PV. In CV, a response bias was associated with higher SC to unpleasant pictures, whereas this association was the opposite in PV. Finally, depression scores were associated with better categorisation of emotional pictures in CV, whereas trait-anxiety was associated with a response bias to unpleasant pictures in PV. The choice of subclinical populations limits the scope of our results to moderate levels of depression and anxiety. Results suggest that the capacity of visual eccentricity to induce emotion reactivity is modulated by anxious and depressive symptomatology. These findings strengthen the usefulness of a central-peripheral visual model of behavioural stimulation to differentiate emotional reactivity dysfunctions in both affective disorders.

A test of affect processing bias in response to affect regulation.

In this study we merged methods from machine learning and human neuroimaging to test the role of self-induced affect processing states in biasing the affect processing of subsequent image stimuli. To test this relationship we developed a novel paradigm in which (n = 40) healthy adult participants observed affective neural decodings of their real-time functional magnetic resonance image (rtfMRI) responses as feedback to guide explicit regulation of their brain (and corollary affect processing) state towards a positive valence goal state. By this method individual differences in affect regulation ability were controlled. Attaining this brain-affect goal state triggered the presentation of pseudo-randomly selected affectively congruent (positive valence) or incongruent (negative valence) image stimuli drawn from the International Affective Picture Set. Separately, subjects passively viewed randomly triggered positively and negatively valent image stimuli during fMRI acquisition. Multivariate neural decodings of the affect processing induced by these stimuli were modeled using the task trial type (state- versus randomly-triggered) as the fixed-effect of a general linear mixed-effects model. Random effects were modeled subject-wise. We found that self-induction of a positive valence brain state significantly positively biased valence processing of subsequent stimuli. As a manipulation check, we validated affect processing state induction achieved by the image stimuli using independent psychophysiological response measures of hedonic valence and autonomic arousal. We also validated the predictive fidelity of the trained neural decoding models using brain states induced by an out-of-sample set of image stimuli. Beyond its contribution to our understanding of the neural mechanisms that bias affect processing, this work demonstrated the viability of novel experimental paradigms triggered by pre-defined cognitive states. This line of individual differences research potentially provides neuroimaging scientists with a valuable tool for exploring the roles and identities of intrinsic cognitive processing mechanisms that shape our perceptual processing of sensory stimuli.

Do symptoms of depression and anxiety contribute to heavy episodic drinking? A 3-wave longitudinal study of adult community members

Heavy episodic drinking (or binge drinking) is a significant public health concern. Self-medication using alcohol is often thought to explain the co-occurrence of heavy episodic drinking with depression and anxiety. Yet, there is little longitudinal work examining both depressive and anxiety symptoms and how they are independently related to heavy episodic drinking in adult community samples. To this end, we invited adult community members (N = 102) to come to the lab to complete validated measures of depressive symptoms (composite of CES-D-SF, SCL-90-D, and DASS-21-D), anxiety symptoms (DASS-21-A), and heavy episodic drinking (composite of frequency, severity, and perceptions) at baseline, and again three and six months later. Using a three-wave cross-lagged panel model, we tested reciprocal relations between heavy episodic drinking and each internalizing symptom. We found strong temporal stability in our study variables. Depressive symptoms were associated with increases in heavy episodic drinking, and anxiety symptoms were associated with decreases in heavy episodic drinking. In contrast, heavy episodic drinking did not predict either internalizing symptom over time. Results are consistent with the notion that individuals with greater depressive symptoms use alcohol to self-medicate, and that anxiety symptoms (particularly autonomic arousal) may be potentially protective against future heavy episodic drinking.

Relationships Between Public Attitudes Toward Stuttering and Autonomic and Subjective Indices of Anxiety

Introduction: Research has shown that adults who stutter have reacted with increased skin conductance and lower heart rates when confronted with videos of severe stuttering compared to videos of fluent speech. It has not been clearly established how these physiological indices or autonomic arousals are related to stuttering attitudes. The current study sought to compare physiological and psychometric measures of anxiety with stuttering attitudes.Method: In a multiple-baseline design, 18 normal hearing university students listened to short samples of stuttered, masked, and normally fluent speech while their skin conductance and heart rate variability were being monitored by an Empatica E4 wristband device. Pre-experimentally and after each speech condition, they rated their comfort level on a 1–9 scale. Participants filled out the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI ) (Spielberger, 1977) prior to the physiological measures and the short state anxiety inventory afterwards. At the end, they filled out the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes–Stuttering (POSHA–S).Results: No significant main effects were observed for either autonomic measure for the three speech conditions, but interactions were significant. Individual participant analysis revealed that every respondent reacted differently to the skin conductance or heart rate variability. By contrast, mean subjective comfort ratings were more often lower after hearing stuttered or masked speech and higher after hearing fluent speech. Correlations between all the measures and the POSHA–S summary scores revealed little relationship between the autonomic measures and stuttering attitudes, but higher levels of state or trait anxiety were associated with more positive beliefs about people who stutter. In contrast, lower levels of anxiety tended to be associated with more positive self-reactions to those who stutter.Conclusion: This study did not replicate previous reports of heightened autonomic reactions to stuttering among nonstuttering adults, although psychometric measures suggest a relationship between anxiety and stuttering attitudes. Further research should explore these relationships, especially with young children.

Association of Generalized Anxiety Disorder With Autonomic Hypersensitivity and Blunted Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Activity During Peripheral Adrenergic Stimulation

β-Adrenergic stimulation elicits heart palpitations and dyspnea, key features of acute anxiety and sympathetic arousal, yet no neuroimaging studies have examined how the pharmacologic modulation of interoceptive signals is associated with fear-related neurocircuitry in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). To examine the neural circuitry underlying autonomic arousal induced via isoproterenol, a rapidly acting, peripheral β-adrenergic agonist akin to adrenaline. This crossover randomized clinical trial of 58 women with artifact-free data was conducted from January 1, 2017, to November 31, 2019, at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess neural responses during randomized intravenous bolus infusions of isoproterenol (0.5 and 2.0 μg) and saline, each administered twice in a double-blind fashion. Blood oxygen level-dependent responses across the whole brain during isoproterenol administration in patients with GAD vs healthy comparators. Cardiac and respiratory responses, as well as interoceptive awareness and anxiety, were also measured during the infusion protocol. Of the 58 female study participants, 29 had GAD (mean [SD] age, 26.9 [6.8] years) and 29 were matched healthy comparators (mean [SD] age, 24.4 [5.0] years). During the 0.5-μg dose of isoproterenol, the GAD group exhibited higher heart rate responses (b = 5.34; 95% CI, 2.06-8.61; P = .002), higher intensity ratings of cardiorespiratory sensations (b = 8.38; 95% CI, 2.05-14.71; P = .01), higher levels of self-reported anxiety (b = 1.04; 95% CI, 0.33-1.76; P = .005), and significant hypoactivation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) that was evident throughout peak response (Cohen d = 1.55; P < .001) and early recovery (Cohen d = 1.52; P < .001) periods. Correlational analysis of physiological and subjective indexes and percentage of signal change extracted during the 0.5-μg dose revealed that vmPFC hypoactivation was inversely correlated with heart rate (r56 = -0.51, adjusted P = .001) and retrospective intensity of both heartbeat (r56 = -0.50, adjusted P = .002) and breathing (r56 = -0.44, adjusted P = .01) sensations. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex hypoactivation correlated inversely with continuous dial ratings at a trend level (r56 = -0.38, adjusted P = .051), whereas anxiety (r56 = -0.28, adjusted P = .27) and chronotropic dose 25 (r56 = -0.14, adjusted P = .72) showed no such association. In this crossover randomized clinical trial, women with GAD exhibited autonomic hypersensitivity during low levels of adrenergic stimulation characterized by elevated heart rate, heightened interoceptive awareness, increased anxiety, and a blunted neural response localized to the vmPFC. These findings support the notion that autonomic hyperarousal may be associated with regulatory dysfunctions in the vmPFC, which could serve as a treatment target to help patients with GAD more appropriately appraise and regulate signals of sympathetic arousal. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02615119.

Vocalization and physiological hyperarousal in infant-caregiver dyads where the caregiver has elevated anxiety.

Co-regulation of physiological arousal within the caregiver-child dyad precedes later self-regulation within the individual. Despite the importance of unimpaired self-regulatory development for later adjustment outcomes, little is understood about how early co-regulatory processes can become dysregulated during early life. Aspects of caregiver behavior, such as patterns of anxious speech, may be one factor influencing infant arousal dysregulation. To address this, we made day-long, naturalistic biobehavioral recordings in home settings in caregiver-infant dyads using wearable autonomic devices and miniature microphones. We examined the association between arousal, vocalization intensity, and caregiver anxiety. We found that moments of high physiological arousal in infants were more likely to be accompanied by high caregiver arousal when caregivers had high self-reported trait anxiety. Anxious caregivers were also more likely to vocalize intensely at states of high arousal and produce intense vocalizations that occurred in clusters. High-intensity vocalizations were associated with more sustained increases in autonomic arousal for both anxious caregivers and their infants. Findings indicate that caregiver vocal behavior differs in anxious parents, cooccurs with dyadic arousal dysregulation, and could contribute to physiological arousal transmission. Implications for caregiver vocalization as an intervention target are discussed.

The Situation Specific Arousal Analyzer: Innovation in the Physiological Assessment of Foreign Language Education Anxiety

As the most studied affective variable within foreign language education, the emotion of anxiety continues to generate significant research interest. Owing to technological developments in wearable research devices, new opportunities have arisen to expand the research methodologies used in the recording and assessment of foreign language education anxiety. This article contends that foreign language education research has over-emphasized the experiential component of emotion while neglecting the behavioural and physiological components. Attention is first given to the emergence of emotion as a significant focal point in foreign language education. The position of anxiety as an affective variable in foreign language education is then documented along with the methodological limitations of experiential measures. The article then highlights technological innovations in physiological data measurement and analysis in the form of the Empatica E4 wristband and the recent development of the Situation Specific Arousal Analyzer (SSAA) application. The article demonstrates how foreign language education anxiety researchers can use the Empatica E4 and SSAA to document autonomic nervous system arousal in real-time communication situations using high-integrity metrics such as Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Electrodermal Activity (EDA) under a range of tailored conditions. The article ends with a call to foreign language education anxiety researchers to extend their methodological repertoire beyond experiential self-report measures and to consider the opportunities afforded by physiological data capture and analysis technologies.

Autonomic arousals contribute to brain fluid pulsations during sleep

During sleep, slow waves of neuro-electrical activity engulf the human brain and aid in the consolidation of memories. Recent research suggests that these slow waves may also promote brain health by facilitating the removal of metabolic waste, possibly by orchestrating the pulsatile flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) through local neural control over vascular tone. To investigate the role of slow waves in the generation of CSF pulsations, we analyzed functional MRI data obtained across the full sleep-wake cycle and during a waking respiratory task. This revealed a novel generating mechanism that relies on the autonomic regulation of cerebral vascular tone without requiring slow electrocortical activity or even sleep. Therefore, the role of CSF pulsations in brain waste clearance may, in part, depend on proper autoregulatory control of cerebral blood flow.

Altered resting-state neural networks in children and adolescents with functional neurological disorder

ObjectivesPrevious studies with adults suggest that aberrant communication between neural networks underpins functional neurological disorder (FND). The current study adopts a data-driven approach to investigate the extent that functional resting-state networks are disrupted in a pediatric mixed-FND cohort. Methods31 children with mixed FND and 33 age- and sex-matched healthy controls completed resting-state fMRI scans. Whole-brain independent component analysis (pFWE < 0.05) was then used to identify group differences in resting-state connectivity. Self-report measures included the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and Early Life Stress Questionnaire (ELSQ). Resting-state heart rate (HR) and cortisol-awakening response (CAR) were available in a subset. ResultsChildren with FND showed wide-ranging connectivity changes in eight independent components corresponding to eight resting-state neural networks: language networks (IC6 and IC1), visual network, frontoparietal network, salience network, dorsal attention network, cerebellar network, and sensorimotor network. Children whose clinical presentation included functional seizures (vs children with other FND symptoms) showed greater connectivity decreases in the frontoparietal and dorsal attentional networks. Subjective distress (total DASS score), autonomic arousal (indexed by HR), and HPA dysregulation (attenuated/reversed CAR) contributed to changes in neural network connectivity. Children with FND (vs controls) reported more subjective distress (total DASS score) and more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) across their lifespan. ConclusionsChildren with FND demonstrate changes in resting-state connectivity. Identified network alterations underpin a broad range of functions typically disrupted in children with FND. This study complements the adult literature by suggesting that FND in children and adolescents emerges in the context of their lived experience and that it reflects aberrant communication across neural networks.

Management of Psychiatric Disorders in Patients with Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Management of Psychiatric Disorders in Patients with Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury.

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Art and science are two worlds that are difficult to connect. Those who have tried know that they have a lot to offer each other. Psychology and psychophysiology are usually associated with simple, repetitive procedures and simple stimuli. In the world of VR art, "a lot is happening". This study describes attempts to apply research methods used by psychologists to the comprehensive and fragmentary evaluation of VR movies and computer-generated interactive environments. The paper presents exemplary analyzes of psychophysiological signals, eye movement, participants' mobility and their movement in space. They allow for inference about the reactions of the autonomic nervous system, arousal, emotions and attention in response to art. They can be used by creators to consciously manage the sensations and reactions of participants in VR experiences.

Medullary Serotonergic Binding Deficits and Hippocampal Abnormalities in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: One or Two Entities?

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is understood as a syndrome that presents with the common phenotype of sudden death but involves heterogenous biological causes. Many pathological findings have been consistently reported in SIDS, notably in areas of the brain known to play a role in autonomic control and arousal. Our laboratory has reported abnormalities in SIDS cases in medullary serotonin (5-HT) receptor 1A and within the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Unknown, however, is whether the medullary and hippocampal abnormalities coexist in the same SIDS cases, supporting a biological relationship of one abnormality with the other. In this study, we begin with an analysis of medullary 5-HT1A binding, as determined by receptor ligand autoradiography, in a combined cohort of published and unpublished SIDS (n = 86) and control (n = 22) cases. We report 5-HT1A binding abnormalities consistent with previously reported data, including lower age-adjusted mean binding in SIDS and age vs. diagnosis interactions. Utilizing this combined cohort of cases, we identified 41 SIDS cases with overlapping medullary 5-HT1A binding data and hippocampal assessment and statistically addressed the relationship between abnormalities at each site. Within this SIDS analytic cohort, we defined abnormal (low) medullary 5-HT1A binding as within the lowest quartile of binding adjusted for age and we examined three specific hippocampal findings previously identified as significantly more prevalent in SIDS compared to controls (granular cell bilamination, clusters of immature cells in the subgranular layer, and single ectopic cells in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus). Our data did not find a strong statistical relationship between low medullary 5-HT1A binding and the presence of any of the hippocampal abnormalities examined. It did, however, identify a subset of SIDS (~25%) with both low medullary 5-HT1A binding and hippocampal abnormalities. The subset of SIDS cases with both low medullary 5-HT1A binding and single ectopic cells in the molecular layer was associated with prenatal smoking (p = 0.02), suggesting a role for the exposure in development of the two abnormalities. Overall, our data present novel information on the relationship between neuropathogical abnormalities in SIDS and support the heterogenous nature and overall complexity of SIDS pathogenesis.

Psychophysiological mechanisms underlying the failure to speak: a comparison between children with selective mutism and social anxiety disorder on autonomic arousal

BackgroundSelective mutism (SM) has been conceptualized as an extreme variant of social anxiety disorder (SAD), in which the failure to speak functions as an avoidance mechanism leading to a reduction of intense fear arousal. However, psychophysiological studies in children with SM are scarce and physiological mechanisms underlying the failure to speak are largely unknown. In contrast, children with SAD are characterized by a combination of a chronically elevated physiological arousal and a blunted physiological fear response to social stress. Due to the large overlap between SM and SAD, similar mechanisms might apply to both disorders, while differences might explain why children with SM fail to speak. The aim of our study is to investigate psychophysiological mechanisms of the failure to speak in children with SM.MethodsWe assessed in a total of N = 96 children [8–12 years, SM: n = 31, SAD: n = 32, typical development (TD): n = 33] resting baseline arousal in absence of social threat and the course of physiological fear response in two social stress paradigms, differing in terms of whether the children are expected to speak (verbal task) or not (nonverbal task).ResultsChildren with SM were characterized by increased tonic arousal compared to the other two groups, and by a more inflexible stress response in the nonverbal but not in the verbal task compared to TD-children. Further analyses revealed that children with SM who did not speak during the verbal task already demonstrated reduced arousal in anticipation of the verbal task.ConclusionThe increased tonic arousal generalized to non-social situations in SM could indicate a long-term alteration of the autonomic nervous system. Furthermore, the differential physiological stress response may indicate that silence acts as a maladaptive compensatory mechanism reducing stress in verbal social situations, which does not function in nonverbal situations. Our findings support the idea that the failure to speak might function as an avoidance mechanism, which is already active in anticipation of a verbal situation. Treatment of SM should take into account that children with SM may suffer from chronically elevated stress levels and that different mechanisms might operate in verbal and nonverbal social situations.

Can passive measurement of physiological distress help better predict suicidal thinking?

There has been growing interest in using wearable physiological monitors to passively detect the signals of distress (i.e., increases in autonomic arousal measured through increased electrodermal activity [EDA]) that may be imminently associated with suicidal thoughts. Before using these monitors in advanced applications such as creating suicide risk detection algorithms or just-in-time interventions, several preliminary questions must be answered. Specifically, we lack information about whether: (1) EDA concurrently and prospectively predicts suicidal thinking and (2) data on EDA adds to the ability to predict the presence and severity of suicidal thinking over and above self-reports of emotional distress. Participants were suicidal psychiatric inpatients (n = 25, 56% female, M age = 33.48 years) who completed six daily assessments of negative affect and suicidal thinking duration of their psychiatric inpatient stay and 28 days post-discharge, and wore on their wrist a physiological monitor (Empatica Embrace) that passively detects autonomic activity. We found that physiological data alone both concurrently and prospectively predicted periods of suicidal thinking, but models with physiological data alone had the poorest fit. Adding physiological data to self-report models improved fit when the outcome variable was severity of suicidal thinking, but worsened model fit when the outcome was presence of suicidal thinking. When predicting severity of suicidal thinking, physiological data improved model fit more for models with non-overlapping self-report data (i.e., low arousal negative affect) than for overlapping self-report data (i.e., high arousal negative affect). These findings suggest that physiological data, under certain contexts (e.g., when combined with self-report data), may be useful in better predicting—and ultimately, preventing—acute increases in suicide risk. However, some cautious optimism is warranted since physiological data do not always improve our ability to predict suicidal thinking.

Contributions of Parasympathetic Arousal–Related Activity to Cognitive Performance in Patients With First-Episode Psychosis and Control Subjects

BackgroundCognitive impairment is integral to the pathophysiology of psychosis. Recent findings implicate autonomic arousal–related activity in both momentary fluctuations and individual differences in cognitive performance. Although altered autonomic arousal is common in patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP), its contribution to cognitive performance is unknown. MethodsA total of 24 patients with FEP (46% male, age = 24.31 [SD 4.27] years) and 24 control subjects (42% male, age = 27.06 [3.44] years) performed the Multi-Source Interference Task in-scanner with simultaneous pulse oximetry. First-level models included the cardiac-blood oxygen level–dependent regressor, in addition to task (congruent, interference, and error) and nuisance (motion and CompCor physiology) regressors. The cardiac-blood oxygen level–dependent regressor reflected parasympathetic arousal–related activity and was created by convolving the interbeat interval at each heartbeat with the hemodynamic response function. Group models examined the effect of group or cognitive performance (reaction times × error rate) on arousal-related and task activity, while controlling for sex, age, and framewise displacement. ResultsParasympathetic arousal–related activity was robust in both groups but localized to different regions for patients with FEP and healthy control subjects. Within both groups, arousal-related activity was significantly associated with cognitive performance across occipital and temporal cortical regions. Greater arousal-related activity in the bilateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area 9) was related to better performance in healthy control subjects but not patients with FEP. ConclusionsAutonomic arousal circuits contribute to cognitive performance and the pathophysiology of FEP. Arousal-related functional activity is a novel indicator of cognitive ability and should be incorporated into neurobiological models of cognition in psychosis.

Heart Rate Variability in Children and Adolescents with Autism, ADHD and Co-occurring Autism and ADHD, During Passive and Active Experimental Conditions

Despite overlaps in clinical symptomatology, autism and ADHD may be associated with opposite autonomic arousal profiles which might partly explain altered cognitive and global functioning. We investigated autonomic arousal in 106 children/adolescents with autism, ADHD, co-occurring autism/ADHD, and neurotypical controls. Heart rate variability was recorded during resting-state, a ‘passive’ auditory oddball task and an ‘active’ response conflict task. Autistic children showed hyper-arousal during the active task, while those with ADHD showed hypo-arousal during resting-state and the passive task. Irrespective of diagnosis, children characterised by hyper-arousal showed more severe autistic symptomatology, increased anxiety and reduced global functioning than those displaying hypo-arousal, suggesting the importance of considering individual autonomic arousal profiles for differential diagnosis of autism/ADHD and when developing personalised interventions.

Cold-Blooded and on Purpose: A Review of the Biology of Proactive Aggression.

Proactive aggression (PA) is a planned and unprovoked form of aggression that is most often enacted for personal gain or in anticipation of a reward. Frequently described as “cold-blooded” or goal oriented, PA is thought to be associated with low autonomic arousal. With this view in mind, we performed a scoping review of the biological correlates of PA and identified 74 relevant articles. Physiological findings indicated a robust association between PA and reduced resting heart rate, and to a lesser extent a relationship between PA and decreased heart rate and skin conductance reactivity, perhaps indicating dampened sympathetic function. The twin literature identified PA as a heritable trait, but little evidence implicates specific genes in the pathogenesis of PA. Neuroimaging studies of PA pinpoint impaired amygdala function in the assessment and conditioning of aversive stimuli, which may influence the establishment of behavioral patterns. Nodes of the default mode network were identified as possible neural correlates of PA, suggesting that altered function of this network may be involved in the genesis of PA. Given the overlap of PA with reactive aggression and the overall behavioral complexity of PA, it is clear that multiple endophenotypes of PA exist. This comprehensive review surveys the most salient neurobiologically informed research on PA.

Feeling bad about being wrong: Affective evaluation of performed actions and its trial-by-trial relation to autonomic arousal.

Research on action monitoring and error processing has begun to consider the role of emotion, motivation, and peripheral autonomic arousal. To date, little is known about the specific nature of evaluative processing during action monitoring and its interaction with autonomic arousal. This study aimed to replicate and extend previous findings on affective action evaluation and to examine trial-level associations between action evaluation and autonomic arousal. Thirty participants performed an affective priming paradigm, consisting of a go/no-go task with an embedded word categorization task, while skin conductance response (SCR) was recorded. After each motor response in the go/no-go task, participants categorized an affective word as positive or negative. Using mixed-effects modeling, we replicated previous evidence of action-based affective priming, in that false alarms in the go/no-go task were followed by faster and more accurate categorization of negative compared with positive words, whereas hits were followed by faster categorization of positive compared with negative words. We found no evidence for a trial-level association between this priming effect and SCR. Instead, errors increased SCR and its magnitude predicted post-error slowing (PES) on a trial-by-trial level, in line with an orienting account of PES. Our findings support the notion that valence values are assigned to own performed actions, with incorrect actions being evaluated as negative events and correct actions as positive events. Our results further suggest that this valence evaluation might operate independently of arousal-related processes during action monitoring, indicating that these processes might serve different roles in promoting adaptive behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The Acute Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Nocturnal and Pre-Sleep Arousal in Patients with Unipolar Depression: Preplanned Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Unipolar depression is associated with insomnia and autonomic arousal. The aim of this study was to quantify the effect of a single bout of aerobic exercise on nocturnal heart rate variability and pre-sleep arousal in patients with depression. This study was designed as a two-arm, parallel-group, randomized, outcome assessor-blinded, controlled, superiority trial. Patients with a primary diagnosis of unipolar depression aged 18–65 years were included. The intervention consisted of a single 30 min moderate-intensity aerobic exercise bout. The control group sat and read for 30 min. The primary outcome of interest was RMSSD during the sleep period assessed with polysomnography. Secondary outcomes were additional heart rate variability outcomes during the sleep and pre-sleep period as well as subjective pre-sleep arousal. A total of 92 patients were randomized to either the exercise (N = 46) or the control (N = 46) group. Intent-to-treat analysis ANCOVA of follow-up sleep period RMSSD, adjusted for baseline levels and minimization factors, did not detect a significant effect of the allocation (β = 0.12, p = 0.94). There was no evidence for significant differences between both groups in any other heart rate variability measure nor in measures of cognitive or somatic pre-sleep arousal. As this is the first trial of its kind in this population, the findings need to be confirmed in further studies. Patients with depression should be encouraged to exercise regularly in order to profit from the known benefits on sleep and depressive symptoms, which are supported by extensive literature.

Subjective arousal and perceived control clarify heterogeneity in inflammatory and affective outcomes

Only a portion of individuals experiencing chronic stress and associated increases in inflammation go on to develop pathological elevations in mood and anxiety symptoms. Some prevailing models suggest that the outcomes of chronic stress may largely depend on individual differences in perceived control. In the current study, we used this theoretical framework to disambiguate the influence of autonomic arousal and perceived control on inflammatory and psychological outcomes in a large sample of adults from the Midlife in the United States dataset (wave 2; MIDUS-2) (Final N ​= ​1030), and further replicated our approach in a second (MIDUS-Refresher) cohort (Final N ​= ​728). Using k-means clustering we created subgroups systematically differing in subjective arousal (high/low) and perceived control (low/high) and compared these subgroups on inflammatory markers and psychological outcomes. Overall results showed that individuals in the high subjective arousal subgroups had higher levels of IL-6, CRP, and FIB, independent of level of CNTL. However, distinctive, and pathological psychological symptom patterns became more apparent when individuals were characterized by both subjective arousal and perceived control. These findings suggest that subtyping individuals based on subjective arousal and perceived control can help us disentangle pathological versus adaptive mental health outcomes in those with co-occurring inflammation and may help identify those vulnerable to psychopathology in the context of physical or psychological stressor exposure.