Autonomic Physiological Responses Research Articles

Cardiac autonomic responses in relation to cognitive workload during simulated military flight

Understanding the operator's cognitive workload is crucial for efficiency and safety in human–machine systems. This study investigated how cognitive workload modulates cardiac autonomic regulation during a standardized military simulator flight. Military student pilots completed simulated flight tasks in a Hawk flight simulator. Continuous electrocardiography was recorded to analyze time and frequency domain heart rate variability (HRV). After the simulation, a flight instructor used a standardized method to evaluate student pilot's individual cognitive workload from video-recorded flight simulator data. Results indicated that HRV was able to differentiate flight phases that induced varying levels of cognitive workload; an increasing level of cognitive workload caused significant decreases in many HRV variables, mainly reflecting parasympathetic deactivation of cardiac autonomic regulation. In conclusion, autonomic physiological responses can be used to examine reactions to increased cognitive workload during simulated military flights. HRV could be beneficial in assessing individual responses to cognitive workload and pilot performance during simulator training.

Testing emotional response coherence assumptions: Comparing emotional versus non-emotional states.

Although central to theories of emotion, emotional response coherence, that is, coordination among various emotion response systems, has received inconsistent empirical support. This study tests a basic assumption of response coherence, that is, that it characterizes emotional states defining their beginning and end. To do so, we (a) compare response coherence between emotional versus non-emotional states and (b) examine how emotional coherence changes over time, before, during, and after an emotional episode. Seventy-nine participants viewed neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant film clips and rated continuously how pleasant they felt (experience) before (anticipation), during, and after (recovery) each clip. Autonomic physiological arousal responses (skin conductance level, heart rate; physiology) and facial expressions (corrugator, zygomatic activity; expression) were recorded. Within-person cross-correlations between all emotional response pairs were calculated for each phase. Analyses comparing coherence during emotional versus neutral film viewing showed that only experience-expression coherence was higher for emotional versus neutral films, indicating specificity for emotional states. Examining coherence across phases indicated that coherence increased from anticipation to emotional film viewing, as expected, for experience-expression and experience-physiology pairs (SCL only). Of those pairs, increased coherence returned to baseline during recovery, as theoretically assumed, only for experience-corrugator activity coherence. Current findings provide empirical support for theoretical views of response coherence as a defining feature of emotional episodes, but mostly for the coherence between experience and facial expressions. Further research needs to investigate the role of sympathetic arousal indices, as well as the role of response coherence in emotional recovery.

Spontaneous suppression in dating couples: Social and physiological correlates of suppressing negative and positive emotions during negative and positive conversations

Suppression (i.e., inhibiting one's emotional expression) has typically been associated with social and physiological costs. However, recent theorizing calls into question the inevitability of these costs. The present study takes a more nuanced approach and examines the social and physiological correlates of spontaneous (i.e., uninstructed) suppression when considering two potentially critical factors: the valence of the suppressed emotions (i.e., negative vs. positive) and the valence of the emotional context in which emotions are suppressed (i.e., negative conversation vs. positive conversation). Specifically, dating couples (N = 196 couples) completed both a negatively-valenced and a positively-valenced conversation in the laboratory while their autonomic-physiological responses were recorded. After each conversation, participants rated 1) the extent to which they had suppressed their negative and positive emotions, 2) the quality of the conversation, and 3) how connected they felt with their partner. We used Actor-Partner Interdependence Models to estimate actor effects (e.g., association of one's own suppression and one's own connectedness) and partner effects (e.g., association of one's partner's suppression and one's own connectedness). Suppression was associated with lower conversation quality and connectedness for the actors but largely not for the partners, regardless of the valence of the suppressed emotions and of the context, even when adjusting for felt emotion. Additionally, suppression was consistently not associated with physiological responses of actors or partners. Together, these findings suggest that, during emotional conversations with one's romantic partner, spontaneous (unlike instructed) suppression is associated with social but not physiological costs for the self but not one's partner.

Prediction and classification of anxiety-related psychological scale and VR sickness based on autonomic physiological responses during VR treatment in patients with social anxiety disorder

IntroductionSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) can accompany emotional symptoms as well as physical reactions. The assessment and real-time measurement of SAD is difficult in real-world.ObjectivesThis study aims to predict the severity of specific anxiety states and virtual reality (VR) sickness in SAD patients by a machine learning model based on only quantitative measuring of autonomic physiologic signals during VR therapy sessions.Methods In total, 32 individuals with SAD symptoms were enrolled in VR participatory sessions. We assessed patients’ specific anxiety symptoms through Internalized Shame Scale (ISS) and Post-Event Rumination Scale (PERS), and VR sickness through Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). Specific anxiety symptoms and VR sickness were divided into severe and non-severe states based on the total score of each scale by K-means clustering. Logistic regression, Random Forest, Naïve Bayes classifier, and Support Vector Machine were used based on the physiological signal data to predict the severity group in subdomains of ISS, PERS, and SSQ.ResultsPrediction performance (F1 score) for the severity of the ISS mistake anxiety subdomain was higher than other scales with 0.8421. For VR sickness, prediction performance for the severity of the physical subdomain was higher than the non-physical subdomain with 0.7692.ConclusionsThe study findings present that mistake anxiety and physical sickness could be predicted more accurately by only autonomic physiological signals, suggesting these features are probably associated with autonomic responses. Based on the present study results, we could provide the evidence for predicting the severity of specific anxiety or VR adverse effects only based on in-situ physiological signals.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Multifaceted roles of orexin neurons in mediating methamphetamine-induced changes in body temperature and heart rate.

Methamphetamine (METH), which is used to improve the alertness of narcoleptic patients, elicits autonomic physiological responses such as increases in body temperature, blood pressure and heart rate. We have shown that orexin synthesizing neurons, which have an important role in maintaining wakefulness, greatly contribute to the regulation of cardiovascular and thermoregulatory function. This regulation is partly mediated by glutamatergic as well as orexinergic signalling from the orexin neurons. These signals may also be involved in the autonomic response elicited by METH. This study aimed to determine if loss of either orexin or glutamate in orexin neurons would affect METH-induced changes in heart rate and body temperature. We used transgenic mice in which the vesicular glutamate transporter 2 gene was disrupted selectively in orexin-producing neurons (ORX;vGT2-KO), prepro-orexin knockout mice (ORX-KO), and control wild type mice (WT). We measured body temperature, heart rate and locomotor activity with a pre-implanted telemetry probe and compared the effect of METH (0.5, 2 and 5 mg/kg i.p.) on these parameters between these three groups. A low dose of METH induced hyperthermia and tachycardia responses in ORX;vGT2-KO mice, which were significant compared to ORX-KO and WT mice. The highest dose of METH induced hypothermia and bradycardia in ORX-KO mice, however, it induced hyperthermia in both WT and ORX;vGT2-KO mice. These results suggest that glutamate and orexin from orexin neurons have differential roles in mediating METH-induced changes in body temperature and heart rate.

Coherence between subjective experience and physiology in emotion: Individual differences and implications for well-being.

Emotion theorists have characterized emotions as involving coherent responding across various emotion response systems (e.g., covariation of subjective experience and physiology). Greater response system coherence has been theorized to promote well-being, yet very little research has tested this assumption. The current study examined whether individuals with greater coherence between physiology and subjective experience of emotion report greater well-being. We also examined factors that may predict the magnitude of coherence, such as emotion intensity, cognitive reappraisal, and expressive suppression. Participants (N = 63) completed self-report measures of well-being, expressive suppression, and cognitive reappraisal. They then watched a series of emotionally evocative film clips designed to elicit positive and negative emotion. During the films, participants continuously rated their emotional experience using a rating dial, and their autonomic physiological responses were recorded. Time-lagged cross-correlations were used to calculate within-participant coherence between intensity of emotional experience (ranging from neutral to very negative or very positive) and physiology (composite of cardiac interbeat interval, skin conductance, ear pulse transit time, finger pulse transit time and amplitude, systolic and diastolic blood pressure). Results indicated that individuals with greater coherence reported greater well-being. Coherence was highest during the most emotionally intense film and among individuals who reported lower expressive suppression. However, coherence was not associated with reappraisal. These findings provide support for the idea that greater emotion coherence promotes well-being and also shed light on factors that are associated with the magnitude of coherence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

설문 기반 대응방안을 사용한 복합시행 프로토콜의 재평가

Traditional deception detection methods had examined the difference of one’s autonomic physiological responses through asking crime-related and crime-unrelated questions. There has been a continuing controversy regarding the accuracy and validity of the test, and thus, many researchers were motivated to explore and develop alternative efficient methods of detection in which one of them is known as P300-based Complex Trial Protocol (CTP). The P300-based CTP detects deception through comparing the P300 amplitudes between probe and irrelevant stimuli and is known as a counterstrategy of countermeasures. However, many previous studies have used countermeasures created from Rosenfeld et al.’s work (2008).The present study initially conducted a survey asking open-ended questions about the countermeasure use to acquire participant-oriented countermeasures for the main experiment. Then, the study aimed to evaluate whether the CTP can accurately detect deception even in the use of survey-based countermeasures. We firstly selected a set of participant-oriented countermeasures through survey questions. Then, a total of 50 participants were divided into three groups (innocent, guilty, and countermeasures) and performed the CTP. Those assigned to the countermeasures group covertly performed mental countermeasures during the CTP. The results of P300 amplitude analysis revealed that the guilty group’s P300 amplitude of probe stimuli was significantly larger than that of irrelevant stimuli. Countermeasures group also had a significantly larger P300 amplitude for probe stimuli compared to irrelevant stimuli, even in the use of countermeasures. The results of bootstrapped amplitude difference (BAD) showed a detection accuracy rate of 81.25%, 82.35%, 82.35% for the innocent, guilty, and countermeasures groups, respectively. These findings demonstrate that the CTP can obtain a high detection rate in participant-oriented countermeasures and suggest the potential use of the CTP in the

The impact of Snoezelen in pediatric complex continuing care: A pilot study.

Snoezelen is an environment that provides sensory stimulation to individuals in health care and rehabilitative settings. With the presentation of various instruments and materials, individuals can encounter a range of sensory experiences including visual, tactile, and auditory with the purpose of inducing relaxation and restoration. Little is known about how children and adolescents experience this form of sensory stimulation, particularly those in complex continuing care who may have limited verbal and mobility capacity. This pilot study examined autonomic physiological responses and observational data on five children and adolescents in complex continuing care within a large rehabilitation hospital. Responses to Snoezelen and watching television were compared against baseline data collected during pre-intervention phases. Using a single-subject design, this preliminary study found that individual participant responses varied considerably. Four of the five participants exhibited significant changes between sessions on one or two distinct physiological measures. The authors call on additional studies that apply unique and multiple methods capable of accessing the preferences of children and adolescent in rehabilitative care. As an outcome, contributions to evidence-based practice can be made while supporting children's participation rights in health care decision making.

Attachment Status Affects Heart Rate Responses to Experimental Ostracism in Inpatients with Depression.

Depression is assumed to be both a risk factor for rejection and a result of it, and as such constitutes an important factor in rejection research. Attachment theory has been applied to understand psychological disorders, such as depression, and can explain individual differences in responses to rejection. Research on autonomic nervous system activity to rejection experiences has been contradictory, with opposing strings of argumentation (activating vs. numbing). We investigated autonomic nervous system-mediated peripheral physiological responses (heart rate) to experimentally manipulated ostracism (Cyberball) in 97 depressed patients with organized (n = 52) and disorganized attachment status (n = 45). Controlling for baseline mean heart rate levels, depressed patients with disorganized attachment status responded to ostracism with significantly higher increases in heart rate than depressed patients with organized attachment status (p = .029; ηp2 = .051). These results suggest that attachment status may be a useful indicator of autonomic responses to perceived social threat, which in turn may affect the therapeutic process and the patient-therapist relationship.

First-Person Perspective Virtual Body Posture Influences Stress: A Virtual Reality Body Ownership Study.

In immersive virtual reality (IVR) it is possible to replace a person’s real body by a life-sized virtual body that is seen from first person perspective to visually substitute their own. Multisensory feedback from the virtual to the real body (such as the correspondence of touch and also movement) can also be present. Under these conditions participants typically experience a subjective body ownership illusion (BOI) over the virtual body, even though they know that it is not their real one. In most studies and applications the posture of the real and virtual bodies are as similar as possible. Here we were interested in whether the BOI is diminished when there are gross discrepancies between the real and virtual body postures. We also explored whether a comfortable or uncomfortable virtual body posture would induce feelings and physiological responses commensurate with the posture. We carried out an experiment with 31 participants in IVR realized with a wide field-of-view head-mounted display. All participants were comfortably seated. Sixteen of them were embodied in a virtual body designed to be in a comfortable posture, and the remainder in an uncomfortable posture. The results suggest that the uncomfortable body posture led to lesser subjective BOI than the comfortable one, but that participants in the uncomfortable posture experienced greater awareness of their autonomic physiological responses. Moreover their heart rate, heart rate variability, and the number of mistakes in a cognitive task were associated with the strength of their BOI in the uncomfortable posture: greater heart rate, lower heart rate variability and more mistakes were associated with higher levels of the BOI. These findings point in a consistent direction—that the BOI over a body that is in an uncomfortable posture can lead to subjective, physiological and cognitive effects consistent with discomfort that do not occur with the BOI over a body in a comfortable posture.

Activation of the habenula complex evokes autonomic physiological responses similar to those associated with emotional stress.

Neurons in the lateral habenula (LHb) discharge when an animal anticipates an aversive outcome or when an expected reward is not forthcoming, contributing to the behavioral response to aversive situations. So far, there is little information as to whether the LHb also contributes to autonomic physiological responses, including increases in body temperature (emotional hyperthermia) that are integrated with defensive behaviors. Vasoconstriction in cutaneous vascular bed and heat production in brown adipose tissue (BAT) both contribute to emotional hyperthermia. Our present study determines whether stimulation of the LHb elicits constriction of the tail artery and BAT thermogenesis in anesthetized Sprague–Dawley rats. Disinhibition of neurons in LHb with focal microinjections of bicuculline (1 nmol in 100 nl, bilaterally) acutely increased BAT temperature (+0.6 ± 0.1°C, n = 9 rats, P < 0.01) and reduced tail artery blood flow (by 88 ± 4%, n = 9 rats, P < 0.01). Falls in mesenteric blood flow, simultaneously recorded, were much less intense. The pattern of BAT thermogenesis and cutaneous vasoconstriction elicited by stimulating the habenula is similar to the pattern observed during stress-induced emotional hyperthermia, suggesting that the habenula may be important in this response.

Competitive Behavior, Stress, and Gender

This paper investigates whether chronic stress and acute physiological responses to competitive stress can explain individual and gender differences in competitiveness. We measure individuals' autonomic nervous system activity in a resting state as well as under non-competitive and competitive incentives in a real task using heart rate variability measurement. We find that basal heart rate variability, a proxy for chronic stress, and acute competition-induced changes in heart rate variability predict self-selection into competition. Moreover, we observe that basal heart rate variability predicts self-selection into competition for women, but not for men. Overall, we find tentative evidence for gender differences in the relationship between physiological stress and a decision to enter competitive environments. Our results suggest that individual variation in autonomic nervous system activity and physiological responses to competitive stress predict self-selection into competitive environments, but do not explain gender differences in willingness to compete.

Tool use imagery triggers tool incorporation in the body schema.

Tool-use has been shown to modify the way the brain represents the metrical characteristics of the effector controlling the tool. For example, the use of tools that elongate the physical length of the arm induces kinematic changes affecting selectively the transport component of subsequent free-hand movements. Although mental simulation of an action is known to involve -to a large extent- the same processes as those at play in overt motor execution, whether tool-use imagery can yield similar effects on the body representation remains unknown. Mentally simulated actions indeed elicit autonomic physiological responses and follow motor execution rules that are comparable to those associated with the correspondent overt performance. Therefore, here we investigated the effects of the mental simulation of actions performed with a tool on the body representation by studying subsequent free-hand movements. Subjects executed reach to grasp movements with their hand before and after an imagery task performed with either a tool elongating their arm length or, as a control, with their hand alone. Two main results were found: First, in agreement with previous studies, durations of imagined movements performed with the tool and the hand were similarly affected by task difficulty. Second, kinematics of free-hand movements was affected after tool-use imagery, but not hand-use imagery, in a way similar to that previously documented after actual tool-use. These findings constitute the first evidence that tool-use imagery is sufficient to affect the representation of the user's arm.

Mild head injury and sympathetic arousal: Investigating relationships with decision-making and neuropsychological performance in university students

Summary: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between neuropsychological performance, physiological arousal and decision-making in university students who have or have not reported a history of mild head injury (MHI).Methods: Forty-four students, 18 (41%) reporting a history of MHI, performed a design fluency task and the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) while electrodermal activity (EDA) was recorded.Results: General cognitive ability and overall choice outcomes did not differ between groups. However, self-reported MHI severity predicted decision-making performance such that the greater the neural indices of trauma, the more disadvantageous the choices made by participants. As expected, both groups exhibited similar base levels of autonomic arousal and physiological responses to reward and punishment outcomes; however, those reporting MHI produced significantly lower levels of EDA during the anticipatory stages of decision-making.Conclusions: Overall, these findings encourage the acceptance of head injury as being on a continuum of brain injury severity, as MHI can emulate neurophysiological and neuropsychological features of more traumatic cases and may be impacting mechanisms which sustain adaptive social decision-making.

Differential electrodermal and phasic heart rate responses to personally relevant information: Comparing sleep and wakefulness

This study examined autonomic physiological responses to personally relevant information presented during sleep and wakefulness. Heart rate and electrodermal reactions to subjects’ own first name and other first names were measured during sleep stage 2, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and wakefulness. Across all conditions, larger skin conductance responses were elicited by subjects’ own first name. During REM sleep, personally relevant information led to larger heart rate acceleration, whereas an enhanced deceleration was examined during wakefulness. These findings suggest that auditory information is processed on a semantic level even during sleep. However, personally relevant information elicits a co-activation of the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system during the wake state whereas only the former system is activated during REM sleep. The response pattern in the wake state reflects a mechanism focusing attention to a specific stimulus source — termed the orienting response. In contrast, the physiological responses during sleep seem to be part of a different mechanism aiming to wake the subject after crucial information has been detected in the environment.

Cultural context moderates the relationship between emotion control values and cardiovascular challenge versus threat responses

Cultural context affects people's values regarding emotions, as well as their experiential and behavioral but not autonomic physiological responses to emotional situations. Little research, however, has examined how cultural context influences the relationships among values and emotional responding. Specifically, depending on their cultural context, individuals’ values about emotion control (ECV; the extent to which they value emotion control) may have differing meanings, and as such, be associated with differing responses in emotional situations. We examined this possibility by testing the effect of two cultural contexts (28 female Asian-American (AA) versus 28 female European-American (EA) undergraduate students) on the associations between individuals’ ECV and emotional responding (experiential, behavioral, and cardiovascular) to a relatively neutral film clip and a laboratory anger provocation. In the AA group, greater ECV were associated with reduced anger experience and behavior, and a challenge pattern of cardiovascular responding. In the EA group, greater ECV were associated with reduced anger behavior but not anger experience, and a threat pattern of cardiovascular responding. These results are consistent with the notion that individuals’ values about emotion are associated with different meanings in different cultural contexts, and in turn, with different emotional and cardiovascular responses.

Nuclei-and condition-specific responses to pain in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis

The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) is a basal forebrain structure considered to be part of a cortico-striato-pallidal system that coordinates autonomic, neuroendocrine and behavioural physiological responses. Recent evidence suggests that the BST plays a role in the emotional aspect of pain. The objective of the present study was to further understand the neurophysiological bases underlying the involvement of the BST in the pain experience, in both acute and chronic pain conditions. Using c-Fos as an indicator of neuronal activation, the results demonstrated that a single toe-pinch in rats produced nuclei-and condition-specific neuronal responses within the anterior region of the BST (antBST). Specifically, acute noxious stimulation increased c-Fos in the dorsal medial (dAM) and fusiform (FU) nuclei. Chronic neuropathic pain induced by chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve decreased the number of c-Fos positive cells following acute mechanical stimulation in the dAM and FU nuclei, and increased c-Fos immunoreactivity in the ventral medial (vAM) aspect of the BST. In addition, the results revealed a nuclei-specific sensitivity to the surgical procedure. Following noxious stimulation to animals that received a sham surgery, c-Fos immunoreactivity was blunted in the FU nucleus while it increased in the oval (OV) nucleus of the BST. Altogether, this study demonstrates that pain induces nuclei-and condition-specific neuronal activation in the BST revealing an intriguing supraspinal neurobiological substrate that may contribute to the physiology of acute nociception and the pathophysiology of chronic pain.

Autonomic physiological response patterns related to intelligence

We examined autonomic physiological responses induced by six different cognitive ability tasks, varying in complexity, that were selected on the basis of on Guilford's Structure of Intellect model. In a group of 52 participants, task performance was measured together with nine different autonomic response measures and respiration rate. Weighted multidimensional scaling of the physiological responses revealed three underlying dimensions characterized by parasympathetic inhibition, sympathetic activation, and increased respiration rate. During the complex tasks, physiological responses of good performers were relatively stronger modulated by parasympathetic inhibition than responses of less good performers. We hypothesize that a parasympathetically dominated autonomic control mechanism enables a more effective cardiovascular adaptation to the cerebral metabolic demands of complex cognitive tasks.

Characterization of neurons in the rat central nucleus of the amygdala: Cellular physiology, morphology, and opioid sensitivity

The central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) orchestrates autonomic and other behavioral and physiological responses to conditioned stimuli that are aversive or elicit fear. As a related CeA function is the expression of hypoalgesia induced by conditioned stimuli or systemic morphine administration, we examined postsynaptic opioid modulation of neurons in each major CeA subdivision. Following electrophysiological recording, biocytin-filled neurons were precisely located in CeA regions identified by chemoarchitecture (enkephalin-immunoreactivity) and cytoarchitecture (DAPI nuclear staining) in fixed adult rat brain slices. This revealed a striking distribution of physiological types, as 92% of neurons in capsular CeA were classified as late-firing, whereas no neurons in the medial CeA were of this class. In contrast, 60% or more of neurons in the lateral and medial CeA were low-threshold bursting neurons. Mu-opioid receptor (MOPR) agonists induced postsynaptic inhibitory potassium currents in 61% of CeA cells, and this ratio was maintained in each subdivision and for each physiological class of neuron. However, MOPR agonists more frequently inhibited bipolar/fusiform cells than triangular or multipolar neurons. A subpopulation of MOPR-expressing neurons were also inhibited by delta opioid receptor agonists, whereas a separate population were inhibited kappa opioid receptors (KOPR). The MOPR agonist DAMGO inhibited 9/9 CeM neurons with projections to the parabrachial nucleus identified by retrograde tracer injection. These data support models of striatopallidal organization that have identified striatal-like and pallidal-like CeA regions. Opioids can directly inhibit output from each subdivision by activating postsynaptic MOPRs or KOPRs on distinct subpopulations of opioid-sensitive neurons.

Differences in autonomic physiological responses between good and poor inductive reasoners

We investigated individual- and task-related differences in autonomic physiological responses induced by time limited figural and verbal inductive reasoning tasks. In a group of 52 participants, the percentage of correctly responded task items was evaluated together with nine different autonomic physiological response measures and respiration rate (RR). Weighted multidimensional scaling analyses of the physiological responses revealed three underlying dimensions, primarily characterized by RR, parasympathetic, and sympathetic activity. RR and sympathetic activity appeared to be relatively more important response dimensions for poor reasoners, whereas parasympathetic responsivity was relatively more important for good reasoners. These results suggest that poor reasoners showed higher levels of cognitive processing intensity than good reasoners. Furthermore, for the good reasoners, the dimension of sympathetic activity was relatively more important during the figural than during the verbal reasoning task, which was explained in terms of hemispheric lateralization in autonomic function.