Disinhibited or disconnected? Dietary restraint attenuates the relationship between heart rate variability and stress-induced suppression of food intake.
Journal of Psychophysiology, Vol 38(1), 2024, 43-57; doi:10.1027/0269-8803/a000329Literature on restrained eaters posits that the capacity to successfully diet is cognitively demanding, requiring exertion of cognitive control over one’s eating behaviour. Demands that deplete this limited inner resource can thus lead restrained eaters to become disinhibited and consume large amounts of food. Although self-regulation is inferred to play a role, it has not yet been studied in combination with its physiological correlates. As low heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with lower self-regulatory capacity, and acute mental...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - January 25, 2024 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

The predictive effects of resting-state and task-related prefrontal and vagal activity on cognitive performances: Results from a machine learning based approach.
This study aimed to investigate the impact of these variables in the prediction of performance during a set of cognitive tasks in a sample of young adults. The 76 participants (age: 23.96 ± 2.69 years; 51.3% females) who volunteered for this study completed several psychological questionnaires and performed a set of attention and executive functions tasks. Resting-state and task-related prefrontal and autonomic activity were collected through a Time-Domain and a Continuous Wave 2-channel Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) and a portable Electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring system, respectively. A set of Machine L...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - October 5, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Neurocognitive impairment in non-central nervous system cancer survivors: Exploratory study of attention and executive functioning assessments using event-related potentials.
Journal of Psychophysiology, Vol 38(1), 2024, 11-27; doi:10.1027/0269-8803/a000326Cancer and its treatments entail a profound inflammatory response of the central nervous system (CNS). This intense neurotoxic process can lead to significant neurocognitive impairment even in non-CNS cancers. Few studies have examined this domain, and data available is based on limited designs using neuropsychological assessments comprising self-report or traditional testing batteries that capture basic response data. Here, we leverage cognitive electrophysiology, specifically Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), to examine and delineate neuroco...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - October 5, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Listen to your heart—Studying heartbeat detection and emotional intelligence.
Journal of Psychophysiology, Vol 38(1), 2024, 1-10; doi:10.1027/0269-8803/a000325Perception of emotions is at the basis of scientific literature about emotions and is considered a crucial emotional function in the Mayer and Salovey hierarchical model of Emotional Intelligence. The perception of bodily signals plays an important role in the perception of one’s own and others’ emotions. Thus, the first aim of this study was to verify if interoceptive ability, referred to as the ability to perceive bodily signals or autonomic self-perception, is related to individuals’ emotional abilities measured with the MSCEIT (Mayer...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 14, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Aggression running through your veins? The relationship between heart rate, heart rate variability, and aggression in detained juveniles: A pilot study.
Conclusions: This study adds to the literature by increasing knowledge on the link between both resting HR(V) as well as HR(V) responsivity and both forms of aggression and provides recommendations to further advance research in this field. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Journal of Psychophysiology)
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 14, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

A first examination of the link between heart rate variability and networks of anxiety and depression symptoms.
Journal of Psychophysiology, Vol 37(4), 2023, 204-214; doi:10.1027/0269-8803/a000322The neurovisceral integration model proposes that people low in heart rate variability (HRV) are in a state with strong connections between symptoms of anxiety and depression. So far studies providing support for this hypothesis have relied on classifications or sum scores of a diverse range of symptoms, ignoring observations that anxiety and depression symptoms dynamically influence each other. Here we used network analyses to study if HRV moderates characteristics (density, structure, centrality indices) of network models of generalized a...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - July 31, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Sprint cycling: Current practice and motivational considerations for performance recovery.
This study investigated how the between-sprint recovery activity, and an alteration in the duration of the second sprint, affected performance. Twenty-four strength-trained men (age: 26 ± 5 years; height: 180.3 ± 6.1 cm; body mass: 82.3 ± 6.9 kg) participated. During each of the four experimental trials, two sprints were performed 12 min apart. The first was always 18 s and the second was either 9 s or 18 s. Between sprints, passive rest or a mixture of active and passive recovery was undertaken. Peak power output (PPO), as well as mean power output over 9 s (MPO₉) and 18 s (MPO₁₈), was recorded. Lactate concentra...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - July 31, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Pupillary responses to pseudowords with different morphological and imageability features.
In this study, we explored the role of morphology and imageability in pseudoword processing while recording pupillary responses in a lexical decision task that included polymorphemic (“footbalist”), suffixed (“smopify”), and simple pseudowords (“gresmor”), which also varied in imageability. The behavioral results of the mixed-model analyses showed longer latencies and higher error rates for highly imageable polymorphemic pseudowords relative to suffixed pseudowords. Suffixed pseudowords also generated longer latencies than simple pseudowords. The effect of imageability reached significance in these comparisons....
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - July 27, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

An examination of the orienting and defensive responses using HR and HF-HRV.
In this study, HR and HF-HRV reactivity to a visual stimulus designed to elicit an orienting response (surgery video) and a cognitive task designed to elicit a defensive response (Trier Social Stress Test, math task) were measured among 81 undergraduate students. The order of stimuli presentation was counterbalanced. The expected pattern of reactivity was observed (decreased HR and increased HF-HRV during the video condition; increased HR and decreased HF-HRV during the cognitive math task). The order of stimulus presentation significantly influenced HF-HRV reactivity. When the video stimulus was presented first, a large a...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - June 22, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Probabilistic noise and human electrophysiology.
This article discusses probabilistic noise and human electrophysiology. Denoising procedures are usually needed and fully applicable to reduce the noise from data recording or processing procedures. Yet, human electrophysiological techniques deal with a variety of brain signals that are often overlooked or classified alternatively as signal or noise depending on the study rationale, target, techniques/sensors/equipment used for data recording and processing. This occurs, for instance, with stimulus- or event-related transient responses or with frequency-selective signals (like the gamma band activities), whereby the sponta...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - June 15, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Type of trauma exposure impacts neural reactivity to errors.
Journal of Psychophysiology, Vol 37(3), 2023, 168-176; doi:10.1027/0269-8803/a000318Studies suggest that individuals with a history of trauma exposure display abnormal reactivity to threat, though the pattern of findings across prior studies has been inconsistent. At least two factors likely contribute to previous discrepant findings: (1) the type of index trauma event and (2) the type of threat paradigm. Accordingly, the current study aimed to examine the impact of trauma type on a specific psychophysiological index of threat sensitivity—error negativity (Ne), also described as error-related negativity (ERN). Young adul...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - January 26, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Age differences in learning-related neurophysiological changes: Measures of brain activity, eye tracking, skin conductance, heart rate, and respiration.
Journal of Psychophysiology, Vol 37(3), 2023, 154-167; doi:10.1027/0269-8803/a000317Research in young adults has demonstrated that neurophysiological measures are able to provide insight into learning processes. However, to date, it remains unclear whether neurophysiological changes during learning in older adults are comparable to those in younger adults. The current study addressed this issue by exploring age differences in changes over time in a range of neurophysiological outcome measures collected during visuomotor sequence learning. Specifically, measures of electroencephalography (EEG), skin conductance, heart rate,...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - January 26, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Disgust-eliciting pathogen threats and salivary immune responses: A sensory modalities examination.
This study aimed to examine the effects of different sensory modality presentations of disgusting stimuli on aspects of immunity (behavioral and physiological) and affect in men and women. Sixty-four college students participated, and all participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups based on sensory modality stimuli type (visual or olfactory) and manipulation (experimental or control). Results indicated that olfactory stimuli were rated as more disgusting than visual stimuli. When collapsed across sensory modality, females tended to self-report greater disgust sensitivity than males. Overall, there was a signi...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - December 22, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Sleep and daily positive emotions—Is heart rate variability a mediator?
This study employed a two-day ecological momentary assessment methodology in a sample of young adults to investigate whether subjective sleep quality reported in the morning was associated with daily positive emotional experience and whether this association was mediated by heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of cardiac vagal tone. Sleep quality was assessed using an electronic sleep diary upon awakening, while resting HRV and positive emotions were inspected at random times throughout the day using photoplethysmography and an electronic diary, respectively. Relevant confounding variables such as smoking, alcohol intak...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - December 22, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Psychophysiological stress response of novel students in chemical laboratory practices.
Journal of Psychophysiology, Vol 37(3), 2023, 125-133; doi:10.1027/0269-8803/a000314The aim of the present study was to analyze the psychophysiological stress response of novel pharmacy and biotechnology students in chemistry laboratory practices. Autonomic stress response was analyzed in 66 students by considering heart rate variability (HRV) values before, during, and after their first laboratory practice, as well as their distress perception before and after this activity. In the laboratory practice, students had to deal with toxic products, sharp objects, or irritating substances while being examined by the teachers. C...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - December 22, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research