Covariate effects of resting heart rate variability on affective ratings and startle reflex during cognitive reappraisal of negative emotions

ABSTRACT

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has been widely studied in laboratory settings due to its clinical implications, primarily as a potential biomarker of emotion regulation (ER). Studies have reported that individuals with higher resting HRV show more distinct startle reflexes to negative stimuli as compared to those with lower HRV. These responses have been associated with better defense system function when managing the context demands. There is, however, a lack of empirical evidence on the association between resting HRV and eyeblinks during laboratory tasks using instructed ER. This study explored the influence of tonic HRV on voluntary cognitive reappraisal through subjective and startle responses measured during an independent ER task. In total, 122 healthy participants completed a task consisting of attempts to upregulate, downregulate, or react naturally to emotions prompted by unpleasant pictures. Tonic HRV was measured for 5 minutes before the experiment began. Current results did not support the idea that self-reported and eyeblink responses were influenced by resting HRV. These findings suggest that, irrespective of resting HRV, individuals may benefit from strategies such as reappraisal that are useful for managing negative emotions. Experimental studies should further explore the role of individual differences when using ER strategies during laboratory tasks.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotion regulation
• cognitive reappraisal
• heart rate variability
• startle reflex

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author statemen

All authors were strongly involved in the study and reviewed and discussed the manuscript. IJ and NFS prepared the first draft of the manuscript, which was then reviewed by MCP, MAE, GRP, and CSR. MCP, IJ, NFS, and MAE managed sample recruitment and physiological data reduction, while CSR and GRP actively participated in statistical analysis and manuscript revision.

Notes

1 IAPS numbers used in this experiment: Unpleasant (6313; 3500; 2683; 6571; 6212; 6540; 6530; 9163; 6834; 9252: 9426; 9423; 9635; 9452; 6560; 6315; 2691; 6312; 6211; 6520; 3530; 6550; 6350; 6360; 9414; 9425; 9427; 6821; 9428; 9413; 2710; 2141; 2900; 3350; 3061; 3010; 3181; 9250; 3550; 9050; 9400; 3301; 9910; 9920; 9530; 3191; 3150; 9254; 2053; 3300; 3101; 3060; 3230; 6022; 9421; 9420; 9435; 9908; 9412; 9921); Neutral (7004; 7233; 7009; 7010; 7025; 7080; 7035; 7235; 7175; 7006).

2 The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test performed a priori indicated that the raw RMSSD values before the log transformation did not follow a normal distribution (D [112] = 0.12, p < 0.0001). After the log transformation, RMSSD values followed a normal distribution (D [112] = 0.04, p = 0.2).

Additional information

Funding

This study was partially funded by the Universitat Jaume I (Research Project P1•1A2014-06). IJ was supported by a predoctoral grant from the Universitat Jaume I (PREDOC/2017/26), while NFS was awarded a predoctoral grant by the Generalitat Valenciana (ACIF/2018/240), and MAE received a postdoctoral grant from the Universitat Jaume I (POSDOC-A/2018/16).