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Heart Rate Variability During Attention Phases in Young Infants
Author(s) -
Richards John E.,
Casey Betty Jo
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1991.tb03385.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , heart rate , medicine , blood pressure
Heart rate variability during visual attention was studied in infants who were tested cross‐sectionally at 14, 20, or 26 weeks of age. They were presented with a recording of a Sesame Street program on a TV screen. After heart rate had decelerated below the prestimulus level and then returned to prestimulus level, a computer‐generated pattern replaced the Sesame Street display. Heart rate variability changed throughout attention. The change consisted of a decrease in variability during attention and a return to prestimulus levels approximately five seconds following attention termination. The heart rate and variability responses are consistent with a model of parasympathetic vagal influence on the heart in which vagal firing is increased during sustained attention and is inhibited during attention termination.