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Relation between cardiac vagal tone and performance in male military personnel exposed to high stress: Three prospective studies
Author(s) -
Morgan C. A.,
Aikins Deane E.,
Steffian George,
Coric Vladimir,
Southwick Steven
Publication year - 2007
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.1469-8986.2006.00475.x
Subject(s) - vagal tone , psychology , tone (literature) , audiology , cognition , heart rate , active duty , military personnel , heart rate variability , medicine , neuroscience , blood pressure , art , literature , political science , law
Vagal tone has been proposed both as an index of emotion regulation and cognitive ability. To assess the relation between vagal tone and emotion regulation and cognitive ability, the present research prospectively measured vagal tone (measured either as high‐frequency spectral power or respiratory sinus arrhythmia) in healthy participants exposed to high stress. The participants were active duty military personnel (men) enrolled in high intensity military training: Survival School (Experiments 1 and 3) and Combat Diver Qualification Course (Experiment 2). We consistently observed a significant relationship between low vagal tone and superior performance. The data suggest that vagal suppression is associated with enhanced performance under conditions of high stress and that this enhanced performance may be related to emotion regulation and cognitive functioning.