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Interactions between autonomic cardiovascular regulation and cortical activity: A CNV study
Author(s) -
Duschek Stefan,
Wörsching Jana,
Reyes Del Paso Gustavo A.
Publication year - 2013
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/psyp.12026
Subject(s) - contingent negative variation , psychology , baroreflex , vagal tone , baroreceptor , correlation , neuroscience , bivariate analysis , electroencephalography , audiology , analysis of variance , autonomic nervous system , medicine , heart rate , blood pressure , statistics , geometry , mathematics
The study investigated interactions between autonomic cardiovascular regulation and cortical activity. In 54 healthy subjects, baroreflex sensitivity ( BRS ) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia ( RSA ) were assessed at resting conditions. As an EEG indicator of cortical excitability, the contingent negative variation ( CNV ) was induced using a constant foreperiod reaction time task. At bivariate level, only RSA showed a moderate positive correlation with the CNV recorded at frontal electrodes. However, when common variance of BRS and RSA was controlled for in multiple regression analysis, an inverse association between BRS and the frontal CNV also arose. The inverse association between BRS and the CNV is discussed as reflecting bottom‐up modulation of cortical excitability by baroreceptor afferents. The positive correlation between RSA and the CNV may relate to the interplay between prefrontal processing and cardiac vagal tone.