Citation
McIntosh, Roger C.; Khambaty, Tasneem; Llabre, Maria M.; Perreira, Krista M.; Gonzalez, Hector M.; Kansal, Mayank M.; Tarraf, Wassim; & Schneiderman, Neil (2021). Paradoxical Effect of Cumulative Stress Exposure on Information Processing Speed in Hispanics/Latinos with Elevated Heart Rate Variability. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 164, 1-8.Abstract
Chronic stress has a deleterious effect on prefrontal lobe functioning. Empirical evidence suggests elevated vagal tone, indexed by elevated heart rate variability (HRV), mitigates the effect of mental stress on frontal lobe function. Here, the mitigating effect of HRV is tested on stress-related decrements in cognitive performance on three tasks involving, information processing speed (DSST), word fluency and verbal learning. Artifact free electrocardiogram (ECG) data was analyzed from 1420 Hispanic/Latino adults from the Sociocultural Ancillary of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). A 12-lead ECG was used to collect short-term recordings of the root mean square of successive differences in all normal R-peak to R-peak intervals (RMSSD) and the change between adjacent beats and the standard deviation of those intervals (SDNN) as indices of total HRV. As predicted, an interaction emerged for HRV and stress on the task presumed to require the greatest prefrontal lobe involvement, i.e., DSST. After accounting for sociodemographic factors, chronic stress was associated with better DSST performance amongst individuals at higher quartile of SDNN, but not RMSSD. The paradoxical effect for greater stress exposure on DSST performance may in part be explained by increased speed of information processing and decision making often reported in high-stress cohorts. The interaction observed at higher levels of SDNN highlights the importance of examining the relationship between stress and cognition across the HRV spectrum.URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2021.01.019Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
2021Journal Title
International Journal of PsychophysiologyAuthor(s)
McIntosh, Roger C.Khambaty, Tasneem
Llabre, Maria M.
Perreira, Krista M.
Gonzalez, Hector M.
Kansal, Mayank M.
Tarraf, Wassim
Schneiderman, Neil