Different association patterns of emotion regulation and heart rate variability in older and younger adults

Several mental health conditions seen in older people are associated with impaired emotion regulation. Heart rate variability may be an index of emotion regulation capacity, but it is unclear whether and how aging influences this association. Early neurodegenerative processes, such as Alzheimer’s disease-related reduction of locus coeruleus integrity, may play a role, as locus coeruleus modulates both heart rate variability and self-regulatory networks. We pre-registered a cross-sectional study to investigate the relationship between measures of emotion regulation, heart rate variability and locus coeruleus structural MRI integrity in a lifespan sample of cognitively normal healthy adults (N=678, aged 18-88 years, 51% female), recruited between 2010-2012 as part of the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) cohort. We hypothesized that age-related differences in the heart rate variability-emotion regulation relationship could be attributed to reduced locus coeruleus integrity in older versus younger adults. Exploratory analyses incorporated alternative and novel measures of emotionality and locus coeruleus rostro-caudal functional connectivity gradients from more recent Cam-CAN studies. In contrast to younger adults, we found an inverse relationship between resting heart rate variability and measures of emotion regulation performance in older adults. There was no evidence that locus coeruleus integrity influenced this relationship. A more ‘old-like’ locus coeruleus rostro-caudal functional connectivity gradient, but not locus coeruleus signal intensity, was related to lower heart rate variability and worse reappraisal outcomes. We identify complexity in the association between heart rate variability and emotion regulation with age and gaps in understanding of the relationship between different measures of locus coeruleus integrity. Future studies should explore compensatory mechanisms underlying age-related differences in autonomic and emotion regulation.