March 1, 1987Psychophysiology
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia as an Index of Parasympathetic Cardiac Control During Active Coping
Key result
Threat of shock during an active coping task diminished cardiac parasympathetic activity (indexed by RSA) and elevated heart rate compared to rest and non-threat conditions.
Why the study?
Does an active coping task with threat of shock alter parasympathetic cardiac control (measured by RSA) compared to a task without threat in subjects?
Population
20 subjects
Comparison
Active coping task with threat of shock for… vs Active coping task without threat of shock, and…
Design
Counterbalanced over subjects
Authors
Discussion
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Member takes
Implication
Supports RSA indexing of parasympathetic withdrawal in acute stress; hypothesis-generating and leaves open clinical translation.
Structured PICO
Does an active coping task with threat of shock alter parasympathetic cardiac control (measured by RSA) compared to a task without threat in subjects?
P
Population
20 subjects who underwent two active coping tasks (video game with and without threat of shock) and a resting baseline.
E
Exposure
Active coping task (video game) with threat of shock for inferior performance
C
Comparator
Active coping task (video game) without threat of shock, and resting baseline
O
Outcome
Heart rate (HR) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)surrogate
The study demonstrates that stress-related heart rate increases are significantly driven by parasympathetic withdrawal, which can be reliably indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia.
Cite This Study
Grossman et al. (1987) studied this question. Threat of shock during a video game task vs. Video game without threat of shock and resting baseline was evaluated on Heart rate (HR) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Threat of shock during an active coping task diminished cardiac parasympathetic activity (indexed by RSA) and elevated heart rate compared to rest and non-threat conditions.