Key result
Psychological stress evoked by classical conditioning significantly increased heart rate and altered heart rate variability parameters, indicating dominant sympathetic regulation in rats.
p-value: p=<0.01
Findings in rats should not guide clinical stress management; leaves open whether conditioned psychological stress drives sympathetic dominance in human HRV.
The aim of this study was to examine the effects of psychological stress on autonomic control of the heart in rats. For this purpose, we evoked anxiety-like or fear-like states in rats by means of classical conditioning and examined changes in autonomic nervous activity using an implanted telemetry system and power spectral analysis of heart rate variability. Anxiety-like states resulted in a significant increase in heart rate (HR), low frequency (LF) power, and LF/HF ratio, with no change in high frequency (HF) power. Fear-like states resulted in a significant increase in HR and a significant decrease in HF power with no significant change in both LF power and LF/HF ratio, although LF/HF ratio increased slightly. These results suggest that autonomic balance becomes predominant in sympathetic nervous activity in both anxiety-like and fear-like states. These changes in rats correspond to changes which are relevant to cardiovascular diseases in humans under many kinds of psychological stress. Therefore, the experimental design of this study is a useful experimental model for investigating the effects of psychological stress on autonomic control of the heart in humans.
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Inagaki et al. (2004) studied Psychological stress (n=7). Psychological stress (classical conditioning) vs. Control state was evaluated on Heart rate and heart rate variability parameters (LF power, HF power, LF/HF ratio) (p=<0.01). Psychological stress evoked by classical conditioning significantly increased heart rate and altered heart rate variability parameters, indicating dominant sympathetic regulation in rats.
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