Key result
Mental stress consistently alters heart rate and heart rate variability across diverse stressor paradigms.
Why the study?
Physiological responses like heart rate and heart rate variability are increasingly used to monitor mental stress, prompting a synthesis of studies analyzing the impact of mental stress on heart activity and the mathematical methods used.
Does mental stress alter heart rate and heart rate variability in human subjects?
Systematic Review
Does mental stress alter heart rate and heart rate variability in human subjects?
Heart rate and heart rate variability show promise as physiological indicators for non-intrusively monitoring and quantifying mental stress, especially when analyzed using time series models.
HR/HRV alterations support non-invasive stress monitoring; extends evidence for time series techniques beyond laboratory settings.
(1) Background: Physiological responses, such as heart rate and heart rate variability, have been increasingly utilized to monitor, detect, and predict mental stress. This review summarizes and synthesizes previous studies which analyzed the impact of mental stress on heart activity as well as mathematical, statistical, and visualization methods employed in such analyses. (2) Methods: A total of 119 articles were reviewed following the Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. Non-English documents, studies not related to mental stress, and publications on machine learning techniques were excluded. Only peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings were considered. (3) Results: The studies revealed that heart activities and behaviors changed during stressful events. The majority of the studies utilized descriptive statistical tests, including t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and correlation analysis, to assess the statistical significance between stress and non-stress events. However, most of them were performed in controlled laboratory settings. (4) Conclusions: Heart activity shows promise as an indicator for detecting stress events. This review highlights the application of time series techniques, such as autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), detrended fluctuation analysis, and autocorrelation plots, to study heart rate rhythm or patterns associated with mental stress. These models analyze physiological data over time and may help in understanding acute and chronic cardiovascular responses to stress.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Ziyadidegan et al. (2025) conducted a systematic review in Mental stress. Mental stress vs. Non-stress / relaxed conditions was evaluated on Changes in heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). Mental stress significantly altered heart rate and heart rate variability across 119 reviewed studies, highlighting the potential of time series techniques for stress detection.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: