Key result
Higher trait anxiety is linked to a blunted heart-rate rise during laboratory stress.
Why the study?
A previous analysis found that higher trait anxiety was associated with a smaller heart-rate and systolic rise during laboratory challenges. This protocol tests whether that blunted rise replicates in an independent cohort using the same laboratory protocol and anxiety scale.
Does higher trait anxiety reduce heart-rate and systolic blood pressure rise during laboratory challenges in participants of the MIDUS Refresher Biomarker Project?
Observational (n=863)
Does higher trait anxiety reduce heart-rate and systolic blood pressure rise during laboratory challenges in participants of the MIDUS Refresher Biomarker Project?
This preregistered protocol aims to replicate prior findings linking higher trait anxiety to a blunted heart-rate and systolic blood pressure rise during laboratory challenges using an independent cohort of 863 participants.
Preregistration NQF-2026AI, protocol version 1.0, sealed before any contact with the data. In the secondary mechanism arm of NQF-2026AH (MIDUS 2 Biomarker Project, 2004–2009; doi:10.5281/zenodo.23303495), higher trait anxiety went with a smaller heart-rate rise during laboratory challenges at equal residue (−0.087 SD per SD, 90% interval −0.133 to −0.040) and a smaller systolic rise (−0.076; −0.125 to −0.027), while its link to the residue stayed inside ±0.10 on every channel. This protocol asks whether that blunted rise appears again in people who were not used to find it: the MIDUS Refresher Biomarker Project (2012–2016; 863 participants; same laboratory protocol, same anxiety scale), read from public-use files at a pinned commit of the MIDUS public repository. The discovery's model is kept unchanged; the verdict follows the small-telescopes rule (d33 = 0.043 SD per SD for heart rate), and the simulated power is reported in full. Files: the protocol (PDF) and the executor (Python), which refuses to read real data unless given this DOI. The result will be deposited as the next version of this record, on whatever row it lands.
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Juan Carlos Madrid Vites (2026) conducted an observational in Trait anxiety and cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory challenges (n=863). Trait anxiety was evaluated on Heart-rate and systolic blood pressure rise during laboratory challenges at equal residue.
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