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This article presents abstracts of research papers presented at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research. The paper on "Cardiac Components of the Defense in Infants," by W.K. Berg, found that the majority of studies of heart rate responses in alert infants report only deceleratory change, a component of the orienting response. The paper "Negative Slow Potentials Emitted by Participants in an EEG-Controlled Computer Game," by P.A. Brickett, found that CNV are produced prior to a required EEG response.

The Neurovisceral Integration Model (NIM) is one of the most influential psychophysiological models addressing the interplay between the autonomic (ANS) and central nervous system (CNS). In their groundbreaking conceptual work, integrating autonomic, attentional, and affective systems into a functional and structural network, Thayer & Lane laid the foundation for empirical research in the past two decades. The present paper provides a principal outline aiming to reflect and further elaborate on the model from a dynamic developmental perspective. The central question at hand is, how does neurovisceral integration develop (early in life)? By reviewing the existing evidence, it is illustrated that key components of the model, both, on a physiological and psychological level, undergo extensive change early in the course of life. This sensitive period of human development seems key for our understanding of the integrated action of the ANS and CNS in emotion across the lifespan. Early life events may interfere with the fine‐tuned interplay of this shared neural circuitry resulting in long‐term dysfunction and psychiatric illness. In the absence of longitudinal data covering the entire co‐development of the ANS and CNS from early childhood to adolescence into early adulthood, it is suggested, that vagal activity and its normative increase in adolescence is a key premise for normative brain development on a structural and functional level, subsequent psychological functioning and adaptive regulation. Implications from this dynamic perspective and suggestions for future research in the field of developmental psychophysiology are discussed. In an attempt to further elaborate on the Neurovisceral Integration Model, potential developmental trajectories underlying dynamic CNS‐ANS co‐regulation are presented. In brief, it is suggested that neurovisceral integration is shaped during sensitive periods of human development, whereby the normative increase in vagal activity during adolescence is critical for brain development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Humans evolved within the mammalian line as a highly social species. Indeed, sociality has been a major driver of human social intelligence. From birth, social relationships have emotional and self‐regulating properties and operate through different body systems. This paper will explore how heart rate variability (HRV), an index of the vagal regulation of the heart and a central element of the physiological underpinnings of sociality, is related to mental health problems, with important implications for psychotherapy. Methods: We conducted a narrative review of the literature on the bi‐directional links between prosocial motivations, HRV, and psychophysiological functioning. Results: HRV is associated not only with the ability to downregulate physiological arousal, but also with a variety of psychological and behavioural variables which are usually the target of psychotherapeutic interventions. A modern neurovisceral integration model can be employed to explain the complex intercorrelation between HRV and psychophysiological functioning. In particular, the link between HRV, the experience of inter‐ and intrapersonal safeness, and the inhibitory function of the prefrontal cortex will be explored in the context of prosocial motives, such as compassion, that alleviate and help prevent mental health difficulties. Conclusions: Our knowledge of the social brain and its physiological underpinnings might influence important elements of a therapeutic intervention, from the initial assessment of patient's difficulties to the evaluation of therapy outcomes. Practitioner points: Social relationships have emotional and self‐regulating properties.The experience of inter‐ and intrapersonal safeness is connected to prosocial motives, such as compassion, and the inhibitory function of the prefrontal cortex.Social relationships and compassion influence different body systems, such as the vagus nerve.Many forms of psychopathology represent the activation of evolved, defensive strategies especially in contexts where there are few stimuli indicating safeness and social support.Heart rate variability predicts psychotherapy outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heart rate is a dependent variable used widely in psychological and psychophysiological research. Several statistical problems arise in the analysis of heart rate data, many of them specific to infancy research. The present paper discusses the problems of a statistically appropriate cardiac measure, the Law of Initial Values, the problem of differential variability in heart rate scores, and the use of multivariate statistical methods in analyzing heart rate data. Special attention is given to those problems and solutions which have potential application to the analysis of infant heart rate data. A flowchart is presented which may guide the researcher in the appropriate use of the several statistical techniques reviewed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selection of heart period versus heart rate as a chronotropic metric has been considered from quantitative and statistical perspectives, which have not yielded a universal preference for either metric. In the present paper, we discuss biometric considerations that bear on the selection of the optimal chronotropic metric. Biometric evidence reveals that the transfer functions relating autonomic nerve traffic to chronotropic effects on the heart are more nearly linear for heart period than for heart rate. This confers considerable advantage on heart period as a chronotropic metric and can facilitate the study of psychophysiological relationships. We further show that heart period offers greater flexibility, because heart period data can be evaluated in cardiac time units (beats) or in real-time units (s), whereas heart rate data can only be analyzed in real time. These considerations suggest clear advantages to heart period as a chronotropic metric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary findings reveal that autonomic control of dually innervated target organs cannot adequately be viewed as a continuum extending from parasympathetic to sympathetic dominance. Rather, a two-dimensional autonomic space, bounded by sympathetic and parasympathetic axes, is the minimal representation necessary to characterize the multiple modes of autonomic control. We have previously considered the theoretical implications of this view and have developed quantitative conceptual models of the formal properties of autonomic space and its translation into target organ effects. In the present paper, we further develop this perspective by an empirical instantiation of the quantitative autonomic space model for the control of cardiac chronotropy in the rat. We show that this model (a) provides a more comprehensive characterization of cardiac response than simple measures of end-organ state, (b) permits a parsing of the multiple transformations underlying psychophysiological responses, (c) illuminates and subsumes psychophysiological principles, such as the Law of Initial Values, (d) reveals an interpretive advantage of expressing cardiac chronotropy in heart period rather than heart rate, and (e) has fundamental implications for the direction and interpretation of a broad range of psychophysiological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes efforts to reduce measurement error in the assessment of cardiovascular reactivity by standardizing task requirements and by aggregating data across tasks and testing sessions. Using these methods, reliable measures of reactivity (.80 or greater) were obtained on five different measures of cardiovascular function (heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, stroke volume, pre-ejection period) in samples of college students and community volunteers. Methodological limitations may have hampered previous efforts in this area. Current findings are consistent with a dispositional model of cardiovascular reactivity, and they suggest productive future strategies for obtaining reliable assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research concerns the ability of humans to discriminate variations in their own Wood pressure in comparing two successive 5-s periods, and the effects of discrimination training (knowledge of results) on their performance. The subjects were 72 healthy male volunteers studied under various conditions. Continuous recordings were made of blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration. Without knowledge of results, discrimination of systolic blood pressure occurred at chance levels, but performance improved significantly over two sessions of discrimination training. This improvement was not maintained in a subsequent session in which no feedback was provided. Discrimination of diastolic blood pressure achieved significant levels when subjects were given knowledge of results. In general, the larger the difference to be discriminated in pressure, the better the performance. The paper also discusses relationships between blood pressure discrimination performance and simultaneous variations in heart rate and respiration, post-session subjective reports, and the role of cuff pressure changes in performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the inherent discrepancy between the mean heart rate computed from a series of cardiotachometer data points and the true average heart rate. A mathematical proof that the man cardiotachometer rate always exceeds the true rate when individual beats are sampled in the presence of variability is given. Examples which illustrate the magnitude of the discrepancy also are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]