How heart rate variability affects emotion regulation brain networks

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.12.017Get rights and content

Highlights

  • •

    Breathing at a 10-s (.1 Hz) rate typically increases amplitude of heart rate oscillations.

  • •

    Daily practice increasing heart rate oscillations improves emotional well-being.

  • •

    Physiological oscillations stimulate oscillatory activity in brain regions involved in emotion regulation.

  • •

    Slow (∼.1 Hz) oscillations can also modulate interactions among faster neural frequencies.

  • •

    Heart rate oscillations thereby have potential to strengthen regulatory brain networks.

Individuals with high heart rate variability tend to have better emotional well-being than those with low heart rate variability, but the mechanisms of this association are not yet clear. In this paper, we propose the novel hypothesis that by inducing oscillatory activity in the brain, high amplitude oscillations in heart rate enhance functional connectivity in brain networks associated with emotion regulation. Recent studies using daily biofeedback sessions to increase the amplitude of heart rate oscillations suggest that high amplitude physiological oscillations have a causal impact on emotional well-being. Because blood flow timing helps determine brain network structure and function, slow oscillations in heart rate have the potential to strengthen brain network dynamics, especially in medial prefrontal regulatory regions that are particularly sensitive to physiological oscillations.

Introduction

Having high heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with higher emotional well-being [1, 2, 3], including being correlated with lower levels of worry and rumination [4], lower anxiety [5], and better regulated emotional responding [6]. Thus, individuals with higher HRV appear to be better at regulating their emotions. However, it is not clear from these correlational studies if HRV is simply an output measure of regulatory brain health, or whether it somehow increases prefrontal regulation effectiveness. In healthy individuals, high HRV is not simply the result of random variability. Instead, much of the variability is due to the heart responding to physiological oscillatory signals such as breathing and blood pressure feedback, such that heart rate slows down and speeds up in a rhythmic fashion at certain frequencies. In this paper, we review findings that suggest that such oscillations in heart rate play a causal role in improving emotion regulation processes. Furthermore, we propose that high amplitude oscillations in heart rate modulate brain oscillatory activity, especially in brain regions associated with emotion regulation, and that daily episodes of synchronized activity within these networks can lead to enhanced functional connectivity strength in these emotion regulation networks even when HRV is not high.

Section snippets

Links between HRV and brain regions involved in emotion regulation

Emerging research indicates that emotion regulation and HRV are associated via the brain regions shared by both systems [7]. For instance, in a meta analysis, HRV was significantly associated with regional cerebral blood flow in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (including anterior cingulate regions) and the amygdala [7]. In both younger and older adults scanned while at rest, higher HRV (measured using the root mean square successive differences; RMSSD) was associated with higher medial

Inducing high amplitude oscillations in heart rate improves emotional well-being

High HRV could be associated with better emotion regulation simply because the same brain regions are involved in regulation of both systems, allowing HRV to serve as an indicator of the functioning of brain regulatory systems. However, recent findings (for review see [14]) suggest that HRV itself influences brain and emotional function. In these studies, participants are taught to increase their HRV by breathing at around 10 s per breath. This .1 Hz frequency is a ‘resonance’ frequency at which

Why resonance breathing increases the amplitude of heart rate oscillations

The studies reviewed above using HRV biofeedback during paced breathing take advantage of the fact that two physiological rhythms that have a strong influence over the heart rate can be coordinated to induce high amplitude heart rate oscillations. The first of these physiological rhythms is the baroreflex. The vascular branch of the baroreflex has a lag time of approximately 10 s [21]. When vessels are stretching, baroreceptors signal via the brainstem to the heart to slow down the pace of

High amplitude heart rate oscillations should promote functional connectivity, especially in brain regions involved in emotion regulation

We propose that episodes of high amplitude oscillations in heart rate (like those observed during meditative practice or HRV biofeedback) promote functional connectivity between certain brain regions, in particular among brain regions involved in emotion regulation. Why might this be the case?

First of all, brain activity is fueled by oxygen transported by blood, and so should be affected by oscillations in blood flow. Indeed, heart rate contributes to blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD)

Slow oscillations can modulate faster frequencies of neural activity

In the previous section, we laid out the case that resonance breathing is likely to lead to oscillations in brain activity. Here we argue that, in addition to provoking oscillations at the same frequency, resonance breathing should also modulate faster oscillatory activity. The power density of EEG is inversely proportional to frequency, such that more powerful and widespread slow oscillations can modulate weaker but faster local oscillations [49, 50]. Slow oscillations are also critical for

Another potential pathway of action of resonance frequency heart rate oscillations on the brain

Stimulation of the baroreflex with resonance paced breathing is also likely to modulate brainstem arousal pathways. As already touched upon, as part of their feedback loop, baroreceptors project to the nucleus of the solitary tract and stimulate both sympathoinhibitory and vagal cardioinhibitory pathways that decrease heart rate [59]. In addition to its effects on the heart, the baroreflex pathway also interacts bidirectionally with brainstem and forebrain regions that regulate arousal [59].

Conclusions

Past research has focused on heart rate variability as a downstream measure, rather than something that itself affects emotion regulation. For instance, the Neurovisceral Integration Model proposed that the medial PFC along with a core set of neural structures integrates information from different system to regulate the heart, and that HRV provides an index of the effectiveness of this ‘core integration’ system [7]. Furthermore, previous research has not distinguished whether it is random noise

Conflict of interest statement

Nothing declared.

Acknowledgements

Work on this review was supported by NIH grant R01AG057184.

References (63)

  • Y. Tong et al.

    Can apparent resting state connectivity arise from systemic fluctuations?

    Front Hum Neurosci

    (2015)
  • B.B. Biswal et al.

    Toward discovery science of human brain function

    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

    (2010)
  • L. Ma et al.

    Changes occur in resting state network of motor system during 4 weeks of motor skill learning

    Neuroimage

    (2011)
  • D.H. Heck et al.

    Breathing as a fundamental rhythm of brain function

    Front Neural Circ

    (2017)
  • H.-D. Park et al.

    Neural sources and underlying mechanisms of neural responses to heartbeats, and their role in bodily self-consciousness: an Intracranial EEG Study

    Cereb Cortex

    (2017)
  • M. Dumont et al.

    Interdependency between heart rate variability and sleep EEG: linear/non-linear?

    Clin Neurophysiol

    (2004)
  • D.L. Eckberg et al.

    Respiratory modulation of muscle sympathetic and vagal cardiac outflow in man

    J Physiol

    (1985)
  • T. Raupach et al.

    Slow breathing reduces sympathoexcitation in COPD

    Eur Respir J

    (2008)
  • F. Shaffer et al.

    A healthy heart is not a metronome: an integrative review of the heart's anatomy and heart rate variability

    Front Psychol

    (2014)
  • C. Ottaviani et al.

    Physiological concomitants of perseverative cognition: a systematic review and meta-analysis

    Psychol Bull

    (2016)
  • J.A. Chalmers et al.

    Anxiety disorders are associated with reduced heart rate variability: a meta-analysis

    Front Psychiatry

    (2014)
  • B.M. Appelhans et al.

    Heart rate variability as an index of regulated emotional responding

    Rev Gener Psychol

    (2006)
  • J.R. Jennings et al.

    Resting state connectivity of the medial prefrontal cortex covaries with individual differences in high-frequency heart rate variability

    Psychophysiology

    (2016)
  • A. Etkin et al.

    The neural bases of emotion regulation

    Nat Rev Neurosci

    (2015)
  • H.J. Yoo et al.

    Brain structural concomitants of resting state heart rate variability in the young and old: evidence from two independent samples

    Brain Struct Funct

    (2017)
  • T. Winkelmann et al.

    Structural brain correlates of heart rate variability in a healthy young adult population

    Brain Struct Funct

    (2016)
  • S.H. Woodward et al.

    Right anterior cingulate cortical volume covaries with respiratory sinus arrhythmia magnitude in combat veterans

    J Rehabil Res Dev

    (2008)
  • P.M. Lehrer et al.

    Heart rate variability biofeedback: how and why does it work?

    Front Psychol

    (2014)
  • P. Lehrer et al.

    Protocol for heart rate variability biofeedback training

    Biofeedback

    (2013)
  • V. Goessl et al.

    The effect of heart rate variability biofeedback training on stress and anxiety: a meta-analysis

    Psychol Med

    (2017)
  • M. Paul et al.

    The effect of heart rate variability biofeedback on performance psychology of basketball players

    Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback

    (2012)

    • Cited by (283)

    • Exploring the impact of computer-mediated emotional interactions on human facial and physiological responses

      2024, Telematics and Informatics Reports

    • The Predictive Potential of Heart Rate Variability for Depression

      2024, Neuroscience

    • The future of psychophysiology, then and now

      2024, Biological Psychology

    • Bidirectional brain-body interactions during natural story listening

      2024, Cell Reports

    • Resting heart rate variability is associated with neural adaptation when repeatedly exposed to emotional stimuli

      2024, Neuropsychologia

    • Effects of cortisol administration on heart rate variability and functional connectivity across women with different depression histories

      2024, Behavioural Brain Research
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text
    © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.