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We examined the neural correlates of resting cardiac vagal activity in a sample of 432 participants (206 male; 61 African American; mean age 42 years). Pulsed arterial spin labeling was used to quantify whole brain and regional cerebral blood flow at rest. High-frequency heart rate variability ( HF- HRV) was used to measure cardiac vagal activity at rest. The primary aim was to determine whether brain regions implicated in regulating cardiac vagal reactions were also related to cardiac vagal activity at rest, and whether these associations varied by sex or race. Brain areas previously related to vagal reactivity were related to resting HF- HRV. Directionality of relationships differed between overall and regional flows. Some relationships were only observed in women and African Americans. There appears to be communality between brain regions associated with task-induced vagal reactivity and those associated with resting cardiac vagal activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to investigate the possible mechanisms linking a single–item measure of global self-rated health (SRH) with morbidity by comparing the association strengths between SRH with markers of autonomic nervous system (ANS) function, inflammation, blood glucose and blood lipids. Cross–sectional comprehensive health–check data of 3947 working adults (age 42±11) was used to calculate logistic regressions, partial correlations and compare correlation strength using Olkins Z. Adjusted logistic regression models showed a negative association between SRH (higher values indicating worse health) and measures of heart rate variability (HRV). Glycemic markers were positively associated with poor SRH. No adjusted association was found with inflammatory markers, BP or lipids. In both unadjusted and adjusted linear models Pearson’s correlation strength was significantly higher between SRH with HRV measures compared to SRH with other biomarkers. This is the first study investigating the association of ANS function and SRH. We showed that a global measure of SRH is associated with HRV, and that all measures of ANS function were significantly more strongly associated with SRH than any other biomarker. The current study supports the hypothesis that the extent of brain–body communication, as indexed by HRV, is associated with self-rated health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: Increases in resting-state heart rate and decreases in its variability are associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, yet contradictory findings have been reported for the effects of the mood and anxiety disorders and of antidepressants. The authors investigated heart rate and heart rate variability in a large cohort from Brazil, using propensity score weighting, a relatively novel method, to control for numerous potential confounders. METHOD: A total of 15,105 participants were recruited in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health. Mood and anxiety disorders were ascertained using the Portuguese version of the Clinical Interview Schedule-Revised. Heart rate and its variability were extracted from 10-minute resting-state electrocardiograms. Regressions weighted by propensity scores were carried out to compare participants with and without depressive or anxiety disorders, as well as users and non-users of antidepressants, on heart rate and heart rate variability. RESULTS: Use of antidepressants was associated with increases in heart rate and decreases in its variability. Effects were most pronounced for the tricyclic antidepressants (Cohen's d, 0.72-0.81), followed by serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (Cohen's d, 0.42-0.95) and other antidepressants (Cohen's d, 0.37-0.40), relative to participants not on antidepressants. Only participants with generalized anxiety disorder showed robust, though small, increases in heart rate and decreases in its variability after propensity score weighting. CONCLUSIONS: The findings may, in part, underpin epidemiological findings of increased risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Many factors that have an adverse impact on cardiac activity were controlled for in this study, highlighting the importance of cardiovascular risk reduction strategies. Further study is needed to examine whether, how, and when such effects contribute to morbidity and mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate whether interindividual differences in autonomic inhibitory control predict safety learning and fear extinction in an interoceptive fear conditioning paradigm. Data from a previously reported study (N = 40) were extended (N = 17) and re-analyzed to test whether healthy participants' resting heart rate variability (HRV) - a proxy of cardiac vagal tone - predicts learning performance. The conditioned stimulus (CS) was a slight sensation of breathlessness induced by a flow resistor, the unconditioned stimulus (US) was an aversive short-lasting suffocation experience induced by a complete occlusion of the breathing circuitry. During acquisition, the paired group received 6 paired CS-US presentations; the control group received 6 explicitly unpaired CS-US presentations. In the extinction phase, both groups were exposed to 6 CS-only presentations. Measures included startle blink EMG, skin conductance responses (SCR) and US-expectancy ratings. Resting HRV significantly predicted the startle blink EMG learning curves both during acquisition and extinction. In the unpaired group, higher levels of HRV at rest predicted safety learning to the CS during acquisition. In the paired group, higher levels of HRV were associated with better extinction. Our findings suggest that the strength or integrity of prefrontal inhibitory mechanisms involved in safety- and extinction learning can be indexed by HRV at rest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the relationship between tonic-a correlate of self-regulatory functioning-and phasic cardiac vagal activity (indexed by heart rate variability; HRV) during a selective attentional task with varying levels of load. Participants detected a target letter among letter strings superimposed on either fearful or neutral face distractors. Letter strings consisted of six target letters under low load and one target letter and five nontarget letters under high load. With fearful distractors, lower tonic HRV was associated with phasic HRV suppression, suggesting an autonomic stress response under both low and high load. In contrast, higher tonic HRV was associated with phasic HRV enhancement, suggesting greater self-regulatory effort under low load and an absence of phasic HRV suppression under high load. The current research suggests that tonic cardiac vagal tone is associated with the ability to flexibly adapt autonomic responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers in a variety of biomedical fields have utilized frequency domain properties of heart rate variability (HRV), or the elapsed time between consecutive heart beats. HRV is measured from the electrocardiograph signal through the interbeat interval series. Popular approaches for estimating power spectra from these interval data apply common spectral analysis methods that are designed for the analysis of evenly sampled time series. The application of these methods to the interbeat interval series, which is indexed over an uneven time grid, requires a bias-inducing transformation. The goal of this article is to explore the use of penalized sum of squares for nonparametric estimation of the spectrum of HRV directly from the interbeat intervals. A novel cross-validation procedure is introduced for smoothing parameter selection. Empirical properties of the proposed estimation procedure are explored and compared with popular methods in a simulation study. The proposed method is used in an analysis of data from an insomnia study, which seeks to illuminate the association between the power spectrum of HRV during different periods of sleep with response to behavioral therapy. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The cold pressor task ( CPT) was originally developed as a clinically indicative cardiovascular test, and quantifies vascular response and pulse excitability when a subject's hand is immersed into ice water. Since the test procedure results in a gradually increasing cold pain, the CPT has been widely used as a nociceptive stimulus in experimental studies on adults and children. Aim To evaluate the test-retest stability of response patterns using the CPT as a measure of pain threshold and pain tolerance. Materials and Methods In the present study, sixty-one undergraduate students received painful stimulation using the CPT either at 4°C or 6°C. Measurements of pain threshold, pain tolerance and pain intensity ratings using the short form of the Mc Gill pain questionnaire ( SF- MPQ), were derived. The assessment was repeated twice over an interval of 2 weeks. Test-Retest stability was assessed within a three-layered approach, using ANOVAs, interclass correlation coefficients and standard error of the mean. A Bland- Altman analysis was also performed. Possible predictors of pain threshold and pain tolerance were assessed using random effect panel regression models. Results No significant differences emerged as a function of temperature (4°C or 6°C) on pain threshold, pain tolerance, and pain ratings. Environmental variables (room temperature and humidity) show no impact on measures of pain threshold and pain tolerance. Conclusion Consistent with previous findings, regression analysis reveals that age is significantly associated with pain tolerance. The CPT procedure shows excellent 2 week test-retest stability to assess pain threshold and pain tolerance within a student population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Persons with higher blood pressure have emotional dampening in some contexts. This may reflect interactive changes in central nervous system control of affect and autonomic function in the early stages of hypertension development.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the independence of cardiovascular emotional dampening from alexithymia to better understand the role of affect dysregulation in blood pressure elevations.Methods: Ninety-six normotensives were assessed for resting systolic and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, recognition of emotions in faces and sentences using the Perception of Affect Task (PAT), alexithymia, anxiety, and defensiveness.Results: Resting DBP significantly predicted PAT emotion recognition accuracy in men after adjustment for age, self-reported affect, and alexithymia.Conclusions: Cardiovascular emotional dampening is independent of alexithymia and affect in men. Dampened emotion recognition could potentially influence interpersonal communication and psychosocial distress, thereby further contributing to BP dysregulation and increased cardiovascular risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological hardiness characterizes people who remain healthy under psychosocial stress. The present exploratory study investigates possible links between hardiness and several immune and neuroendocrine markers: IL-6, IL-12, IL-4, IL-10, & neuropeptide-Y. A total of 21 Norwegian navy cadets were studied in the context of a highly stressful military field exercise. Blood samples were collected midway, and again late in the exercise when stress levels were highest. Psychological hardiness (including commitment, control, and challenge) was measured two days before the exercise. While all subjects scored high in hardiness, some were high only in commitment and control, but relatively low in challenge. These “unbalanced” hardiness subjects were also more stress reactive, showing suppressed proinflammatory cytokines (IL-12), increased anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, IL-10), and lower neuropeptide-Y levels as compared to the hardiness-balanced group. This study thus shows that being high in hardiness with a balanced profile is linked to more moderate and healthy immune and neuroendocrine responses to stress. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Background: We tested the hypothesis that subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) participates in concurrently regulating shifts in both affective state and cardiac vagal control. Methods: Eleven healthy adults and 8 depressed subjects performed the Emotional Counting Stroop task in alternating 15-second blocks of emotion words and neutral words while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electrocardiography (ECG). We measured the absolute value of change between adjacent 15-second blocks in both cardiac vagal control and the BOLD signal in specific regions of interest. Results: Strong positive correlations were observed in healthy control participants between changes in cardiac vagal control and changes in BOLD signal intensity in sgACC (BA25) (right: r=.67, p<.02; left r=.69, p<.02), as well as other key structures in the medial visceromotor network. Depressed subjects showed no significant correlations between cardiac vagal control and BOLD signal intensity within BA25 or any other brain region examined. During the transition from depression-specific emotion blocks to neutral blocks, the correlation between BOLD signal change in BA25 and cardiac vagal control change was significantly greater in controls than in depressed subjects (p<.04). Conclusions: Findings in healthy volunteers suggest that sgACC participates in affective state shifting. The latter function appears to be altered in depressed individuals, and may have implications for the unvarying mood and vagal dysfunction associated with depression. Limitations: Limitations include a small sample size, an inability to disentangle afferent versus efferent contributions to the results, and the lack of a whole-brain analysis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] We utilize a systematic review in accordance with the PRISMA statement. [•] We encompass different operationalizations of stress at work. [•] Adverse psychosocial work conditions are negatively associated with vagally-mediated HRV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Patients with panic disorder (PD) are known to report impaired sleep quality and symptoms of insomnia. PD is an anxiety disorder characterised by deficient physiological regulation as measured by heart rate variability (HRV), and reduced HRV, PD and insomnia have all been related to impaired inhibitory ability. The present study aimed to investigate the interrelationships between subjectively reported sleep impairment, cognitive inhibition and vagally mediated HRV in a sample characterised by variability on measures of all these constructs. Methods: Thirty-six patients with PD with or without agoraphobia were included. Cognitive inhibition was assessed with the Color–Word Interference Test from the Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS), HRV was measured using high frequency (HF) power (ms2), and subjectively reported sleep quality was measured with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Results: Cognitive inhibition was related to both Sleep latency and Sleep disturbances, whereas HRV was only related to Sleep disturbances. These relationships were significant also after controlling for depression. Limitations: Correlational design. Conclusion: Cognitive inhibition is related to key insomnia symptoms: sleep initiation and sleep maintenance. The data supports the psychobiological inhibition model of insomnia, and extends previous findings. Possible clinical implications of these findings are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the relationship between heart rate variability (HRV) and glycemic status after controlling for metabolic syndrome (MetS) in a healthy working cohort. Background: A growing body of literature suggests that reduced HRV, a physiological marker of autonomic nervous system activity, is associated with various pathological conditions including glycemic disorders and cardiovascular diseases. The extent to which this association is confounded by other more traditional markers of cardiovascular risk, such as MetS, is unclear. Methods: We recruited 2441 study participants (age 17-65) employed at three sites of an airplane manufacturing plant in southern Germany. All subjects underwent medical examination, blood sampling, and 24-hour ambulatory heart rate recording while on their normal work routine. Indices of HRV were determined from readings made throughout the 24-hour examination period, those during either the day or night only as well as a night to day ratio. Pearson correlations and multivariate-adjusted partial correlation coefficients (PCCs) were calculated. Results: Pearson correlations suggested inverse associations between HRV measurements and glycemic status (e.g. High frequency r=-0.07, p<0.001; SDNN r=-0.09, p<0.001). After multivariate adjustment of all other components of MetS (triglyceride, blood pressure, waist circumference, high density lipoproteins), medical and demographic variables, these associations persisted (e.g. High frequency PCC=-0.05, p<0.001; SDNN PCC=-0.06, p<0.001). Conclusions: We confirm a negative correlation between HRV and glycemic status that appeared to be almost linear in a large cohort of healthy workers. Importantly, we showed that this association was independent of potential confounders, especially all of the MetS components and inflammation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objectives: The current study investigates heart rate variability (HRV) responses to a psychosocial stressor in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients, and the potential role of anxiety as a confounding factor in this relationship. Additionally, this study also investigates the influence of anxiety on sleep and depressive symptoms among COPD patients. Methods: The study utilized a 2 (disease status)×2 (anxiety group) factorial design examining HRV associated with anxiety symptoms and COPD during a standardized acute social stress task. Participants (mean age 59.1±11.2years; 50% female) completed pulmonary function testing, HRV monitoring, and self-report questionnaires assessing psychological factors. 30 COPD patients were age- and gender-matched with 30 healthy controls. Results: HRV response to a psychosocial stressor among participants with higher anxiety (both COPD and healthy) reflected autonomic dysregulation in both time and frequency domains that was not evident among non-anxious participants. COPD participants with higher anxiety reported greater symptoms of depression and poorer sleep quality than did COPD participants with low anxiety. Conclusions: Anxiety is associated with dysregulated HRV response to a psychosocial stressor, but the negative influence of anxiety and COPD on autonomic function did not appear to be additive. Comorbid anxiety in patients with COPD is associated with increased behavioral and psychological symptoms of distress. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We examined whether cardiac vagal tone (indexed by heart rate variability, HRV) was associated with the functioning of selective attention under load. Participants were instructed to detect a target letter among letter strings superimposed on either fearful or neutral distractor faces. Under low load, when letter strings consisted of six target letters, there was no difference between people with high and low HRV on task performance. Under high load, when letter strings consisted of one target letter and five nontarget letters, people with high HRV were faster in trials with neutral distractors, but not with fearful distractors. However, people with low HRV were slower in trials with both fearful and neutral distractors. The current research suggests cardiac vagal tone is associated with successful control of selective attention critical for goal-directed behavior, and its impact is greater when fewer cognitive resources are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Heart rate variability (HRV) is reduced in patients who suffer from panic disorder (PD). Reduced HRV is related to hypoactivity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which negatively affects executive functioning. The present study assessed the relationships between vagally mediated HRV at baseline and measures of executive functioning in 36 patients with PD. Associations between these physiological and cognitive measures and panic-related variables were also investigated. HRV was measured using HF-power (ms2), and executive functions were assessed with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Color-Word Interference Test (CWIT) from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS). Panic-related variables comprised panic frequency, panic-related distress, and duration of PD. Performance on the neuropsychological measures correlated significantly with HRV. Both panic-related distress and duration of PD were inversely related with measures of HRV and cognitive inhibition. The current findings support the purported relationship between HRV and executive functions involving the PFC. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objective: This study tested the relationship between individual differences and Situation Awareness (SA) during training in a navigation simulator. Background: Simulators have become an important tool in the training and education of maritime personnel with a view to improving decisions and performance. There are a few, inconclusive empirical studies that have focused on mapping personality characteristics and their link to the ability to generate and maintain SA during simulator training. Method: Thirty-six first-year students from the Royal Norwegian Navy Officer Candidate School participated in the study. SA was measured using both subjective and observer ratings. Results: The results indicated that low scores on Neuroticism and high scores on Extraversion and Conscientiousness (resilient personality type) predicted both subjective and observer-rated SA. Furthermore, participants with high SA were able to modulate their Heart Rate Variability (HRV), with suppression of HRV during navigation training as well showing recovery of HRV. Application: The potential applications of this research include the assessment of personality differences as a tool in selecting navigators, and the use of HRV as an objective index of adaptability to environmental demands. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The neurovisceral integration model () proposes that vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV)—an index of cardiac vagal tone—is associated with autonomic flexibility and emotional self-regulation. Two experiments examined the relationship between vagally mediated HRV and visual perception of affectively significant stimuli at different spatial frequencies. In Experiment 1, HRV was positively correlated with superior performance discriminating the emotion of affectively significant (i.e., fearful) faces at high spatial frequency (HSF). In Experiment 2, processing goals moderated the relationship between HRV and successful discrimination of HSF fearful faces. In contrast to Experiment 1, discriminating the expressiveness of HSF fearful faces was not correlated with HRV. The current research suggests that HRV is positively associated with superior visual discrimination of affectively significant stimuli at high spatial frequency, and this relationship may be sensitive to the top-down influence of different processing goals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

While frank obesity is associated with reduced HRV, indicative of poorer autonomic nervous system (ANS) function, the association between body mass index (BMI) and HRV is less clear. We hypothesized that effects of adiposity on ANS are mostly mediated by visceral fat and less by subcutaneous fat; therefore, centrally distributed adipose tissue, that is, waist circumference (WC), should be more strongly associated with HRV than overall adiposity (BMI). To examine this hypothesis, we used data collected in a subset of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging to compare strength of association between HRV and WC to that of HRV and BMI. Time domain HRV variables SDNN (standard deviation of successive differences in normal-to-normal (N-N) intervals) and RMSSD (root mean square of successive differences in N-N intervals) were calculated from 24-hour Holter recordings in 159 participants (29-96 years). Increasing WC was associated with decreasing SDNN and RMSSD in younger but not older participants (P value for WC-by-age interaction = 0.003). BMI was not associated with either SDNN or RMSSD at any age. In conclusion, central adiposity may contribute to sympathetic and parasympathetic ANS declines early in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic stress has been linked to hypertension, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly specified. We suggest that chronic stress poses a risk for hypertension through repeated occurrence of acute stressors (often stemming from the chronic stress context) that cause activation of stress-mediating physiological systems. Previous models have often focused on the magnitude of the acute physiological response as a risk factor; we attempt to extend this to address the issue of duration of exposure. Key to our model is the notion that these acute stressors can emerge not only in response to stressors present in the environment, but also to mental representations of those (or other) stressors. Consequently, although the experience of any given stressor may be brief, a stressor often results in a constellation of negative cognitions and emotions that form a mental representation of the stressor. Ruminating about this mental representation of the stressful event can cause autonomic activation similar to that observed in response to the original incident, and may occur and persist long after the event itself has ended. Thus, rumination helps explain how chronic stress causes repeated (acute) activation of one's stress-mediating physiological systems, the effects of which accumulate over time, resulting in hypertension risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic stress has been linked to hypertension, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly specified. We suggest that chronic stress poses a risk for hypertension through repeated occurrence of acute stressors (often stemming from the chronic stress context) that cause activation of stress-mediating physiological systems. Previous models have often focused on the magnitude of the acute physiological response as a risk factor; we attempt to extend this to address the issue of duration of exposure. Key to our model is the notion that these acute stressors can emerge not only in response to stressors present in the environment, but also to mental representations of those (or other) stressors. Consequently, although the experience of any given stressor may be brief, a stressor often results in a constellation of negative cognitions and emotions that form a mental representation of the stressor. Ruminating about this mental representation of the stressful event can cause autonomic activation similar to that observed in response to the original incident, and may occur and persist long after the event itself has ended. Thus, rumination helps explain how chronic stress causes repeated (acute) activation of one's stress-mediating physiological systems, the effects of which accumulate over time, resulting in hypertension risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Depressed adults are more likely to become nicotine dependent and smokers are at increased risk for depression. Smoking and depression are each associated with inflammation and vagal tone. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine as to what extent the association between depression and smoking is mediated by inflammation and/or vagal tone. Methods: We studied a cross-sectional occupational sample ( n = 647) with information on the number of cigarettes smoked per day and depression (as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale). Heart rate variability, an indicator of vagal tone, was measured by electrocardiographic recordings. Inflammatory markers included C-reactive protein, white blood cells, and fibrinogen. Linear regression was employed along with the Freedman–Schatzkin test to assess mediation. Results: We observed a positive association between depression and smoking ( p < 0.05). Vagal tone and fibrinogen were found to weakly attenuate this association. Conclusion: These are the first data to demonstrate that the association between depression and smoking may partially be mediated by vagal tone and fibrinogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research was designed to extend the literature on heart rate variability (HRV) in cognitive performance contexts by examining whether a subtle threat cue (the color red) in a test environment influences HRV reactivity and whether HRV reactivity is associated with change in cognitive performance. Thirty-three participants took an IQ test, briefly viewed red or a chromatic or achromatic control color, and then took a parallel form of the IQ test. High frequency (HF)-HRV (often referred to as respiratory sinus arrhythmia), was assessed before and after the color manipulation. Results indicated that participants who viewed red (relative to a control color) exhibited a decrease in HF-HRV and that decreased HF-HRV was associated with worse IQ performance. These findings demonstrate the sensitivity of HRV as an index of effective and efficient emotion regulation in an achievement context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between vitamin D levels and cognition, both executive and nonexecutive functions, in men incarcerated in a Norwegian prison. Participants were divided into high vitamin D and low vitamin D groups based on established criteria (high level ≥50 nmol/L; low level < 50 nmol/L). The mean vitamin D concentration was 69 (SD = 12) and 38 (SD = 9) nmol/L in the high-level group (n = 14) and the low level group (n = 11), respectively. Results revealed that the high vitamin D group had significantly more correct responses than the low vitamin D group on the executive function task. There was no difference between the groups on the nonexecutive function task. The reaction time data indicated that the high levels of correct responses in the high vitamin D group on the executive function tasks were not due to a speed-accuracy trade-off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Fatigue is a notable clinical problem in cancer survivors, and understanding its pathophysiology is important. This study evaluated relationships between fatigue and both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity in breast cancer survivors. Norepinephrine and heart rate variability (HRV) were evaluated at rest, as well as during and after a standardized laboratory speech and mental arithmetic stressor. The participants, 109 women who had completed treatment for stage 0–IIIA breast cancer within the past two years, were at least two months post surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, whichever occurred last. Women who reported more fatigue had significantly higher norepinephrine and lower HRV before and after the stressor than their less fatigued counterparts. Fatigue was not related to treatment or disease variables including treatment type, cancer stage, time since diagnosis, and time since treatment. Importantly, the relationship between HRV and cancer-related fatigue was sizeable. Based on research that has demonstrated characteristic age-related HRV decrements, our findings suggest a 20-year difference between fatigued and non-fatigued cancer survivors, raising the possibility that fatigue may signify accelerated aging. Furthermore, lower HRV and elevated norepinephrine have been associated with a number of adverse health outcomes; accordingly, fatigue may also signal the need for increased vigilance to other health threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maintenance of relationship quality requires self-regulation of emotion and social behavior, and women often display greater effort in this regard than do men. Furthermore, such efforts can deplete the limited capacity for self-regulation. In recent models of self-regulation, resting level of respiratory sinus arrhythmia, quantified as high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), is an indicator of self-regulatory capacity, whereas transient increases in HF-HRV reflect self-regulatory effort. To test these hypotheses in marriage, 114 young couples completed measures of marital quality and a positive, neutral, or negative initial marital task, preceded and followed by resting baseline assessments of HF-HRV. Couples then discussed a current marital disagreement. Resting HF-HRV was correlated with marital quality, suggesting that capacity for self-regulation is associated with adaptive functioning in close relationships. For women but not men, the negative initial task produced a decrease in resting HF-HRV. This effect was mediated by the husbands' negative affect response to the task and their ratings of wives as controlling and directive. When the subsequent disagreement discussion followed the negative initial task, women displayed increased HF-HRV during the discussion but a decrease when it followed the neutral or positive task. The valence of the initial task had no effect on men's HF-HRV during disagreement. Negative marital interactions can reduce women's resting HF-HRV, with potentially adverse health consequences. Women's reduced health benefit from marriage might reflect the depleting effects on self-regulatory capacity of their greater efforts to manage relationship quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: Previous research has suggested that the association between work stress and heart disease is more pronounced in young than in old employees. Similar age specificity may apply to the relation between work stress and heart rate variability (HRV), but data on this issue is sparse. We aimed to assess the age-specificity of the work stress-HRV association in greater detail. Methods: We used cross-sectional data from an occupational cohort (n=591) from Germany. Work stress was assessed using the job content and the effort-reward-imbalance (ERI) questionnaires. HRV was recorded over 24 h and was divided into three periods of the day (work time, leisure time, sleep time). Partial correlation coefficients (PCCs) were calculated for four age groups (17–34, 35–44, 45–54, and 55–65 years). Further, multilevel growth curve models (GCM) were run to examine whether age may modify potential work stress-HRV associations in a non-linear fashion. Results: Job strain and HRV were unrelated in either analytical approach and this association was not modified by age. In contrast, using PCCs ERI was only related to HRV during work (PCC=−0.231, P<.01) and leisure time (PCC=−0.195, P<.05) in employees aged 35–44. Multilevel GCM models confirmed this finding. Conclusion: The inverse association between work stress as measured by ERI and HRV appears to be most pronounced in workers aged 35–44. These findings may partly be explained by age-dependent HRV declines, age-related differences in career attitudes or increased susceptibility among those aged 35–44 due to facing multiple different stressors at the same time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cancer incidence and mortality rates in Hungary are the highest in the Central-Eastern European region. Our investigative study examined associations of cancer-prone behavioral risk factors, psychosocial variables and demographic characteristics with cancer treatment on a population level. Data were obtained from the Hungarostudy 2002, a cross-sectional, representative survey of the adult Hungarian population (n=12643). Controlling for all other study variables in a binary logistic regression model, results revealed that the odds of having been treated for cancer were almost twice as high among persons with depression and respondents who experienced negative life events than for those who were not depressed and reported no negative life events. These results send a warning signal to the Hungarian health care system regarding the widespread need for education, prevention, psycho-social screening programs and treatment of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The ability to produce appropriate physiological and psychological responses to stressful situations depends on accurate recognition and appraisal of such situations. Such ability is also important for proper emotion regulation. A number of studies have suggested that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a significant role in emotion regulation, as well as in the control of physiological endpoints of emotion regulation such as the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and autonomic nervous system (ANS). Further, recent work has suggested that men and women may differ in these mechanisms of neural control of emotion regulation. Here, we examined the role of the human mPFC in self-report, ANS, and HPA stress reactivity by testing a group of participants with damage to this region (9 women and 9 men), a brain damaged comparison group (6 women and 6 men), and healthy comparison participants (27 women and 27 men) on an orthostatic challenge and the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). The mPFC participants showed heightened self-reported stress in response to the TSST. In women, mPFC damage led to an increased cortisol response to the TSST. By contrast, in men, greater volume of mPFC damage was correlated with a decreased cortisol response. Finally, men with mPFC damage showed altered autonomic control of the heart (higher heart rate and lower high frequency heart rate variability) during an orthostatic challenge. These findings support the idea that the mPFC is involved in the regulation of physiological and psychological responses to stress and that this regulation may differ between men and women. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Slow cardiovascular (CV) recovery after stress is a predictor of adverse CV outcomes. Perseverative cognition (PC) about stress has been hypothesized to co-determine slow recovery. In the present study, it was investigated whether two types of trait PC, i.e. trait worry and trait rumination, predicted delayed cardiac recovery after a cognitive stressor. Furthermore, it was examined whether explicit state PC (i.e. negative intrusive thoughts) or implicit state PC (i.e. automatic vigilance) additionally predicted delayed cardiac recovery. Fifty-nine participants performed a stressful task, which consisted of an unsolvable synonym task. After a 6-minute recovery period, participants reported on their level of negative intrusive thoughts (i.e. explicit state PC), and performed a lexical decision task (LDT) to measure automatic vigilance for task-related information (i.e. implicit state PC). Cardiac activity was continuously measured using heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). Trait worry and rumination were measured by the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and the Ruminative Response Scale (RRS), respectively. The results showed that high trait worriers had a slower HR recovery from the cognitive stressor compared to low trait worriers. They also showed delayed HRV recovery, but only when the tendency to dwell upon one''s negative mood (the ‘brooding’ subscale of the RRS) was low. Slow HR recovery was associated with high levels of negative intrusive thoughts and with automatic vigilance, but in the unexpected direction for the latter. These results provide evidence that delayed cardiac recovery is associated with trait as well as state PC, and suggest that brooding attenuates the HRV suppressing effect of high trait worry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Worry has been associated with adverse mental and somatic health outcomes, which have been attributed to the pathogenic physiological activity caused by worry. However, experimental evidence is scarce, and existing studies did not address whether the physiological effects of worry do actually exceed those of mere mental load during cognitive problem solving. In the present experiment, heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) of fifty-three participants were continuously measured during induced worrying, problem solving concerning issues that were not personally relevant, and relaxation. The results showed that HR was higher and HRV lower during both worrying and problem solving than during relaxation. Differences in emotional responses did not account for these results. This suggests that mere mental load is responsible for - at least a part of - the physiological effects of worry. Consequently, long term health effects of worry might be due to prolonged mental load of worry rather than to its emotional aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Identifying brain systems that regulate or modulate autonomic nervous system functions may identify pathways through which psychosocial factors can influence health and disease. Reduced high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) characterizes anxiety disordered patients and is predictive of adverse myocardial events. Sex differences in the prevalence of anxiety disorders and cardiac diseases implicate the possibility of sex specific neural regulation of HF-HRV. We investigated the correlation between HF-HRV and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in 28 subjects (15 women) with social phobia undergoing a stressful public speaking task. Regional CBF was measured with [15O] water positron emission tomography. Stress induced rCBF correlated positively with HF-HRV in the right supra genual anterior cingulate cortex Brodmann''s area (BA) 32, the right head of the caudate nucleus and bilaterally in the medial prefrontal cortex (BA10), extending into the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA46) in the left hemisphere. Men showed larger positive co-variation in the caudate than women. These findings underscore the importance of the emotional division of the anterior cingulate cortex, the prefrontal cortex and the striatum in cardiovagal activity. The study replicates and extends results from published functional neuroimaging studies on cardioregulatory or modulatory areas in healthy subjects to men and women with social phobia. Moreover, caudate functions, possibly related to dopaminergic neurotransmission, have sexually dimorphic effects on vagal modulation of the heart. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: Few longitudinal studies have examined ethnic and sex differences, predictors and tracking stabilities of heart rate variability (HRV) at rest and in response to stress in youths and young adults. Methods: Two evaluations were performed approximately 1.5 years apart on 399 youths and young adults (189 European Americans [EAs] and 210 African Americans [AAs]; 190 males and 209 females). HRV was measured at rest and during a video game challenge. Results: AAs showed significantly higher resting root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) of normal R–R intervals and high-frequency (HF) power than EAs (ps<0.01). Females displayed larger decrease of RMSSD and HF during video game challenge than males (ps<0.05). These ethnic and sex differences were consistent across 1.5 years. No significant sex difference of resting HRV or ethnic difference of HRV response to stress was observed. In addition to age, ethnicity or sex, baseline resting HRV or HRV response to stress are predictors of the corresponding variables 1.5 years later (ps<0.01). Furthermore, weight gain indexed by either body mass index or waist circumference predicts declined resting HRV levels during follow up (ps<0.05). Tracking stabilities were high (>0.5) for resting HRV, but relatively low (<0.3) for HRV in response to stress. Conclusion: AAs show higher resting HRV than EAs, and females display greater HRV response to stress than males; and these ethnic and sex differences are consistent across 1.5 years. Resting HRV declines with weight gain. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Earlier studies have demonstrated that music interventions can lessen symptoms of depression. Depression and burnout are closely related. We hypothesized that specially designed receptive music therapy programs and protocols might reduce the symptoms of burnout. In a four-arm randomized, placebo- and waiting-list-controlled double-blind study, including 150 participants, two specific music programs significantly reduced burnout symptoms after 5 weeks. The effects were maintained over a long time period. This newly developed method of receptive music therapy was also evaluated for the treatment of depression and dysthymia, with significant outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested whether the heritability of heart rate variability (HRV) under stress is different from rest and its dependency on ethnicity or gender. HRV indexed by root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) and high-frequency (HF) power was measured at rest and during 3 stressors in 427 European and 308 African American twins. No ethnic or gender differences were found for any measures. There was a nonsignificant increase in heritability of RMSSD (from 0.48 to 0.58) and HF (from 0.50 to 0.58) under stress. Up to 81% and 60% of the heritabilities of RMSSD and HF under stress could be attributed to genes influencing rest levels. The heritabilities due to genes expressed under stress were 0.11 for RMSSD and 0.23 for HF. The findings suggest that, independent of ethnicity and gender, HRV regulation at rest and under stress is largely influenced by the same genes with a small but significant contribution of stress-specific genetic effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Circulating progenitor cells have been implicated with maintaining vascular integrity. Low counts are found in adults with high cardiovascular risk and are associated with impaired endothelial function. It remains unknown whether psychosocial risk factors are independently related to counts of circulating progenitor cells. Methods: We investigated a random sample of 468 adult industrial employees (mean age 41.2 years, 89% men) of Caucasian origin. Cardiovascular risk factors (blood pressure, LDL, HDL and C-reactive protein), health behavior (smoking, alcohol and physical exercise), psychological variables (effort-reward imbalance social support, negative affectivity) and interaction terms served as predictors of circulating progenitor cells (CD34+ CD31dim) as enumerated by flow-cytometry. Findings: Psychosocial variables were independently associated with progenitor cell counts. The association with risk factors increased with age (explained variance in 18–36 year olds R 2 =0.17, p =0.55; age 36.1–46 R 2 =0.32, p =0.001; age>46 R 2 =0.27, p <0.001). Data revealed a shift from a larger association between behavioral and psychosocial variables and cell counts to a stronger association between biological variables and cell counts in older individuals. A significant interaction was observed between smoking and effort-reward imbalance in middle-aged subjects, those with both risk factors present had lower cell counts. In older employees, the interaction between biological risk factors and smoking was related to lower cell counts. Interpretation: In working middle-aged and older men, psychosocial risk factors were related to circulating counts of progenitor cells. Smoking interacted negatively with psychosocial risk factors (middle-aged men) or with biological risk factors (older employees). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Recent work suggests that the ability to disengage attention from threatening information is impaired in people who suffer from anxiety and dysphoria. It has been suggested that this impaired ability to disengage from threat might specifically be associated with the tendency to perseverate about threat (i.e., worry), which is a main characteristic of anxiety disorders and a wide range of other psychopathologies. However, no studies have yet addressed this issue. The present study examined whether trait worry as well as worry intensity after experimental worry induction are associated with impaired ability to disengage attention from threatening cues (angry faces), independently from or in conjunction with anxiety. Sixty-one participants performed a visual cueing experiment that required detection of a target stimulus at one of two possible locations. Prior to the target neutral, happy or angry facial cues appeared at one of these two locations; when there is a relatively long period between the cue and the target (>300ms), an overall faster responding to invalidly cued trials relative to validly cued trials is believed to indicate inhibition of return (IOR) to a recently attended location. A reduced IOR for angry faces was only found when both trait worry and anxiety were high. When anxiety was kept constant, both trait worry and state worry were associated with enhanced IOR for neutral faces instead. The results seem to suggest that specific threat-related deficiencies in IOR may be a function of the co-occurrence of worry and anxiety. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: Anticipatory anxiety, which can be indexed by the startle potentiation to a threat of shock, has been implicated in the development of panic disorder. Large individual differences exist in startle potentiation to threat of shock but few differences have been found between panic patients in general and non-anxious controls. The present studies explored resting heart rate variability (HRV) as a source of individual differences in startle potentiation in students at risk for panic disorder and in unmedicated panic patients. Methods: Participants in Study 1 were 22 students high and 21 students low in anxiety sensitivity (AS). Nine unmedicated panic patients and 15 matched non-anxious controls were included in Study 2. Startle potentiation to the threat of shock was examined as a function of AS (Study 1) and diagnostic category (Study 2) as well as resting HRV. Results: Whereas no differences in startle potentiation were found as a function of AS or panic disorder diagnosis in general, both studies revealed that low resting HRV was associated with exaggerated startle responses to the threat of shock. Conclusions: The present results replicate and extend the sparse literature on fear-potentiated startle in panic disorder. Low HRV was associated with more pronounced startle potentiation to both explicit and contextual cues. Thus, low HRV may be a useful endophenotype for at least some anxiety disorders. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The vagal (high frequency [HF]) component of heart rate variability (HRV) predicts survival in post-myocardial infarction patients and is considered to reflect vagal antagonism of sympathetic influences. Previous studies of the neural correlates of vagal tone involved mental stress tasks that included cognitive and emotional elements. To differentiate the neural substrates of vagal tone due to emotion, we correlated HF-HRV with measures of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) derived from positron emission tomography (PET) and 15O-water in 12 healthy women during different emotional states. Happiness, sadness, disgust and three neutral conditions were each induced by film clips and recall of personal experiences (12 conditions). Inter-beat intervals derived from electrocardiographic recordings during the 60-second scans were spectrally-analyzed, generating 12 separate measures of HF-HRV in each subject. The six emotion and six neutral conditions were grouped together and contrasted. We observed substantial overlap between emotion-specific rCBF and the correlation between emotion-specific rCBF and HF-HRV, particularly in the medial prefrontal cortex. Emotion-specific rCBF also correlated with HF-HRV in the caudate nucleus, periacqueductal gray and left mid-insula. We also observed that the elements of cognitive control inherent in this experiment (that involved focusing on the target mental state) had definable neural substrates that correlated with HF-HRV and to a large extent differed from the emotion-specific correlates of HF-HRV. No statistically significant asymmetries were observed. Our findings are consistent with the view that the medial visceromotor network is a final common pathway by which emotional and cognitive functions recruit autonomic support. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study investigated the relationship between symptom clusters of psychopathy, as measured by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare 1991), and ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion. Participants were 43 adult male inmates. Facial expressions of emotion were taken from Ekman and Frisen (1976). The present results indicated that there were some significant relationships between facets of psychopathy and processing of disgust facial expressions. The experiment highlighted the importance of studying specific clusters of psychopathic symptoms, as opposed to measures of global symptomatology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Appropriate regulation of emotions is an important component of health. The physiological effects of coping with anger are a topic of particular interest. In a pioneering series of studies Hokanson found that the mode of anger expression following anger instigation had differential effects on vascular recovery. These differential effects were thought to be a result of social learning of avoidance responses. The present study examined this hypothesis in the context of ethnic differences in cardiovascular recovery responses to anger instigation. Twenty-four African American (AA) and 26 European American (EA) males engaged in two debates, one racially themed and one non-racially themed, with an EA confederate. Cardiovascular measures were recorded at baseline, during the debates and during 10-minute recovery periods following each debate. Anger expression preceding the recovery period was manipulated such that half the participants could express their anger toward the confederate and half had to inhibit their anger toward the confederate. Results showed that both AA and EA participants that inhibited their anger had delayed total peripheral resistance recovery. Importantly, for the other dependent variables differential recovery responses were observed such that EA participants that expressed their anger recovered more quickly whereas AA participants that expressed their anger recovered more slowly. These results are consistent with Hokanson''s social learning theory of recovery from anger instigation and have important implications for research on emotion regulation and health. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the four facets of Hare's Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991; Bolt, Hare, Vitale, & Newman, 2004) were related to physiological and cognitive mechanisms. Fifty-three male prisoners participated in this study. Physiological responses were measured as heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate (HR). Cognitive functions were measured using a continuous performance test (CPT; California Computerized Assessment Package, Abbreviated version) and a working memory test (WMT); based on Baddeley & Hitch (1974). The regression analysis of the HRV revealed that the interpersonal facet explained most of the variance during baseline (28%), CPT (16%), and WMT (12%). This was also true for the HR data during baseline (28%), CPT (20%), WMT (10%), and recovery (13%). The antisocial facet explained 10% of the variance only during baseline. Subjects scoring high compared to low on the interpersonal facet also showed better cognitive functioning. The study suggests that the different facets were differently associated with both physiological and cognitive functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated whether women show larger heart rate variability (HRV) than men after controlling for a large number of health-related covariates, using two indices of HRV, namely respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and approximate entropy (ApEn). In a twin design, the heritability of both indices was examined. The covariation between RSA and ApEn, a measure of heart rate dynamics derived from nonlinear dynamical systems theory, was decomposed into genetic and environmental components. Subjects were 196 male and 210 female middle-aged twins. Females showed larger HRV than men before (ApEn: p < .001; RSA: p = .052) and after adjustment for covariates (ApEn: p < .001; RSA: p = .015). This sex difference was confirmed by significant intrapair differences in the opposite-sex twin pairs for both ApEn (p < .001) and RSA (p = .03). In addition to sex, only heart period and age (both p < .001) were found to be independent predictors of ApEn, whereas RSA was also influenced by respiration rate and smoking (both p < .001). Age explained 16% and 6% of the variance in RSA and ApEn, respectively. Oral contraceptive use and menopausal status had no effect on HRV. Genetic model fitting yielded moderate heritability estimates for RSA (30%) and ApEn (40%) for both males and females. The correlation between RSA and ApEn (r = .60) could be attributed to genetic factors (48%), environmental factors (36%) and age (16%). The present study found support for a gender difference in HRV with women having greater HRV than men even after controlling for a large number of potential confounders. Indices of heart rate dynamics derived from nonlinear dynamical systems theory are moderately heritable and may be more sensitive than traditional indices of HRV to reveal subtle sex differences with important implications for health and disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Depression is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. An important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, low heart rate variability, often has been found in depressed patients and has been associated with impulsivity. The present study investigated whether experimental lowering of serotonin would decrease heart rate variability and increase impulsivity in remitted depressed patients, in particular in those patients with disturbed impulse control. Methods: Nineteen patients in remission from depression received high-dose and low-dose acute tryptophan depletion in a randomized, counterbalanced, double-blind crossover design. Heart rate variability and impulsivity were assessed during each acute tryptophan depletion session and during a baseline session. Suicidal ideation during past depression was used as an index for individual differences in impulse control. Results: High-dose acute tryptophan depletion led to a larger increase in depressive symptoms than did low-dose acute tryptophan depletion. High-dose acute tryptophan depletion decreased heart rate variability and increased impulsivity and anxiety, but only in patients with a history of suicidal ideation. Symptom effects of high-dose acute tryptophan depletion correlated with low heart rate variability at baseline. Conclusions: Depressed patients who have problems with controlling impulsivity might be more at risk for developing cardiovascular disease, possibly related to increased vulnerability to impaired 5-hydroxytryptamine function. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A Norwegian version of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) was administered to 304 undergraduate students together with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Inventory (MOCI). The PSWQ was also administered to a community sample comprising 879 subjects, together with the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI II) and the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI). Structural equation modeling showed that a three-factor solution of the PSWQ gave the best goodness of fit. The Norwegian version of the PSWQ demonstrated adequate psychometric properties in terms of reliability and validity in both samples. Females scored higher than males on PSWQ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between physical fitness, heart rate variability (HRV) and cognitive function in 37 male sailors from the Royal Norwegian Navy. All subjects participated in an 8-week training program, after which the subjects completed the initial cognitive testing (pretest). The subjects were assigned into a detrained group (DG) and a trained group (TG) based on their application for further duty. The DG withdrew from the training program for 4 weeks after which all subjects then completed the cognitive testing again (post-test). Physical fitness, measured as maximum oxygen consumption (VO2(max)), resting HRV, and cognitive function, measured using a continuous performance task (CPT) and a working memory test (WMT), were recorded during the pre-test and the post-test, and the data presented as the means and standard deviations. The results showed no between-group differences in VO2(max) or HRV at the pre-test. The DG showed a significant decrease in VO2(max) from the pre- to the post-test and a lower resting HRV than the TG on the post-test. Whereas there were no between-group differences on the CPT or WMT at the pre-test, the TG had faster reaction times and more true positive responses on tests of executive function at the post-test compared to the pre-test. The DG showed faster reaction times on non-executive tasks at the post-test compared to the pre-test. The results are discussed within a neurovisceral integration framework linking parasympathetic outflow to the heart to prefrontal neural functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the processing of emotional stimuli during a non- sleep-deprived state and following sleep deprivation in 36 right-handed men. Using the visual half-field technique, cartoon line drawings of emotional facial expressions were flashed on a computer screen for 250 msec. The participants were instructed to remember the content of the picture seen and to recognize it among nine alternatives shown immediately after the display of a single picture. Compared to the nondeprived condition, response latencies increased and accuracy decreased in sleep deprivation. Moreover, response latencies indicated that the performance of the right hemisphere deteriorated more following sleep deprivation than did the performance of the left hemisphere. The results also showed that hemispheric preference (for response latencies and response accuracy) tended to favour the left hemisphere when the participants were tested during sleep deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports of gender differences in depressive symptoms are one of the most pervasive findings in the literature. In addition, women are frequently reported to be more emotionally sensitive than men. However, the paradox of women being more emotionally responsive and yet at greater risk for psychopathology is still to be unraveled. In the present study we examined emotional regulation as a possible factor in the gender difference in depressive symptom reporting. In a sample of young adults we replicated the frequently reported finding of greater depressive symptom reporting in women. In addition, we found women to report greater attention to emotions. This is consistent with the idea that women tend to think more and ruminate more about their emotions. However, when the variance associated with this greater attention to emotions was statistically controlled, the gender difference in depressive symptoms was no longer significant. Subsequent analyses found that women with low depressive symptoms reported greater attention to emotions without evidencing greater depressive symptoms. However, women with high depressive symptoms exhibited greater attention to emotions, more impaired antirumination emotional repair strategies, and greater reports of depressive symptoms than men with high depressive symptoms. We close by speculating about the neural concomitants of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]