Heart rate variability covaries with amygdala functional connectivity during voluntary emotion regulation
Emma Tupitsa,
Ifeoma Egbuniwe,
William K. Lloyd,
Marta Puertollano,
Birthe Macdonald,
Karin Joanknecht,
Michiko Sakaki,
Carien M. van Reekum
Affiliations
Emma Tupitsa
Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Campus, Reading RG6 6AL, UK
Ifeoma Egbuniwe
Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Campus, Reading RG6 6AL, UK
William K. Lloyd
Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Campus, Reading RG6 6AL, UK; School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Marta Puertollano
Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Campus, Reading RG6 6AL, UK
Birthe Macdonald
Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Campus, Reading RG6 6AL, UK; URPP Dynamics of Healthy Ageing, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Karin Joanknecht
Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Campus, Reading RG6 6AL, UK
Michiko Sakaki
Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Research Institute, Kochi University of Technology, Kochi, Japan
Carien M. van Reekum
Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Campus, Reading RG6 6AL, UK; Corresponding author.
The Neurovisceral Integration Model posits that shared neural networks support the effective regulation of emotions and heart rate, with heart rate variability (HRV) serving as an objective, peripheral index of prefrontal inhibitory control. Prior neuroimaging studies have predominantly examined both HRV and associated neural functional connectivity at rest, as opposed to contexts that require active emotion regulation. The present study sought to extend upon previous resting-state functional connectivity findings, examining task-related HRV and corresponding amygdala functional connectivity during a cognitive reappraisal task. Seventy adults (52 older and 18 younger adults, 18–84 years, 51% male) received instructions to cognitively reappraise negative affective images during functional MRI scanning. HRV measures were derived from a finger pulse signal throughout the scan. During the task, younger adults exhibited a significant inverse association between HRV and amygdala-medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) functional connectivity, in which higher task-related HRV was correlated with weaker amygdala-mPFC coupling, whereas older adults displayed a slight positive, albeit non-significant correlation. Furthermore, voxelwise whole-brain functional connectivity analyses showed that higher task-based HRV was linked to weaker right amygdala-posterior cingulate cortex connectivity across older and younger adults, and in older adults, higher task-related HRV correlated positively with stronger right amygdala-right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex connectivity. Collectively, these findings highlight the importance of assessing HRV and neural functional connectivity during active regulatory contexts to further identify neural concomitants of HRV and adaptive emotion regulation.
