Association between changes in heart rate variability during the anticipation of a stressful situation and the stress-induced cortisol response
Pulopulos MM, Vanderhasselt MA, De Raedt R
Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2018
What the research tells us
A larger anticipatory HRV decrease was associated with greater cortisol increase, but not cortisol recovery. Adjusted task-related HRV associations with cortisol increase or recovery were nonsignificant.
Scope & interpretation
Association does not establish causal regulation. No matched non-stress control; time-of-day and participant factors matter. Peak-to-final decline is not demonstrated return to baseline.
Study at a glance
- POPULATION & SAMPLE
- 171 healthy adults: 96 men and 75 women; mean age about 30.
- EXPOSURE / INTERVENTION / SUBJECT
- Anticipation and performance of a laboratory social stress task.
- OUTCOMES
- HRV change, cortisol increase and decline from observed cortisol peak to final sample.
- TIME FRAME
- Phase-specific recordings within one laboratory session.
Cited on this site
Editorial & review record
Record for v1.0 · Updated
Editorial responsibility: TAP Editorial Team
Editorial note
Under the editorial responsibility of the TAP Editorial Team, this publication used AI assistance for content organization and editing.
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How responsibilities and review are recorded ↗Scope of this reading note
Accessible PMC author-manuscript methods and results, including adjusted analyses and the definition of recovery; PubMed bibliographic and competing-interest record. Supplementary and full funding details were not assessed.
- Study funding
- Not yet verified against the full text.
- Competing interests
- The PubMed-indexed authors’ statement reports no conflicts associated with the research.
Project support
Founded and supported by Resilio.
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