Heart rate variability in hypothyroid patients:a systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION: Hypothyroidism may be associated with changes in the autonomic regulation of the cardiovascular system, which may have clinical implications. OBJECTIVE: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on the impact of hypothyroidism on HRV. MATERIALS AND METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane, Embase and Google Scholar were searched until 20 August 2021 for articles reporting HRV parameters in untreated hypothyroidism and healthy controls. Random-effects meta-analysis were stratified by degree of hypothyroidism for each HRV parameters: RR intervals (or normal to normal-NN intervals), SDNN (standard deviation of RR intervals), RMSSD (square root of the mean difference of successive RR intervals), pNN50 (percentage of RR intervals with >50ms variation), total power (TP), LFnu (low-frequency normalized unit), HFnu (high-frequency), VLF (very low frequency), and LF/HF ratio. RESULTS: We included 17 studies with 11438 patients: 1163 hypothyroid patients and 10275 healthy controls. There was a decrease in SDNN (effect size = -1.27, 95% CI -1.72 to -0.83), RMSSD (-1.66, -2.32 to -1.00), pNN50 (-1.41, -1.98 to -0.84), TP (-1.55, -2.1 to -1.00), HFnu (-1.21, -1.78 to -0.63) with an increase in LFnu (1.14, 0.63 to 1.66) and LF/HF ratio (1.26, 0.71 to 1.81) (p <0.001). HRV alteration increased with severity of hypothyroidism. CONCLUSIONS: Hypothyroidism is associated with a decreased HRV, that may be explained by molecular mechanisms involving catecholamines and by the effect of TSH on HRV. The increased sympathetic and decreased parasympathetic activity may have clinical implications

Sedentary Behavior at Work and Cognitive Functioning: A Systematic Review

Background: It is now well-established that sedentarity has a negative impact on the physiological functioning and health of humans, whereas very little is known about the psychological repercussions, especially in cognitive functioning. Yet, studying the cognitive effects of the sedentary lifestyle is particularly relevant in the short term for productivity and in the long term for cognitive health (accelerated aging). This systematic review therefore aims to make an inventory of the potential cognitive effects of sedentarity at the workplace.Methods: Pubmed, PsycINFO, Cochrane, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched for English-language peer-reviewed articles published between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2017 to identify studies including sedentary behavior and objective measures from cognitive domains (cognitive inhibition, cognitive flexibility, working memory, etc.). To carry out this systematic review, the 3 keywords “Sedentary” and “Cognition” and “Work” (and their derivatives) had to appear in the title or in the summary of the paper.Results: Of the 13 papers that met the inclusion criteria, 9 were short-term interventions, 3 medium-term interventions, and 1 long-term intervention. Nine of them reported non-significant results. Two studies study reported deterioration in cognitive performance. Two reported an improvement in performance in cognitive tasks with one study with overweight adults and the only one study with a long-term intervention. However, these studies intend to reduce sedentary behavior, but do not allow answering the question of the potential cognitive effects of the sedentary lifestyle.Conclusion: These data suggest that sedentary behavior is not associated with changes in cognitive performance in interventions that intend to reduce sedentary behavior. Then, and given the trend toward increased time in sedentary behavior, long-term prospective studies of high methodological quality are recommended to clarify the relationships between sedentary behavior and the cognitive functioning. Our systematic review identifies also the need for retrospective, longitudinal, or epidemiologic studies. It also recognizes the need to standardize methodology for collecting, defining, and reporting sedentary behavior and the need to standardize the cognitive tests used. The relationship between sedentary behavior and cognitive functioning remaining uncertain, further studies are warranted for which 8 recommendations are proposed

Vers un rôle central, contextuel et conditionnel de l'adaptation cardiovasculaire dans la cognition

In ancient Egypt, the heart was considered the seat of reason, memory, and emotion. A few centuries later, data in psychophysiology confirmed the role of cardiovascular signals in mental processes. To what extent and under what conditions is cardiovascular adaptation likely to constrain cognition? Cardiovascular adaptation is indexed by heart rate variability, which reflects the efficacity of the autonomic nervous system in the adaptation of the organism to situational constraints. The originality of this doctoral dissertation is to bring together the data collected on the relationship between cardiovascular adaptation and cognition with embodied approaches to cognition to generate new hypotheses that were the focus of the three studies presented here. Embodied cognition to cognition offers a framework that introduces (1) cognition as embedded in a dynamic coupling between the organism and its environment, (2) the notion of emergent representations, and (3) the importance of cognitive mechanisms constraining these cognitive representations. Heart rate variability as an index of cardiovascular adaptation is expected to play a role in cognitive performance on a task, particularly during the coupling between the organism and that task. Thus, in situ heart rate variability modulations would predict performance on a cognitive task more than resting heart rate variability. Study 1 indicates that modulations of heart rate variability during a decision-making task predict performance on that task more than the resting measurement.The advantage of embodied cognition is also to offer a view of cognition as the emergence of dynamic cognitive representations constrained by cognitive mechanisms mobilized during the coupling between the organism and certain situational constraints with the objective of adapting the organism to the environment. Heart rate variability could participate in cognition only when the task entails sufficiently high situational constraints and involves self-regulatory processes. In a memetic discrimination task, Study 2 tests the association between heart rate variability and performance by manipulating the constraints associated with the task (low vs. high perceptual gap between targets and decoys). Results reveal that heart rate variability positively predicts memory performance only in the condition involving high cognitive constraints (low perceptual gap). Perceptual processes would be fundamentally inseparable from action and motor skills.The integration of self-regulatory capacities can be measured by interoception, which corresponds to the cerebral integration of signals from within the body. According to an embodied perspective, the interoceptive integration of cardiovascular adaptation would influence action-related visual perception. Interoceptive changes in physiological action potential (carrying a heavy backpack) should constrain the perception of action possibilities in the environment (perceiving the angle of a hillside). Consistent with this prediction, Study 3 indicates that interoceptive integration when carrying a heavy backpack, predicts an overestimation of hill slope angle estimation. These empirical results were discussed and formed the basis for the proposal of a model of the role of cardiovascular adaptation in cognition that proposes that in situ cardiovascular adaptation participates in cognition only (1) when the situation involves efficient integration of constraints, and (2) when these constraints require self-regulatory mechanisms for task performance.Dans l'Égypte ancienne, le cœur était considéré comme le siège de la raison, de la mémoire et des émotions. Quelques siècles plus tard, des données en psychophysiologie ont confirmé le rôle des signaux cardiovasculaires dans les processus mentaux. Dans quelle mesure et selon quelles conditions l'adaptation cardiovasculaire est susceptible de contraindre la cognition ? L'adaptation cardiovasculaire est indexée par la variabilité du rythme cardiaque qui reflète l'efficacité du système nerveux autonome dans l'adaptation de l'organisme aux contraintes situationnelles. L'originalité de cette thèse de doctorat consiste à réunir les données collectées sur la relation entre l'adaptation cardiovasculaire et la cognition avec les approches incarnées de la cognition pour générer de nouvelles hypothèses qui ont fait l'objet des trois études présentées ici. Les approches incarnées de la cognition offrent une grille de lecture qui introduit (1) la cognition comme étant ancrée dans un couplage dynamique entre l'organisme et son environnement, (2) la notion de représentations émergentes et (3) l'importance des mécanismes cognitifs contraignant ces représentations cognitives. La variabilité du rythme cardiaque comme indice d'adaptation cardiovasculaire devrait jouer un rôle dans la performance cognitive à une tâche, particulièrement durant le couplage entre l'organisme et cette tâche. Ainsi, les modulations de variabilité du rythme cardiaque in situ prédiraient davantage les performances à une tâche cognitive que la variabilité du rythme cardiaque au repos. L'Étude 1 indique que les modulations de la variabilité du rythme cardiaque lors d'une tâche de prise de décision prédisent davantage la performance à cette tâche que la mesure au repos.L'avantage des approches incarnées est également d'offrir une vision de la cognition comme l'émergence de représentations cognitives dynamiques contraintes par des mécanismes cognitifs mobilisés lors du couplage entre l'organisme et certaines contraintes situationnelles dans un objectif d'adaptation de l'organisme à l'environnement. La variabilité du rythme cardiaque pourrait participer à la cognition uniquement lorsque la tâche entraîne des contraintes stituationnelles suffisamment élevées et implique des processus d'auto-régulation. Dans une tâche de discrimination mnésique, l'Étude 2 teste l'association entre la variabité du rythme cardiaque et la performance en manipulant les contraintes associées à la tâche (écart perceptif entre les cibles et les leurres faible vs. élevé). Les résultats révèlent que la variabilité du rythme cardiaque prédit positivement la performance mnésique uniquement dans la condition impliquant de fortes contraintes cognitives (faible écart perceptif).Les processus perceptifs seraient fondamentalement inséparables de l'action et de la motricité. L'intégration des capacités d'autorégulation peut être mesurée par l'intéroception qui correspond à l'intégration cérébrale des signaux provenant de l'intérieur du corps. Selon une perspective incarnée, l'intégration intéroceptive de l'adaptation cardiovasculaire influencerait la perception visuelle liée à l'action. Les changements intéroceptifs du potentiel physiologique d'action (porter un sac à dos lourd) devraient contraindre la perception des possibilités d'action dans l'environnement (percevoir l'angle d'une pente de colline). En accord avec cette prédiction, l'Étude 3 indique que l'intégration intéroceptive lors du port d'un sac à dos lourd, prédit une surestimation de l'estimation de l'angle de pente de collines. Ces résultats empiriques ont été discutés et ont servi de base pour la proposition d'un modèle du rôle de l'adaptation cardiovasculaire dans la cognition qui propose que l'adaptation cardiovasculaire in situ participe à la cognition uniquement (1) lorsque la situation implique une intégration efficiente de contraintes, et (2) lorsque ces contraintes requièrent des mécanismes d'auto-régulation pour la réalisation de la tâche

Vers un rôle central, contextuel et conditionnel de l'adaptation cardiovasculaire dans la cognition

In ancient Egypt, the heart was considered the seat of reason, memory, and emotion. A few centuries later, data in psychophysiology confirmed the role of cardiovascular signals in mental processes. To what extent and under what conditions is cardiovascular adaptation likely to constrain cognition? Cardiovascular adaptation is indexed by heart rate variability, which reflects the efficacity of the autonomic nervous system in the adaptation of the organism to situational constraints. The originality of this doctoral dissertation is to bring together the data collected on the relationship between cardiovascular adaptation and cognition with embodied approaches to cognition to generate new hypotheses that were the focus of the three studies presented here. Embodied cognition to cognition offers a framework that introduces (1) cognition as embedded in a dynamic coupling between the organism and its environment, (2) the notion of emergent representations, and (3) the importance of cognitive mechanisms constraining these cognitive representations. Heart rate variability as an index of cardiovascular adaptation is expected to play a role in cognitive performance on a task, particularly during the coupling between the organism and that task. Thus, in situ heart rate variability modulations would predict performance on a cognitive task more than resting heart rate variability. Study 1 indicates that modulations of heart rate variability during a decision-making task predict performance on that task more than the resting measurement.The advantage of embodied cognition is also to offer a view of cognition as the emergence of dynamic cognitive representations constrained by cognitive mechanisms mobilized during the coupling between the organism and certain situational constraints with the objective of adapting the organism to the environment. Heart rate variability could participate in cognition only when the task entails sufficiently high situational constraints and involves self-regulatory processes. In a memetic discrimination task, Study 2 tests the association between heart rate variability and performance by manipulating the constraints associated with the task (low vs. high perceptual gap between targets and decoys). Results reveal that heart rate variability positively predicts memory performance only in the condition involving high cognitive constraints (low perceptual gap). Perceptual processes would be fundamentally inseparable from action and motor skills.The integration of self-regulatory capacities can be measured by interoception, which corresponds to the cerebral integration of signals from within the body. According to an embodied perspective, the interoceptive integration of cardiovascular adaptation would influence action-related visual perception. Interoceptive changes in physiological action potential (carrying a heavy backpack) should constrain the perception of action possibilities in the environment (perceiving the angle of a hillside). Consistent with this prediction, Study 3 indicates that interoceptive integration when carrying a heavy backpack, predicts an overestimation of hill slope angle estimation. These empirical results were discussed and formed the basis for the proposal of a model of the role of cardiovascular adaptation in cognition that proposes that in situ cardiovascular adaptation participates in cognition only (1) when the situation involves efficient integration of constraints, and (2) when these constraints require self-regulatory mechanisms for task performance.Dans l'Égypte ancienne, le cœur était considéré comme le siège de la raison, de la mémoire et des émotions. Quelques siècles plus tard, des données en psychophysiologie ont confirmé le rôle des signaux cardiovasculaires dans les processus mentaux. Dans quelle mesure et selon quelles conditions l'adaptation cardiovasculaire est susceptible de contraindre la cognition ? L'adaptation cardiovasculaire est indexée par la variabilité du rythme cardiaque qui reflète l'efficacité du système nerveux autonome dans l'adaptation de l'organisme aux contraintes situationnelles. L'originalité de cette thèse de doctorat consiste à réunir les données collectées sur la relation entre l'adaptation cardiovasculaire et la cognition avec les approches incarnées de la cognition pour générer de nouvelles hypothèses qui ont fait l'objet des trois études présentées ici. Les approches incarnées de la cognition offrent une grille de lecture qui introduit (1) la cognition comme étant ancrée dans un couplage dynamique entre l'organisme et son environnement, (2) la notion de représentations émergentes et (3) l'importance des mécanismes cognitifs contraignant ces représentations cognitives. La variabilité du rythme cardiaque comme indice d'adaptation cardiovasculaire devrait jouer un rôle dans la performance cognitive à une tâche, particulièrement durant le couplage entre l'organisme et cette tâche. Ainsi, les modulations de variabilité du rythme cardiaque in situ prédiraient davantage les performances à une tâche cognitive que la variabilité du rythme cardiaque au repos. L'Étude 1 indique que les modulations de la variabilité du rythme cardiaque lors d'une tâche de prise de décision prédisent davantage la performance à cette tâche que la mesure au repos.L'avantage des approches incarnées est également d'offrir une vision de la cognition comme l'émergence de représentations cognitives dynamiques contraintes par des mécanismes cognitifs mobilisés lors du couplage entre l'organisme et certaines contraintes situationnelles dans un objectif d'adaptation de l'organisme à l'environnement. La variabilité du rythme cardiaque pourrait participer à la cognition uniquement lorsque la tâche entraîne des contraintes stituationnelles suffisamment élevées et implique des processus d'auto-régulation. Dans une tâche de discrimination mnésique, l'Étude 2 teste l'association entre la variabité du rythme cardiaque et la performance en manipulant les contraintes associées à la tâche (écart perceptif entre les cibles et les leurres faible vs. élevé). Les résultats révèlent que la variabilité du rythme cardiaque prédit positivement la performance mnésique uniquement dans la condition impliquant de fortes contraintes cognitives (faible écart perceptif).Les processus perceptifs seraient fondamentalement inséparables de l'action et de la motricité. L'intégration des capacités d'autorégulation peut être mesurée par l'intéroception qui correspond à l'intégration cérébrale des signaux provenant de l'intérieur du corps. Selon une perspective incarnée, l'intégration intéroceptive de l'adaptation cardiovasculaire influencerait la perception visuelle liée à l'action. Les changements intéroceptifs du potentiel physiologique d'action (porter un sac à dos lourd) devraient contraindre la perception des possibilités d'action dans l'environnement (percevoir l'angle d'une pente de colline). En accord avec cette prédiction, l'Étude 3 indique que l'intégration intéroceptive lors du port d'un sac à dos lourd, prédit une surestimation de l'estimation de l'angle de pente de collines. Ces résultats empiriques ont été discutés et ont servi de base pour la proposition d'un modèle du rôle de l'adaptation cardiovasculaire dans la cognition qui propose que l'adaptation cardiovasculaire in situ participe à la cognition uniquement (1) lorsque la situation implique une intégration efficiente de contraintes, et (2) lorsque ces contraintes requièrent des mécanismes d'auto-régulation pour la réalisation de la tâche

Benefits from one session of deep and slow breathing on vagal tone and anxiety in young and older adults

International audienceAbstract Anxiety is recognized as a major health issue and is quite prevalent among older adults. An efficient way to manage anxiety is abdominal breathing. Breathing exercises seem to reduce anxiety and to increase parasympathetic activity assessed by HRV indexes. Yet, the effect of abdominal breathing on physiological stress (HRV) and anxiety in older adults remains poorly understood. Therefore, the aim of this study is to test the effects of deep and slow breathing (DSB, low inhale/exhale ratio) on physiological stress and anxiety in older adults (n = 22) in comparison with younger ones (n = 25). DSB increased significantly HFpower and reduced state anxiety in both younger and older adults. Interestingly, the increased in HF power was significantly higher among older adults than younger ones. As expected, the ratio inhale/exhale being not equal, RMSSD did not increase following DSB. Thus, we provide evidence suggesting that DSB is more beneficial to older adults than younger ones to restore vagal outflow. Despite future work being required, those results provide relevant clinical application leads to manage state anxiety among older adults and to promote successfull aging

The heart to make the right choice: Vagal (re)activity and recovery predict advantageous decision-making

International audienceFrom simple everyday choices to life-altering decisions, decision-making is a crucial cognitive process in our daily life. Psychophysiological theories of heart-brain interactions involvement in cognition predict that general self-regulation capacities underlie cognitive processes including decision-making. Yet, in the context of decision-making, the somatic maker hypothesis postulates that the adaptability of the current physiological state should be the best predictor of advantageous decision-making. The present study tests compare self-regulation in general (indexed by resting vagal activity) and in a specific decisional context (vagal reactivity and recovery) to explain advantageous decision-making. Young adults (n = 54) completed a decision-making task while wearing a heart rate monitor. Bayesian regressions show that vagal reactivity and recovery combined is the preferred statistical model to explain advantageous decision-making (BF10 = 163.85). Those findings 1) support the somatic marker hypothesis highlighting the key role of in situ self-regulation in decision-making processes and 2) show that the popular and often used index of general self-regulation, resting vagal activity, is not the best predictor of decision-making performance, and perhaps even for other cognitive functions. A next step could be interventional studies to test whether vagal modulation of heart rate underlies decision-making through interventions that influence vagal activity, which could provide relevant clinical leads

Sedentariness: A Need for a Definition

International audienc

« At the heart of the mind »: An embodied perspective on the role of the heart in the emergence of cognition

In G. T. Vallet (Chair), Embodied cognition: A psychophysiological perspective [Symposium].International audienc

The heart of self-regulation for making the right choice? More than the resting state, reactivity and recovery of heart rate variability predict advantageous decision making

International audienc