Association between changes in heart rate variability during the anticipation of a stressful situation and the stress-induced cortisol response

Vagal activity - reflecting the activation of stress regulatory mechanisms and prefrontal cortex activation - is thought to play an inhibitory role in the regulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. However, most studies investigating the association between stress-induced changes in heart rate variability (HRV, an index of cardiac vagal tone) and cortisol have shown a non-significant relationship. It has been proposed that physiological changes observed during anticipation of a stressor allow individuals to make behavioral, cognitive, and physiological adjustments that are necessary to deal with the upcoming actual stressor. In this study, in a large sample of 171 healthy adults (96 men and 75 women; mean age = 29.98, SD = 11.07), we investigated whether the cortisol response to a laboratory-based stress task was related to anticipation-induced or stress task-induced changes in HRV. As expected, regression analyses showed that a larger decrease in HRV during the anticipation of a stress task was related to higher stress task-induced cortisol increase, but not cortisol recovery. In line with prior research, the stress task-induced change in HRV was not significantly related to cortisol increase or recovery. Our results show for the first time that anticipatory HRV (reflecting differences in stress regulation and prefrontal activity before the encounter with the stressor) is important to understand the stress-induced cortisol increase

Increased attentional control for emotional distractors moderates the use of reflective pondering in times of life stress: a prospective study

According to the response styles theory, rumination is a cognitive response to a stressor with repetitive and self–focused attention on a negative mood state. The attentional disengagement theory highlights that attentional processes are critical, underlying individual differences in ruminative thinking, such as reflective pondering and depressive brooding. Using a prospective design, the current study sought to determine whether attentional control for negative material was differently associated with brooding and reflection upon life stress. Spanning a period of three months, 76 never depressed undergraduate students completed a baseline measurement of attentional bias by using an emotional modification of the exogenous cueing task (T1) and subsequently, six weeks after T1, completed Internet questionnaires during their final examinations at four weekly fixed moments (T2–T5). Data were analysed with a series of multilevel regression analyses. Results revealed that the relation between stress and the use of reflective pondering is stronger when participants allocate less attention to emotional information (negative and positive stimuli). On the other hand, attentional control did not moderate the relation between stress and depressive brooding. On the basis of the current research findings, it might be important to train attentional control to disengage from emotional distractors, which in turn may increase the use of more self–controlling thinking in response to stress. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd. </jats:p

Autonomic regulation in response to stress : the influence of anticipatory emotion regulation strategies and trait rumination

According to the neurocognitive framework for regulation expectation, adaptively regulating emotions in anticipation of a stressful event should help individuals deal with the stressor itself. The goal of this study was twofold: first, the authors compared the influence of adaptive versus maladaptive anticipatory emotion regulation (ER) on the autonomic system during anticipation of, confrontation with, and recovery from a stressor; second, they explored whether trait rumination moderated this relationship. The authors collected data from 56 healthy female undergraduates during a public speaking task. The task involved 4 phases: baseline, anticipatory ER, stressor, and recovery. Participants were assigned to 1 of 2 anticipatory ER instructions (reappraisal or catastrophizing). Heart rate variability (HRV) indexed autonomic regulation. Results confirmed that HRV was higher in the reappraisal than in the catastrophizing group (over all time points, except for baseline). Trait rumination levels moderated the effect of anticipatory ER strategy on HRV during the stressor phase. Specifically, whereas for low ruminators reappraisal (versus catastrophizing) in the anticipation phase led to higher HRV when confronted to the stressor, high ruminators demonstrated lower HRV in that same condition. To conclude, over all participants, using reappraisal during the anticipation phase allowed participants to better cope with stress. However, only low, but not high ruminators could profit from the beneficial effect of anticipatory reappraisal on autonomic regulation. Even though further research is needed, this study suggests that, in female undergraduates, the tendency to ruminate is associated with abnormal anticipatory ER that might hinder an adaptive response to a stressor

The neural basis of unwanted thoughts during resting state.

Human beings are constantly engaged in thought. Sometimes thoughts occur repetitively and can become distressing. Up to now the neural bases of these intrusive or unwanted thoughts is largely unexplored. To study the neural correlates of unwanted thoughts, we acquired resting-state fMRI data of 41 female healthy subjects and assessed the self-reported amount of unwanted thoughts during measurement. We analyzed local connectivity by means of regional homogeneity (ReHo) and functional connectivity of a seed region. More unwanted thoughts (state) were associated with lower ReHo in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and higher ReHo in left striatum (putamen). Additional seed-based analysis revealed higher functional connectivity of the left striatum with left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in participants reporting more unwanted thoughts. The state-dependent higher connectivty in left striatum was positively correlated with rumination assessed with a dedicated questionnaire focussing on trait aspects. Unwanted thoughts are associated with activity in the fronto-striatal brain circuitry. The reduction of local connectivity in DLPFC could reflect deficiencies in thought suppression processes, whereas the hightened activity in left striatum could imply an imbalance of gating mechanisms housed in basal ganglia. Its functional connectivity to left IFG is discussed as the result of thought-related speech processes

Put on your poker face? Neural systems supporting the anticipation for expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal

It is a unique human ability to regulate negative thoughts and feelings. Two well-investigated emotion-regulation strategies (ERSs), cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, are associated with overlapping prefrontal neural correlates, but differ temporally during the emotion-generation process. Although functional imaging studies have mainly investigated these ERS as a reaction to an emotion-inducing event, the intention to regulate upcoming negative emotions might already be associated with differences in neural activity. Hence, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was recorded in 42 participants while they completed an emotion-regulation paradigm. During this task, participants were instructed to proactively prepare to use a specific ERS knowing that a negative, high-arousing image would appear after the preparation period. As expected, the results demonstrated prefrontal and parietal activation while participants were suppressing or reappraising their emotions (family-wise error (FWE)-corrected). The intention to suppress emotions was associated with increased activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral putamen, pre-supplementary motor area and right supramarginal gyrus (FWE-corrected). This enhanced proactive inhibitory control: (i) predicted decreased motoric activity during the actual suppression of emotional expressions and (2) trended toward a significant association with how successfully participants suppressed their emotions. However, neural correlates of preparatory control for cognitive reappraisal were not observed, possibly because contextual cues about the upcoming emotional stimulus are necessary to proactively start to cognitively reinterpret the situation

Assessment of broiler chicken welfare in Southern Brazil

Scientific literature on broiler chicken welfare in Brazilian industrial systems is scarce. This study aimed at assessing broiler chicken welfare on industrial farms in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil, using the Welfare Quality (R) assessment protocol for poultry, to provide directly applicable scientific information. Results are presented as criteria scores ranging from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better welfare; and percentages of prevalence. The scores classified as excellent (above 80) were absence of prolonged thirst, absence of prolonged hunger, litter quality, breast blister and touch test. Enhanced scores (between 55 and 80) were comfort around resting, plumage cleanliness and dust sheet test. Acceptable scores (between 20 and 55) were thermal comfort, stocking density, absence of injuries, footpad dermatitis and hock burn; and unacceptable scores (below 20) were lameness and qualitative behavioral assessment. The median percentage of mortality and culled birds were 5.2% and 0.6%, respectively. This study provides useful information to select priorities of action on assessed farms and may contribute for setting up legal standards and guiding decisions related to animal welfare issues in Brazil