Impact of stress on the psychological functions and the psychosomatic cardiovascular conditions in humans: assessment by the heart rate variability...
Impact of stress on the psychological functions and the psychosomatic cardiovascular conditions in humans: assessment by the heart rate variability...

Summary/Abstract: Impact of stress on the psychological functions and the psychosomatic cardiovascular conditions in humans: assessment by the heart rate variability method / According to the neurovisceral integration model, several neural structures are involved in adaptations to psychoemotional stress, i.e. medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), insular cortex, amygdala, hypothalamus, medullar autonomic centers. These structures are organized hierarchically and the higher centers control and inhibit the lower ones. The mPFC is involved in the regulation of cognitive functions, emotion and social cognition, and cardiovascular functions. It constantly inhibits the amygdala and the sympathoexcitatory subcortical circuits responding to stress. The flexible brain system involved in adaptation may be evaluated through the heart rate variability (HRV). Individuals with greater ability for emotion regulation depending on the environment and the goals set have been shown to have greater levels of resting HRV. This parameter may reflect the level at which affective conditions dynamically influence the peripheral autonomic nervous system (ANS). The HRV fluctuations correlate with some somatic and psychological disorders. It is lower in a number of psychiatric conditions and is associated with the risk factors of the cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Psychological processes, such as emotional and social cognition, as well as psychosomatic conditions affecting the nervous and the cardiovascular system under stress may be easily evaluated by the physiological parameter heart rate variability.

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