Cardiac Vagal Tone and Emotion Regulation

OCRFEllen Cohan ’10

Ebony Burton ‘11Mentor: Nancy Darling

Oberlin College Psychology Department

Outline

• Vagal Tone• Transitions in Adolescent Relations Project• My Research Question• Results

Vagal Tone • The vagus nerve is the tenth cranial nerve. It acts

as a bridge between the brain and the heart. • Vagal tone is impulses sent by the vagus nerve

to inhibit heart beat.• Vagal tone acts as a brake for the heart• This brake is activated during expiration and

inhibited during inspiration.

Respiratory Sinus Arrythmia

• Definition: variability in heartbeat during inspiration and expiration

• Measure: milliseconds between heartbeats

• High vagal tone: high variability in heart rate

• Low vagal tone: low variability in heart rate

Vagal Tone

• Two distinct measures:– Baseline : RSA at rest

– Baseline-to-task : RSA variation from rest to engaging task• Social interaction• Stressful activity

Implications of Vagal Tone

• High vagal tone – Better equipped to handle stressful situations

• Low Vagal tone– More likely to be controlled by physiology

Implications of Vagal Tone

• High Vagal Tone vs. Low Vagal Tone– Infants– Children– Adults

• Emotional Regulation• Fight vs. Flight

Transitions in Adolescent Relations Project

• Part of larger study conducted by Nancy Darling• Places where research has been conducted– Oberlin– Miami– New York– Pennsylvania– Italy– Philippines– Chile

Transitions in Adolescent Relations Project

What we were measuring• Parent-child conflict and communication• Legitimacy of parental authority• Emotion regulation

Methods: Recruitment• Rising 5th, 6th and 7th graders• From Langston Middle School Website: http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/ndarling/tarp/

Study Protocol• Participant rights– IRB, Confidentiality, etc.

• Self-report surveys– i.e. rules, child’s behavior and mother’s parenting, conflict

management, depression scale, attachment style, etc.

Paper productsused for the study

Study Protocol• Calming Music Task• Video Recorded Tasks– K’Nex Task

– Conflict Task

Study Protocol

• Video Recall

Study Protocol

• Objective Video Coding– K’Nex Task (ie. enjoyment, control, help-providing,

use of help)– Conflict Task (ie. warmth, help-seeking (child),

moralizing, seriousness, verbal aggression)• Participant Rating Forms

Study Protocol

• Physiological Data:– Salivary assays• Protocol: 3 samples• Salivary Alpha Amylase• Cortisol

Study Protocol

• Physiological Data:– Heart Rate Data• Biolog setup• Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA)

Biolog Setup:

Respiratory Sinus Arrythmia

• Definition: variability in heartbeat during inspiration and expiration

• Measure: milliseconds between heartbeats

Ellen’s research question!

• Concordance:– Is vagal tone passed down through the

parents?–How similar is mother-adolescent vagal

tone:• Baseline• Task• Baseline-to-task

Past research on vagal concordance

• “Child and Mother Cardiac Vagal Tone: continuity, stability and concordance across the first five years” by Marc H. Bornstein and Patricia E. Suess– Baseline RSA not concordant– Baseline-to-task concordant for both 2-months

and 5-years

My Results

• Baseline RSA correlation: .21!• Low, but positive

Ebony’s results – which were cooler than mine

• High vagal tone in mother:– No lecturing– Warm child

• High vagal tone in a child:– Neither one lectures– Both are less verbally aggressive

• Moms and children with high vagal tone– Less sensitive moms

Thank You

• OCRF office • Nancy Darling• My adoring audience• My mom