Stenfors Cecilia U D, Hanson Linda M, Theorell Töres, Osika Walter S
Aging Research Center, Department of Neurobiology, Care Science and Society, Karolinska InstituteStockholm, Sweden; Environmental Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychology, University of ChicagoChicago, IL, USA.
Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University Stockholm, Sweden.
Front Psychol. 2016 Oct 5;7:1536. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01536. eCollection 2016.
Executive cognitive functioning is essential in private and working life and is sensitive to stress and aging. Cardiovascular (CV) health factors are related to cognitive decline and dementia, but there is relatively few studies of the role of CV autonomic regulation, a key component in stress responses and risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), and executive processes. An emerging pattern of results from previous studies suggest that different executive processes may be differentially associated with CV autonomic regulation. The aim was thus to study the associations between multiple measures of CV autonomic regulation and measures of different executive cognitive processes. Participants were 119 healthy working adults (79% women), from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health. Electrocardiogram was sampled for analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) measures, including the Standard Deviation of NN, here heart beats (SDNN), root of the mean squares of successive differences (RMSSD), high frequency (HF) power band from spectral analyses, and QT variability index (QTVI), a measure of myocardial repolarization patterns. Executive cognitive functioning was measured by seven neuropsychological tests. The relationships between CV autonomic regulation measures and executive cognitive measures were tested with bivariate and partial correlational analyses, controlling for demographic variables, and mental health symptoms. Higher SDNN and RMSSD and lower QTVI were significantly associated with better performance on cognitive tests tapping inhibition, updating, shifting, and psychomotor speed. After adjustments for demographic factors however (age being the greatest confounder), only QTVI was clearly associated with these executive tests. No such associations were seen for working memory . Poorer CV autonomic regulation in terms of lower SDNN and RMSSD and higher QTVI was associated with poorer executive cognitive functioning in terms of inhibition, shifting, updating, and speed in healthy working adults. Age could largely explain the associations between the executive measures and SDNN and RMSSD, while associations with QTVI remained. QTVI may be a useful measure of autonomic regulation and promising as an early indicator of risk among otherwise healthy adults, compared to traditional HRV measures, as associations between QTVI and executive functioning was not affected by age.
执行认知功能在个人生活和工作中至关重要，且对压力和衰老敏感。心血管（CV）健康因素与认知衰退和痴呆有关，但关于CV自主调节（压力反应的关键组成部分和心血管疾病（CVD）的危险因素）与执行过程之间作用的研究相对较少。先前研究中出现的一种结果模式表明，不同的执行过程可能与CV自主调节存在不同的关联。因此，本研究旨在探讨CV自主调节的多种测量指标与不同执行认知过程测量指标之间的关联。研究对象为119名健康的在职成年人（79%为女性），来自瑞典健康纵向职业调查。采集心电图以分析心率变异性（HRV）测量指标，包括NN间期标准差（SDNN，此处指心跳间期）、连续差值均方根（RMSSD）、频谱分析中的高频（HF）功率频段以及QT变异性指数（QTVI，一种心肌复极模式的测量指标）。通过七项神经心理学测试来测量执行认知功能。采用双变量和偏相关分析来检验CV自主调节测量指标与执行认知测量指标之间的关系，并控制人口统计学变量和心理健康症状。较高的SDNN和RMSSD以及较低的QTVI与在涉及抑制、更新、转换和心理运动速度的认知测试中表现更好显著相关。然而，在调整人口统计学因素（年龄是最大的混杂因素）后，只有QTVI与这些执行测试有明显关联。工作记忆方面未发现此类关联。在健康在职成年人中，较低的SDNN和RMSSD以及较高的QTVI所代表的较差的CV自主调节与抑制、转换、更新和速度方面较差的执行认知功能相关。年龄在很大程度上可以解释执行测量指标与SDNN和RMSSD之间的关联，而与QTVI的关联依然存在。与传统HRV测量指标相比，QTVI可能是自主调节的一个有用测量指标，有望作为健康成年人中风险的早期指标，因为QTVI与执行功能之间的关联不受年龄影响。
