de la Torre-Luque Alejandro, Fiol-Veny Aina, Balle Maria, Bornas Xavier
Research Institute of Health Sciences, University of the Balearic Islands, Spain.
Int J Clin Health Psychol. 2016 Sep-Dec;16(3):287-294. doi: 10.1016/j.ijchp.2016.04.002. Epub 2016 May 20.
: Anxiety symptoms in adolescence have been found to be associated with heart rate variability (HRV) linear features, but more basic properties of the cardiac system remain unexplored. This study focused on the fractal nature of 90 minute-long interbeat fluctuations from 24 adolescents with high anxiety and 26 with low anxiety to (a) evaluate if allometric scaling exponents and linear HRV measures allow for distinction between groups, and (b) assess the associations between these measures and sensitivity to punishment (SP), a temperamental characteristic strongly correlated with anxiety. : Cardiac functioning was recorded and allometric exponents and vagally mediated HRV as indexed by the high frequency (HF) band power were calculated. : While the exponents from the high anxiety group were significantly higher than those from low anxiety participants ( < .05), just marginal differences were found for the HF measure (= .057). Furthermore, exponents were positively correlated with SP scores and several anxiety scale scores, but no more correlations were found. : These results show that beyond parasympathetic functioning, basic properties of the cardiac system may be altered in young, anxious adolescents. These properties, therefore, can provide useful information for assessing adolescents at risk of anxiety disorders.
研究发现，青少年的焦虑症状与心率变异性（HRV）线性特征有关，但心脏系统的更基本特性仍未得到探索。本研究聚焦于24名高焦虑青少年和26名低焦虑青少年90分钟心跳间期波动的分形特性，以（a）评估异速生长标度指数和线性HRV测量是否能区分两组，以及（b）评估这些测量与惩罚敏感性（SP）之间的关联，SP是一种与焦虑密切相关的气质特征。记录心脏功能，并计算异速生长指数以及以高频（HF）频段功率为指标的迷走神经介导的HRV。高焦虑组的指数显著高于低焦虑参与者（<.05），而HF测量仅发现边缘差异（= .057）。此外，指数与SP分数和几个焦虑量表分数呈正相关，但未发现更多相关性。这些结果表明，除了副交感神经功能外，心脏系统的基本特性在年轻的焦虑青少年中可能会发生改变。因此，这些特性可为评估有焦虑症风险的青少年提供有用信息。
