School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Shaanxi Provincial Key Research Center of Child Mental and Behavioral Health, Xi'an, China.
Psychophysiology. 2020 Apr;57(4):e13491. doi: 10.1111/psyp.13491. Epub 2019 Oct 11.
Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is thought to be an important physiological correlate of prosocial behaviors. A negative quadratic association between resting RSA and prosocial behaviors has been found in recent studies. However, it remains unknown whether inhibitory control (IC), as an aspect of cognitive regulation, moderates this quadratic association. This issue was examined in the present study. One hundred and forty-eight children (81 girls, 54.7%) aged 7-8 years completed a go/no-go task to assess their IC, and the children's parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire-Chinese version (SDQ-CV) to assess children's prosocial behaviors. Resting RSA was calculated by electrocardiogram (ECG) data collected during a resting period in the laboratory. The results showed a significant quadratic association between resting RSA and children's prosocial behaviors. More importantly, IC had a significant moderating effect on the quadratic association between resting RSA and prosocial behaviors. Specifically, the quadratic effect of resting RSA on prosocial behaviors was observed only among children with low and average IC and disappeared in children with better IC. The findings suggest that IC interacts with resting RSA to contribute to prosocial behaviors in children. High levels of IC could attenuate the negative impact of high and low resting RSA on prosocial behaviors.
静息呼吸窦性心律失常（RSA）被认为是亲社会行为的重要生理相关物。最近的研究发现，静息 RSA 与亲社会行为之间存在负二次关联。然而，抑制控制（IC）作为认知调节的一个方面，是否调节这种二次关联尚不清楚。本研究对此进行了探讨。148 名 7-8 岁儿童（81 名女孩，54.7%）完成了 Go/No-Go 任务，以评估其 IC，儿童的父母完成了长处和困难问卷-中文版（SDQ-CV），以评估儿童的亲社会行为。静息 RSA 通过实验室静息期间采集的心电图（ECG）数据计算得出。结果表明，静息 RSA 与儿童亲社会行为之间存在显著的二次关联。更重要的是，IC 对静息 RSA 与亲社会行为之间的二次关联具有显著的调节作用。具体来说，只有在 IC 水平较低和中等的儿童中观察到静息 RSA 对亲社会行为的二次效应，而在 IC 水平较好的儿童中，这种效应消失了。研究结果表明，IC 与静息 RSA 相互作用，有助于儿童的亲社会行为。高水平的 IC 可以减轻高和低静息 RSA 对亲社会行为的负面影响。
