Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Psychophysiology. 2024 Jan;61(1):e14427. doi: 10.1111/psyp.14427. Epub 2023 Aug 30.
Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is an index of parasympathetic nervous system activity reflecting respiratory influences on heart rate. This influence is typically measured as high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) or root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) of adjacent inter-beat intervals. Examining the long-term stability of its measurement is important as levels of resting RSA have been conceptualized as a marker of individual differences; in particular, of an individual's autonomic regulation and affect-related processes, including emotion regulation. At present, it is not known if resting RSA levels reflect stable differences over a long-term period (i.e., >1 year). Even less is known about how RSA stability differs as a function of depression history and whether it relates to depression risk trajectories. In the present study, we examined the 1.5-year test-retest reliability of resting RSA using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) in 82 adults: n = 41 with a history of depression (ever-depressed); n = 41 controls with no depression history (never-depressed). HF-HRV was fairly stable in both groups (ever-depressed ICC = 0.55, never-depressed ICC = 0.54). RMSSD was also fairly stable in ever-depressed adults (ICC = 0.57) and never-depressed controls (ICC = 0.40). ICC values for both indices did not differ between groups per overlapping 95% confidence intervals. Therefore, RSA stability as assessed by both frequency (HF-HRV) and time domain (RMSSD) measures was not attenuated by a depression history. Implications and the need for future research are discussed.
呼吸窦性心律失常（RSA）是副交感神经系统活动的指标，反映了呼吸对心率的影响。这种影响通常被测量为高频心率变异性（HF-HRV）或相邻心搏间期差值的均方根（RMSSD）。检查其测量的长期稳定性很重要，因为静息 RSA 水平被概念化为个体差异的标志物；特别是，个体的自主调节和与情绪相关的过程，包括情绪调节。目前尚不清楚静息 RSA 水平是否反映了长时间内（即>1 年）的稳定差异。关于 RSA 稳定性如何随抑郁史的变化而变化，以及它是否与抑郁风险轨迹有关，人们知之甚少。在本研究中，我们使用组内相关系数（ICC）检查了 82 名成年人的静息 RSA 的 1.5 年测试-重测信度：n=41 名有抑郁病史（既往抑郁）；n=41 名无抑郁病史（从未抑郁）。两组的 HF-HRV 都相当稳定（既往抑郁组 ICC=0.55，从未抑郁组 ICC=0.54）。RMSSD 在既往抑郁的成年人（ICC=0.57）和从未抑郁的对照组（ICC=0.40）中也相当稳定。两个指数的 ICC 值在组间没有差异，重叠 95%置信区间。因此，无论抑郁史如何，频率（HF-HRV）和时域（RMSSD）测量的 RSA 稳定性都没有减弱。讨论了其含义和未来研究的必要性。
