TY - JOUR
T1 - Heart rate variability and pain
T2 - Associations of two interrelated homeostatic processes
AU - Appelhans, Bradley M.
AU - Luecken, Linda
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2008/2
Y1 - 2008/2
N2 - Between-person variability in pain sensitivity remains poorly understood. Given a conceptualization of pain as a homeostatic emotion, we hypothesized inverse associations between measures of resting heart rate variability (HRV), an index of autonomic regulation of heart rate that has been linked to emotionality, and sensitivity to subsequently administered thermal pain. Resting electrocardiography was collected, and frequency-domain measures of HRV were derived through spectral analysis. Fifty-nine right-handed participants provided ratings of pain intensity and unpleasantness following exposure to 4 °C thermal pain stimulation, and indicated their thresholds for barely noticeable and moderate pain during three exposures to decreasing temperature. Greater low-frequency HRV was associated with lower ratings of 4 °C pain unpleasantness and higher thresholds for barely noticeable and moderate pain. High-frequency HRV was unrelated to measures of pain sensitivity. Findings suggest pain sensitivity is influenced by characteristics of a central homeostatic system also involved in emotion.
AB - Between-person variability in pain sensitivity remains poorly understood. Given a conceptualization of pain as a homeostatic emotion, we hypothesized inverse associations between measures of resting heart rate variability (HRV), an index of autonomic regulation of heart rate that has been linked to emotionality, and sensitivity to subsequently administered thermal pain. Resting electrocardiography was collected, and frequency-domain measures of HRV were derived through spectral analysis. Fifty-nine right-handed participants provided ratings of pain intensity and unpleasantness following exposure to 4 °C thermal pain stimulation, and indicated their thresholds for barely noticeable and moderate pain during three exposures to decreasing temperature. Greater low-frequency HRV was associated with lower ratings of 4 °C pain unpleasantness and higher thresholds for barely noticeable and moderate pain. High-frequency HRV was unrelated to measures of pain sensitivity. Findings suggest pain sensitivity is influenced by characteristics of a central homeostatic system also involved in emotion.
KW - Autonomic
KW - Emotion
KW - Heart rate variability
KW - Homeostasis
KW - Pain
KW - Parasympathetic
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=38649108537&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=38649108537&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.10.004
DO - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.10.004
M3 - Article
C2 - 18023960
AN - SCOPUS:38649108537
SN - 0301-0511
VL - 77
SP - 174
EP - 182
JO - Biological Psychology
JF - Biological Psychology
IS - 2
ER -