Too much of a good thing? Cardiac vagal tone’s nonlinear relationship with well-being.
Abstract
Parasympathetic regulation of heart rate through the vagus nerve--often measured as resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia or cardiac vagal tone (CVT)--is a key biological correlate of psychological well-being. However, recent theorizing has suggested that many biological and psychological processes can become maladaptive when they reach extreme levels. This raises the possibility that CVT might not have an unmitigated positive relationship with well-being. In line with this reasoning, across 231 adult participants (Mage = 40.02 years; 52% female), we found that CVT was quadratically related to multiple measures of well-being, including life satisfaction and depressive symptoms. Individuals with moderate CVT had higher well-being than those with low or high CVT. These results provide the first direct evidence of a nonlinear relationship between CVT and well-being, adding to a growing body of research that has suggested some biological processes may cease being adaptive when they reach extreme levels.
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Positive psychological factors, including the capacity to regulate emotions effectively, are associated with and plausibly mechanistically responsible for healthier basal levels of autonomic parameters such as heart rate and heart rate variability, greater vagal tone, and healthier biological stress responses.
“Positive psychological factors, including the capacity to regulate emotions effectively, are associated with and plausibly mechanistically responsible for healthier basal levels of autonomic parameters such as heart rate and heart rate variability, greater vagal tone, and healthier biological stress responses. 126-131”
From Psychological Health, Well-Being, and the Mind-Heart-Body Connection: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association (2021) · cites this paper as [127]
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- Authors
- Kogan, A., Gruber, J., Shallcross, A. J., Ford, B. Q., & Mauss, I. B.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Yale University (US)
- University of Denver (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Venue
- Emotion
- Published
- 2013-08
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 599-604
- ISSN
- 1528-3542 (ISSN-L)
- 1931-1516
- OpenAlex
- W1993578168
- Cited by
- 87
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 7
- FWCI
- 5.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Emotion (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Vagus Nerve Stimulation Research
- Keywords
- cardiac vagal tone, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, psychological well-being, life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, nonlinear relationship, parasympathetic modulation, vagus nerve, heart rate variability, biological adaptation
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Physiological, Adult, Depression, Electrocardiography, Female, Heart, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Personal Satisfaction, Plethysmography, Vagus Nerve, Nonlinear Dynamics
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