Whither vagal tone [An article from: Biological Psychology]

This digital document is a journal article from Biological Psychology, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Measures of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) have been widely applied in the physiological and psychophysiological literature as an index of vagal control of the heart. Despite an extensive literature, however, differences in interpretation remain within the field. A guiding conception for several contributions in this issue is the notion of separate brainstem centers involved in parasympathetic control, with distinct evolutionary origins and significance and with divergent influences on cardiac vagal tone as it relates to psychological and behavioral processes. We here consider the biological foundations for this view, discuss some methodological and interpretative caveats for RSA applications and offer suggestions for further development of the field.