TY - JOUR
T1 - Increased cardiac vagal tone in childhood-only, adolescent-only, and persistently antisocial teenagers
T2 - The mediating role of low heart rate
AU - Raine, Adrian
AU - Brodrick, Lia
AU - Pardini, Dustin
AU - Richard Jennings, J.
AU - Waller, Rebecca
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Background. Cardiac vagal tone is an indicator of parasympathetic nervous system functioning, and there is increasing interest in its relation to antisocial behavior. It is unclear however whether antisocial individuals are characterized by increased or decreased vagal tone, and whether increased vagal tone is the source of the low heart rate frequently reported in antisocial populations. Methods. Participants consisted of four groups of community-dwelling adolescent boys aged 15.7 years: (1) controls, (2) childhood-only antisocial, (3) adolescent-only antisocial, and (4) persistently antisocial. Heart rate and vagal tone were assessed in three different conditions: rest, cognitive stressor, and social stressor. Results. All three antisocial groups had both lower resting heart rates and increased vagal tone compared to the low antisocial controls across all three conditions. Low heart rate partially mediated the relationship between vagal tone and antisocial behavior. Conclusions. Results indicate that increased vagal tone and reduced heart rate are relatively broad risk factors for different developmental forms of antisocial behavior. Findings are the first to implicate vagal tone as an explanatory factor in understanding heart rate antisocial behavior relationships. Future experimental work using non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation or heart rate variability biofeedback is needed to more systematically evaluate this conclusion.
AB - Background. Cardiac vagal tone is an indicator of parasympathetic nervous system functioning, and there is increasing interest in its relation to antisocial behavior. It is unclear however whether antisocial individuals are characterized by increased or decreased vagal tone, and whether increased vagal tone is the source of the low heart rate frequently reported in antisocial populations. Methods. Participants consisted of four groups of community-dwelling adolescent boys aged 15.7 years: (1) controls, (2) childhood-only antisocial, (3) adolescent-only antisocial, and (4) persistently antisocial. Heart rate and vagal tone were assessed in three different conditions: rest, cognitive stressor, and social stressor. Results. All three antisocial groups had both lower resting heart rates and increased vagal tone compared to the low antisocial controls across all three conditions. Low heart rate partially mediated the relationship between vagal tone and antisocial behavior. Conclusions. Results indicate that increased vagal tone and reduced heart rate are relatively broad risk factors for different developmental forms of antisocial behavior. Findings are the first to implicate vagal tone as an explanatory factor in understanding heart rate antisocial behavior relationships. Future experimental work using non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation or heart rate variability biofeedback is needed to more systematically evaluate this conclusion.
KW - Heart rate
KW - Parasympathetic
KW - Persistently antisocial
KW - Stress
KW - Vagal tone
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U2 - 10.1017/S0033291724000552
DO - 10.1017/S0033291724000552
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85187946105
SN - 0033-2917
JO - Psychological Medicine
JF - Psychological Medicine
ER -