Table 2.
Summary table of HRV reactivity and its moderators in healthy middle-aged to older adults (≥50 years).
| Exercise | HRV reactivity | Moderators of HRV responses | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time-domain | Frequency-domain | Non-linear | Significant relation ( p < 0.05) | No effect | ||||||||||||||||||
| Type | mRR [ms] | SDNN [ms] | SDRR [ms] | pNN50 [%] | RMSSD [ms] | VLF [ms2] | LF [ms2] | LFnu [nu] | RSA [ms2] | HF [ms2] | HFnu [nu] | LF/HF [%] | SD1 [ms] | SD2 [ms] | SD1/SD2 [%] | DFα1 [] | SampEn | CoV | References | Variable | Relations | Variable |
| Cognitive Tasks | ↑1 | ↑1 | ↑1 | Wood et al., 2002; Collste et al., 2014; Perpetuini et al., 2019 | Age Brain Activity Cognition HRV (rest) Modality Physical Fitness Stress Response Task Difficulty |
Aging was associated with blunted HF reactivities (Crowley Olga et al., 2016). Anterior cingulate cortex hyperactivity (as a compensatory mechanism for neurodegeneration in frontal regions) resulted in stronger HF declines during the tasks (Lin et al., 2017a). Better cognition was related to lower reactivities in HF (Lin et al., 2017a) and RMSSD (Wawrzyniak Andrew et al., 2016), as well as higher reactivities in LF (Lin et al., 2014). Higher HRV at rest was related to higher HF on-task (Crowley Olga et al., 2016). HRV reactivity (i.e. HF and LF) varied between cognitive task modalities [i.e. Stroop > mental arithmetic (Lin et al., 2014), mental arithmetic > mirror tracing (Kuraoka et al., 2019)] Higher physical fitness was related to lower reactivities of RMSSD (Hamer and Steptoe, 2007). Higher subjective strain was related to larger reductions in SDNN (Betz Linda et al., 2017) and RMSSD (Kunz-Ebrecht et al., 2003), whereas larger reactivities in RMSSD were associated with greater increases of TNF-α (Hamer and Steptoe, 2007) and cortisol (Kunz-Ebrecht et al., 2003). Higher task difficulty was related to higher LF reactivity (Christensen Stephanie and Wright Heather, 2014). |
Gender [i.e. RMSSD (Kunz-Ebrecht et al., 2003; Steptoe and Marmot, 2005)] Cognition [i.e. SDNN (Beer Noa et al., 2017), RSA (Capuana et al., 2012), and HF (Lin et al., 2014)] Heart rate [i.e. SDNN (Betz Linda et al., 2017)] Level of physical activity [i.e. RMSSD (Steptoe et al., 2002)] Respiration (i.e. HF; Crowley Olga et al., 2016) Smoking and Alcohol Consumption [i.e. RMSSD (Steptoe et al., 2002)] Stress [i.e. IL-6 response; RMSSD (Hamer and Steptoe, 2007)] Task type [i.e. verbal vs. spatial; LF (Christensen Stephanie and Wright Heather, 2014)] |
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| →1 | →4 | →1 | →1 | Steptoe and Marmot, 2005, 2006; Capuana et al., 2012; Beer et al., 2017; Beer Noa et al., 2017; Betz Linda et al., 2017; Kuraoka et al., 2019 | ||||||||||||||||||
| ↘1 | ↘1 | ↘1 | Steptoe et al., 2002; Norcliffe-Kaufmann et al., 2016; Beer Noa et al., 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||
| ↓2 | ↓2 | ↓4 | ↓3 | ↓1 | ↓4 | ↓1 | Cacioppo et al., 2000; Wood et al., 2002; Kunz-Ebrecht et al., 2003; Steptoe et al., 2005; Hamer and Steptoe, 2007; Christensen Stephanie and Wright Heather, 2014; Lin et al., 2014, 2017a; Crowley Olga et al., 2016; Wawrzyniak Andrew et al., 2016; Beer et al., 2017; Beer Noa et al., 2017; Junior Adalberto et al., 2019; Kuraoka et al., 2019 | |||||||||||||||
| Cardiorespiratory Exercise | ↑1 | ↑1 | ↑1 | ↑1 | Perini et al., 2000; Bartels Matthew et al., 2003 | Age Body fat Intensity Modality |
Aging was associated with increased mRR intervals (but not mRR reactivity; Corrêa et al., 2013) and suppressed levels of LF (Kaltsatou et al., 2020), LF/HF (Kaltsatou et al., 2020) and DFA-α1 (Karavirta et al., 2009; Kaltsatou et al., 2020) during exercise. Age-related changes in HRV vanished when controlling for body fat (Kaltsatou et al., 2020). Higher intensities of exercise and higher heart rate were related to larger reductions of mRR (Virtanen et al., 2007), HF (Mayumi et al., 2008; Archiza et al., 2013), LFnu (Perini et al., 2000), LF/HF (Perini et al., 2000), and DFA-α1 (Karavirta et al., 2009) as well as larger increases in HFnu (Perini et al., 2000) during exercise. The addition of gait synchronization elevated DFA-α during walking (Wittstein et al., 2019). |
Age [i.e. RMSSD (Corrêa et al., 2013), VLF (Kaltsatou et al., 2020), LF(nu) (Bartels Matthew et al., 2003), HF(nu) (Bartels Matthew et al., 2003; Kaltsatou et al., 2020), LF/HF (Bartels Matthew et al., 2003), SD1 (Corrêa et al., 2013; Kaltsatou et al., 2020), SD2 (Corrêa et al., 2013; Kaltsatou et al., 2020), DFA-α1 (Kaltsatou et al., 2020), and CoV (Kaltsatou et al., 2020)] Gender [i.e. mRR (Corrêa et al., 2013), RMSSD (Corrêa et al., 2013), LF(nu) (Perini et al., 2000; Bartels Matthew et al., 2003), HF(nu) (Perini et al., 2000; Bartels Matthew et al., 2003; Takahashi et al., 2003), LF/HF (Perini et al., 2000; Bartels Matthew et al., 2003), SD1 (Corrêa et al., 2013), and SD2 (Corrêa et al., 2013)] Body mass index [i.e. LF(nu) (Bartels Matthew et al., 2003), HF(nu) (Bartels Matthew et al., 2003), and LF/HF (Bartels Matthew et al., 2003)] Intensity [i.e. mRR (Wittstein et al., 2019), SDRR (Wittstein et al., 2019), HF (Takahashi et al., 2003), CoV (Wittstein et al., 2019), and DFA-α1 (Wittstein et al., 2019)] Physical fitness (i.e. DFA-α1; Karavirta et al., 2009) |
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| ↗1 | ↗1 | ↗1 | ↗1 | Rodrigues Jhennyfer et al., 2019; Kaltsatou et al., 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||
| →1 | →1 | →1 | →1 | →1 | →2 | →1 | Bartels Matthew et al., 2003; Alves Naiane Ferraz et al., 2011; Beer et al., 2017; Kaltsatou et al., 2020 | |||||||||||||||
| ↘1 | ↘1 | ↘1 | ↘2 | ↘1 | ↘1 | Dourado et al., 2010; Alves Naiane Ferraz et al., 2011; Ahmadian and Dabidi Roshan, 2015; Rodrigues Jhennyfer et al., 2019; Kaltsatou et al., 2020 | ||||||||||||||||
| ↓4 | ↓2 | ↓4 | ↓1 | ↓1 | ↓3 | ↓1 | ↓2 | ↓2 | ↓1 | Perini et al., 2000; Takahashi et al., 2003; Davrath Linda et al., 2006; Virtanen et al., 2007; Mayumi et al., 2008; Karavirta et al., 2009; Wang Norman et al., 2011; Corrêa et al., 2013; Ahmadian and Dabidi Roshan, 2015; Beer et al., 2017 | ||||||||||||
| Resistance Exercise | ↗1 | ↗1 | Machado-Vidotti et al., 2014 | Duration Intensity Modality |
SampEn was reduced for longer durations (at constant load) (Millar et al., 2011). HRV reactivity increased with increasing exercise loads (Machado-Vidotti et al., 2014) (i.e. RMSSD, HF, HFnu and SD1 decrease, LFnu and LF/HF increase). HRV reactivity (i.e. LFnu and HF) was more pronounced to upper- than lower limb exercise (Machado-Vidotti et al., 2014). |
Duration (i.e. SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50, and DFA-α1; Millar et al., 2011) | ||||||||||||||||
| →1 | →1 | →3 | →1 | →1 | →1 | Piepoli et al., 1996; Petrofsky et al., 2009; Millar et al., 2011; Beer Noa et al., 2017 | ||||||||||||||||
| ↘1 | Beer Noa et al., 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ↓2 | ↓1 | ↓1 | ↓2 | ↓1 | ↓1 | ↓1 | Piepoli et al., 1996; Millar et al., 2011; Machado-Vidotti et al., 2014; Beer Noa et al., 2017 | |||||||||||||||
| Simultaneous cognitive-motor training | →1 | Beer et al., 2017 | NR | NR | NR | |||||||||||||||||
| ↘1 | Beer Noa et al., 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ↓1 | ↓2 | Beer et al., 2017; Beer Noa et al., 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||
↑n = significant (p < 0.05) increase from resting HRV, ↗n = increasing trend (not significant or not statistically tested) → n = no significant change from resting HRV, ↘n = decreasing trend (not significant or not statistically tested), ↓n = significant (p < 0.05) decrease from resting HRV, n = number of studies reporting this effect, NR = not reported.