The compassionate vagus: A meta-analysis on the connection between compassion and heart rate variability
Journal article
Authors | Di Bello, Maria, Carnevali, Luca, Petrocchi, Nicola, Thayer, Julian F., Gilbert, Paul and Ottaviani, Cristina |
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Abstract | In recent years, increasing interest has been devoted to the physiological basis of self and other-oriented compassion. Heart rate variability (HRV) represents a promising candidate for such a role, given its association with soothing emotions and context appropriate prefrontal inhibitory control over threat-defensive responses. The aim of this study was to meta-analyze available studies on the association between compassion and HRV. Random-effect models were used. The analysis performed on sixteen studies that met inclusion criteria, yielded a significant association with a medium effect size (g = .54 95% CI [.24, .84], p < .0001). Results were not influenced by publication bias. After an extreme outlier’s exclusion, the size of the association was still larger in studies that used time or frequency-domain indices of vagally-mediated HRV compared to those that used peak to trough estimates of respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Results are limited by the small number of studies included in the meta-analysis (n = 16) and are discussed in terms of indications for future research, given that existing data are highly heterogeneous and of poor methodological rigor. |
Keywords | meta-analysis; compassion; vagally-mediated heart rate variability; parasympathetic nervous system; respiratory sinus arrhythmia |
Year | 2020 |
Journal | Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews |
Journal citation | 116, pp. 21-30 |
Publisher | Elsevier BV |
ISSN | 0149-7634 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.06.016 |
Web address (URL) | http://hdl.handle.net/10545/624963 |
https://www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ | |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | |
hdl:10545/624963 | |
Publication dates | 15 Jun 2020 |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 09 Jul 2020, 13:04 |
Accepted | 10 Jun 2020 |
Rights | © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International | |
Contributors | Sapienza University of Rome, University of Parma, John Cabot University, Rome, The University of California, Irvine and University of Derby |
File | File Access Level Open |
File | File Access Level Open |
File |
https://repository.derby.ac.uk/item/928w9/the-compassionate-vagus-a-meta-analysis-on-the-connection-between-compassion-and-heart-rate-variability
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