The autonomic characteristics of hostility and defensiveness were assessed in 55 male undergraduates based on composite Cook Medley Hostility (Chost) and Marlowe Crowne Social Desirability (MC) scores to create 4 groups: Defensive Hostile (DH; high MC, high Chost), High Hostile (HH; low MC, high Chost), Defensive (Def; high MC, low Chost) and Low Hostile (LH; low MC, low Chost). All subjects engaged in a video game (VG) and hand cold pressor (CP) task. Cardiovascular responses in DH subjects were predicted to show enhanced sympathetic α and β-adrenergic activity and the least vagal control compared to others across tasks. DH and LH men showed significant heart rate reactivity to the CP task compared to HH men. LH men showed significant reductions in high frequency power (vagal assessment) to the tasks compared to HH men. Future studies may employ harassment techniques and include the factors of gender and ethnicity in their assessments.

People with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) often have a comorbid history of stress and negative affect. Although the verbal-cognitive and (peripheral) physiological stress systems have shown a great degree of independence, at the same time it is claimed that chronic stress and negative affect can result in a disregulated physiological stress system, which may lead to MUS. Previous studies could not demonstrate a straightforward between subject relationship between MUS and stress physiology, supporting the view of independence. The aim of the current study was to further explore this relationship using an improved methodology based on ecologically valid 24-h real-life ambulatory recordings. Seventy-four participants (19 male; 55 female) with heterogeneous MUS were compared with 71 healthy controls (26 male; 45 females). Momentary experienced somatic complaints and mood, heart rate, cardiac autonomic activity, respiration and saliva cortisol were monitored using electronic diary and ambulatory registration devices. Participants with MUS reported much more momentary complaints and negative affect as compared to controls. Although MUS seemed to be associated with elevated heart rate and reduced low and very-low frequency heart period variability, these effects disappeared after controlling for differences in sports behaviour. No group differences were found for cardiac autonomic activity, respiration, end-tidal CO2 and saliva cortisol. Our 24-h real-life ambulatory study did not support the existence of a connection between MUS and disregulated peripheral stress physiology. Future studies may instead focus on central measures to reveal potential abnormalities such as deviant central processing of visceral signals in MUS patients.

Objective:
To determine whether foster children showed different autonomic nervous system activity on separation and reunion than control children. Autonomic nervous system activity in foster children was examined in relation to time in placement and disinhibited attachment.
Method:
The sample included 60 foster and 50 control children between 2 and 7 years of age who participated with their caregivers in a modified Strange Situation. Heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and pre-ejection period were monitored continuously. Foster caregivers reported disinhibited symptoms on the Disturbances of Attachment Interview.
Results:
The Strange Situation elicited less RSA reactivity in foster children. Differences in RSA, heart rate, and pre-ejection period responses on the specific separation and reunion episodes were not significant. RSA responses on separation from the stranger and on reunion with the foster caregiver were partly explained by time in placement and disinhibited attachment.
Conclusions:
Early experiences of relationship disruptions in foster children as well as short placements may have an impact on children’s adaptation to environmental and relational challenges. Stable placement may facilitate adaptive affect regulation, except for children with disinhibited symptoms.

Objectives: 
To examine the association between physical fitness, cardiac parasympathetic control, and inflammatory cytokine responses to mental stress. Exercise and physical fitness may act as a buffer to the detrimental effects of psychosocial stress exposure.
Methods: 
Participants were 207 men and women (52 ± 3 years) drawn from the Whitehall II epidemiological cohort. Participants completed two mental stressors consisting of a 5-minute Stroop task and a 5-minute mirror tracing task. Blood samples were obtained during baseline and 45 minutes post stress. Heart rate variability (HRV) was measured during baseline, stress, and recovery. Physical fitness was assessed from a submaximal exercise test.
Results: 
Interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-1 receptor antagonist were increased significantly at 45 minutes post stress. Multiple linear regression analysis, adjusted for age, body mass index, gender, smoking, alcohol, grade of employment, and basal levels of inflammatory markers demonstrated that exercise heart rate (a fitness indicator) was related to IL-6 (β = 0.24; p = .005) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α responses to stress (β = 0.27; p = .002). Exercise heart rate was also related to the HRV response to stress (β = −0.23; p = .02). A higher systolic blood pressure response to exercise was a predictor of TNF-α responses to stress (β = 0.18; p = .03).
Conclusions: 
Physical fitness (as indexed by lower exercise heart rate) is associated with smaller inflammatory cytokine responses to acute mental stress, an effect that may be partly mediated through parasympathetic pathways. This may be one of the mechanisms by which physical fitness confers protection against cardiovascular risk.
IL = interleukin;
TNF = tumor necrosis factor;
HRV = heart rate variability;
CHD = coronary heart disease;
BMI = body mass index.

Background
Although mental stress is commonly considered to be an important trigger factor for migraine, experimental evidence for this belief is yet lacking.
Objective
To study the temporal relationship between changes in stress-related parameters (both subjective and objective) and the onset of a migraine attack.
Methods
This was a prospective, ambulatory study in 17 migraine patients. We assessed changes in perceived stress and objective biological measures for stress (saliva cortisol, heart rate average [HRA], and heart rate variability [low-frequency power and high-frequency power]) over 4 days prior to the onset of spontaneous migraine attacks. Analyses were repeated for subgroups of patients according to whether or not they felt their migraine to be triggered by stress.
Results
There were no significant temporal changes over time for the whole group in perceived stress (p=0.50), morning cortisol (p=0.73), evening cortisol (p=0.55), HRA (p=0.83), low-frequency power (p=0.99) and high-frequency power (p=0.97) prior to or during an attack. Post hoc analysis of the subgroup of nine stress-sensitive patients who felt that >2/3 of their migraine attacks were triggered by psychosocial stress, revealed an increase for perceived stress (p=0.04) but no changes in objective stress response measures. At baseline, this group also showed higher scores on the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (p=0.003) and the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale (p=0.001) compared to non-stress-sensitive patients.
Conclusions
Although stress-sensitive patients, in contrast to non-stress-sensitive patients, may perceive more stress in the days before an impending migraine attack, we failed to detect any objective evidence for a biological stress response before or during migraine attacks.

Theorists have staked out two ostensibly opposing views of human crying as either an arousing behavior that signals distress or a soothing behavior that reduces arousal after distress. The present study examined whether these views of crying might be reconciled by attending to physiological changes that unfold over crying episodes. Sixty female students watched neutral and cry-eliciting films while autonomic physiology, including respiratory sinus arrhythmia and pre-ejection period, was assessed. Crying participants exhibited heart rate increases that rapidly subsided after crying onset. Crying onset was also associated with increases in respiratory sinus arrhythmia and slowed breathing. All crying effects subsided by 4 minutes after onset. It is possible that crying is both an arousing distress signal and a means to restore psychological and physiological balance, depending on how and when this complex behavior is interrogated.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of social stress and stress-induced cortisol on the preconscious selective attention to social threat. Twenty healthy participants were administered a masked emotional Stroop task (comparing color-naming latencies for angry, neutral and happy faces) in conditions of rest and social stress. Stress was induced by means of the Trier social stress test. Based on the stress-induced increase in cortisol levels, participants were allocated post hoc (median-split) to a high and low responders group. In contrast to low responders, high responders showed a negative or avoidant attentional bias to threat (i.e. shorter latencies for angry than neutral faces) in the rest condition. Most importantly, although low responders became avoidant, the high responders became vigilant to the angry faces after stress induction. There were no such effects for happy faces. Our findings are in line with previous studies in both animals and humans, that associate high glucocorticoid stress-responsiveness with diminished avoidance and prolonged freezing reactions during stress.

Heightened cardiovascular stress responsivity is associated with cardiovascular disease, but the origins of heightened responsivity are unclear. The present study investigated whether disturbances in cardiovascular responsivity were evident in individuals with a family history of cardiovascular disease risk. Data were collected from 60 women and 31 men with an average age of 21.4 years. Family history of cardiovascular disease risk was defined by the presence of coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes or high cholesterol in participants’ parents and grandparents; 75 participants had positive, and 16 had negative family histories. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), heart rate and heart rate variability were measured continuously for 5 min periods at baseline, during two mental stress tasks (Stroop and speech task) and at 10–15 min, 25–30 min and 40–45 min post-stress. Individuals with a positive family history exhibited significantly greater diastolic BP reactivity and poorer systolic and diastolic BP recovery from the stressors in comparison with family history negative individuals. In addition, female participants with a positive family history had heightened heart rate and heart rate variability reactivity to stressors. These effects were independent of baseline cardiovascular activity, body mass index, waist to hip ratio and smoking status. Family history of hypertension alone was not associated with stress responsivity. The findings indicate that a family history of cardiovascular disease risk influences stress responsivity which may in turn contribute to risk of future cardiovascular disorders.

Ambulatory assessment targets capturing psychological, behavioral, and physiological data in “real time” using in-field data acquisition systems. Although ambulatory assessment research has flourished particularly in the last decades, overviews on hardware and software solutions for monitoring are scarce, and–if found–are often outdated. In this review, we give an overview of current software and hardware solutions, focusing on multichannel systems for physiological data acquisition and hand-held computer based “experience sampling” systems. We aim at offering the reader guidance with regard to their choice of psychological and physiological monitoring solutions, giving special emphasis to key features relevant for different research questions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)