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Tonic and phasic co-variation of peripheral arousal indices in infants

S V Wass1, K de Barbaro1, K Clackson1

  • 1Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK.

Biological Psychology
|August 29, 2015
PubMed

Insights

Autonomic nervous system (ANS) indicators in infants show strong covariation, with motor activity serving as a reliable proxy for ANS activity. Electrodermal activity (EDA) is sensitive only at high arousal levels.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Physiology

Background:

  • Peripheral autonomic nervous system (ANS) indicators are crucial for understanding attention and emotion regulation in developing populations.
  • Previous research often relies on single ANS measures, creating challenges in comparing findings across studies.
  • Understanding the covariation of multiple ANS indicators is essential for a comprehensive view of infant development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the covariation of multiple peripheral ANS indicators in 12-month-old infants.
  • To examine tonic and phasic ANS activity patterns during a standardized assessment.
  • To determine if motor activity can serve as a proxy for ANS activity in infants.

Main Methods:

  • Concurrent recording of heart rate, electrodermal activity (EDA), pupil size, head movement velocity, and peripheral accelerometry in 37 infants.
  • Analysis of autonomic index covariation across tonic (baseline) arousal, spontaneous (phasic) changes, and stimulus-evoked responses.
  • Utilized epoch durations of 40s, 5s, and 1s for detailed covariation analysis.

Main Results:

  • Heart rate, head velocity, and peripheral accelerometry demonstrated strong positive covariation across all analyzed conditions.
  • Electrodermal activity (EDA) showed limited tonic covariation but exhibited phasic covariation during high arousal periods.
  • Tonic pupil size covaried significantly, but phasic pupil changes were inconsistent, and motor activity emerged as a strong proxy for ANS activity.

Conclusions:

  • Infant autonomic indices exhibit substantial covariation, though EDA sensitivity is arousal-dependent.
  • Tonic pupil size aligns with other ANS measures, but phasic changes are less predictable.
  • Motor activity is a valuable and reliable indicator of autonomic nervous system activity in infants, simplifying future research.

Keywords:
AccelerometerActigraphArousalElectrodermal activityHeart rateInfantPeripheral autonomic indicatorsPupil size

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