Coupling of Rhythms in Prefrontal Cortex and Autonomic Nervous System in School-Age Children

Self-regulation is a neuroregulatory process driven by function in both the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Although many investigations have explored the role of these systems in self-regulation independently, little work has examined how they cooperate across contexts, limiting the understanding of neurophysiological substrates of self-regulation. In a sample of 55 children (M_age = 5.85, SD = 0.80), the present study examined the coordination of cardiac and neural signals during rest and a mildly stressful task. Paired-samples t-tests confirmed that the stressor elicited increases in heart rate (HR) and decreases in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), while correlations indicated stability in individual differences across phases. Wavelet transform coherence assessed coupling of dlPFC signals with HR and RSA. HR- and RSA-dlPFC coupling was observed in both contexts, but timescales of significant coupling varied across contexts, cardiac signals, and dlPFC hemispheres. No associations were found between the coupling of any signal at any timescale and child positive or negative affect or emotion regulation dysfunction. Findings suggest that cardiac-neural coupling is sensitive to timescale, context, and choice of cardiac signal. Future studies should consider other measures of behavioral regulation to better understand its potential relation with ANS-dlPFC coupling.