Consistency of heart rate and sympathovagal reactivity across different autonomic contexts

Theories that psychophysiological reactivity constitutes a risk factor for coronary artery disease assume that reactivity is a consistent individual characteristic. We tested this assumption by measuring reactivity to three psychologically challenging tasks performed by 22 healthy subjects across different autonomic contexts produced by positional change. Dependent variables included heart rate (HR), low-frequency (LF; 0.04-0.15 Hz) and high-frequency (HF; 0.15-0.50 Hz) heart period variability, and the LF/HF ratio. HR (r = .44, p < .05) and LF/HF ratio (r = .48, p = .03) reactivity were modestly correlated across the different autonomic contexts, but HF and LF power reactivity were not. These findings suggest that HR reactivity to psychological challenge is a modestly consistent characteristic of individuals, despite differences in autonomic context. Although the same is true of cardiac sympathovagal balance, reactivity of HF and LF power were less consistent.