Relation between cardiac vagal tone and performance in male military personnel exposed to high stress: Three prospective studies

C. A. Morgan; Deane E. Aikins; George Steffian; Vladimir Coric; Steven Southwick

doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2006.00475.x

Relation between cardiac vagal tone and performance in male military personnel exposed to high stress: Three prospective studies

C. A. Morgan, Deane E. Aikins, George Steffian, Vladimir Coric, Steven Southwick

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

46 Scopus citations

Abstract

Vagal tone has been proposed both as an index of emotion regulation and cognitive ability. To assess the relation between vagal tone and emotion regulation and cognitive ability, the present research prospectively measured vagal tone (measured either as high-frequency spectral power or respiratory sinus arrhythmia) in healthy participants exposed to high stress. The participants were active duty military personnel (men) enrolled in high intensity military training: Survival School (Experiments 1 and 3) and Combat Diver Qualification Course (Experiment 2). We consistently observed a significant relationship between low vagal tone and superior performance. The data suggest that vagal suppression is associated with enhanced performance under conditions of high stress and that this enhanced performance may be related to emotion regulation and cognitive functioning.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	120-127
Number of pages	8
Journal	Psychophysiology
Volume	44
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2006.00475.x
State	Published - Jan 2007
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Heart rate variability
High stress
Military stress
Performance
Respiratory sinus arrhythmia
Vagal tone

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10.1111/j.1469-8986.2006.00475.x

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Relation between cardiac vagal tone and performance in male military personnel exposed to high stress: Three prospective studies

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Keywords

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