Sex differences in adolescents’ cardiac reactivity and recovery under acute stress: The importance of nonlinear measures

• Published in: Psychophysiology 2020-03, Vol.57 (3), p.e13488-n/a
• Main Authors: Fiol‐Veny, Aina, Balle, Maria, Fiskum, Charlotte, Bornas, Xavier
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: adolescence; Adolescent; Adolescent Development - physiology; Adolescents; Autonomic Nervous System - physiology; cardiac reactivity; cardiac recovery; complexity; Entropy; Female; Females; Fractals; Gender differences; Heart; Heart Rate - physiology; Humans; Male; Performance Anxiety - physiopathology; Psychopathology; sex; Sex differences; Sex Factors; Social Behavior; Social interactions; stress; Stress, Psychological - physiopathology; Teenagers; Well being
• ISSN: 0048-5772; 1469-8986; 1540-5958
• DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13488

How well adolescents can self‐regulate in the face of stressors has considerable implications for long‐term well‐being and risk of psychopathology. This study investigated sex differences in adolescents’ cardiac reactivity and recovery during a stressful task. Measures of cardiac variability (linear) and complexity (nonlinear) were obtained from N = 92 adolescents, 41 males (M age = 13.28, SD = 0.69; BMI = 21.9) and 51 females (M age = 13.36, SD = 0.67; BMI = 21.5). The adolescents underwent the Trier Social Stress Test, consisting of five conditions: baseline, anticipation, social exposure, math task, and recovery. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that female in comparison to male adolescents showed lower cardiac complexity revealed by higher short‐term scaling exponent at baseline (p = .006) and math (p = .013) and lower entropy at exposure (p = .013) and math (p = .012). A marginal between‐groups effect was found for Higuchi's fractal dimension, F(1, 90) = 3.67, p = .059, ηp2 = .041, with females showing lower fractal dimension than males in math (p = .037). Linear measures did not reveal sex‐related differences. Results suggest that adolescent females show lower cardiac complexity during stress. These findings support the importance of nonlinear cardiac measures for understanding cardiac reactivity during stress. Further research is needed to test the hypothesis that cardiac complexity is useful to detect an increased risk of emotional disorders, disorders that are more prevalent in women. Adolescents’ self‐regulation during stress has deep implications for the risk for psychopathology. This study examines the presence of sex differences in adolescents’ cardiac reactivity and recovery during stress. Linear (variability) and nonlinear (complexity) cardiac measures were calculated from 92 adolescents who underwent the Trier Social Stress Test. Females showed lower cardiac complexity than males across different stages of the task. These results support the importance of nonlinear measures for understanding cardiac reactivity during stress. Further research is needed to test whether cardiac complexity is useful to detect increased risk of emotional disorders, which are more prevalent in women.