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Reduced Cardiac Vagal Modulation Impacts on Cognitive Performance in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

BACKGROUND: Cognitive difficulties and autonomic dysfunction have been reported separately in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). A role for heart rate variability (HRV) in cognitive flexibility has been demonstrated in healthy individuals, but this relationship has not as yet been examine...

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Autores principales: Beaumont, Alison, Burton, Alexander R., Lemon, Jim, Bennett, Barbara K., Lloyd, Andrew, Vollmer-Conna, Uté
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3498107/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23166694
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049518
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author Beaumont, Alison
Burton, Alexander R.
Lemon, Jim
Bennett, Barbara K.
Lloyd, Andrew
Vollmer-Conna, Uté
author_facet Beaumont, Alison
Burton, Alexander R.
Lemon, Jim
Bennett, Barbara K.
Lloyd, Andrew
Vollmer-Conna, Uté
author_sort Beaumont, Alison
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Cognitive difficulties and autonomic dysfunction have been reported separately in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). A role for heart rate variability (HRV) in cognitive flexibility has been demonstrated in healthy individuals, but this relationship has not as yet been examined in CFS. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between HRV and cognitive performance in patients with CFS. METHODS: Participants were 30 patients with CFS and 40 healthy controls; the groups were matched for age, sex, education, body mass index, and hours of moderate exercise/week. Questionnaires were used to obtain relevant medical and demographic information, and assess current symptoms and functional impairment. Electrocardiograms, perceived fatigue/effort and performance data were recorded during cognitive tasks. Between–group differences in autonomic reactivity and associations with cognitive performance were analysed. RESULTS: Patients with CFS showed no deficits in performance accuracy, but were significantly slower than healthy controls. CFS was further characterized by low and unresponsive HRV; greater heart rate (HR) reactivity and prolonged HR-recovery after cognitive challenge. Fatigue levels, perceived effort and distress did not affect cognitive performance. HRV was consistently associated with performance indices and significantly predicted variance in cognitive outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: These findings reveal for the first time an association between reduced cardiac vagal tone and cognitive impairment in CFS and confirm previous reports of diminished vagal activity.
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spelling pubmed-34981072012-11-19 Reduced Cardiac Vagal Modulation Impacts on Cognitive Performance in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Beaumont, Alison Burton, Alexander R. Lemon, Jim Bennett, Barbara K. Lloyd, Andrew Vollmer-Conna, Uté PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Cognitive difficulties and autonomic dysfunction have been reported separately in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). A role for heart rate variability (HRV) in cognitive flexibility has been demonstrated in healthy individuals, but this relationship has not as yet been examined in CFS. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between HRV and cognitive performance in patients with CFS. METHODS: Participants were 30 patients with CFS and 40 healthy controls; the groups were matched for age, sex, education, body mass index, and hours of moderate exercise/week. Questionnaires were used to obtain relevant medical and demographic information, and assess current symptoms and functional impairment. Electrocardiograms, perceived fatigue/effort and performance data were recorded during cognitive tasks. Between–group differences in autonomic reactivity and associations with cognitive performance were analysed. RESULTS: Patients with CFS showed no deficits in performance accuracy, but were significantly slower than healthy controls. CFS was further characterized by low and unresponsive HRV; greater heart rate (HR) reactivity and prolonged HR-recovery after cognitive challenge. Fatigue levels, perceived effort and distress did not affect cognitive performance. HRV was consistently associated with performance indices and significantly predicted variance in cognitive outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: These findings reveal for the first time an association between reduced cardiac vagal tone and cognitive impairment in CFS and confirm previous reports of diminished vagal activity. Public Library of Science 2012-11-14 /pmc/articles/PMC3498107/ /pubmed/23166694 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049518 Text en © 2012 Beaumont et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Beaumont, Alison
Burton, Alexander R.
Lemon, Jim
Bennett, Barbara K.
Lloyd, Andrew
Vollmer-Conna, Uté
Reduced Cardiac Vagal Modulation Impacts on Cognitive Performance in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
title Reduced Cardiac Vagal Modulation Impacts on Cognitive Performance in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
title_full Reduced Cardiac Vagal Modulation Impacts on Cognitive Performance in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
title_fullStr Reduced Cardiac Vagal Modulation Impacts on Cognitive Performance in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
title_full_unstemmed Reduced Cardiac Vagal Modulation Impacts on Cognitive Performance in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
title_short Reduced Cardiac Vagal Modulation Impacts on Cognitive Performance in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
title_sort reduced cardiac vagal modulation impacts on cognitive performance in chronic fatigue syndrome
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3498107/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23166694
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049518
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