Relationship between Heart Rate Variability and cognitive function. Influence of physical fitness Luque, A.1,2, Sanabria, D.2, Morales, E.1, Mateo-March, M.3 & Zabala, M.1 1 Department
of Physical Education and Sport. University of Granada; 2 Department of Experimental Psychology. University of Granada; 3University Miguel Hernandez of Elche, Alicante
[email protected]
28 participants. Two groups (athletes and sedentaries). All participants performed an incremental cycle-ergometer test to determine their physical fitness. Three cognitive tasks involving attention and temporal processing where performed by both groups.
Heart rate variability (HRV) has been studied as an important marker of autonomic nervous system (ANS) modulation (Thayer, Hansen et al. 2009; Pinna, Maestri, Torunski, 2007).
Counterbalanced Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT)
Parasympathetic nervous system Rest and Stability Decreased rate of sinus node despolarization
Temporal Orienting (TO)
Fixation: 500 ms
Fixation: 500 ms 50 ms Short or large
2.000 or 10.000 ms
Low cardiac workload Values of Interval R-R Sympathetic nervous system Stress situation Increased rate of sinus node despolarization
350 ms
SOA: 400 or 1400 ms
Can the heart listen to our mind? The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between physical fitness, HRV and cognitive processing.
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p=.05
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p
