Heart-rate variability during social stress task: effects of childhood trauma and neuro metabolites

Poster No:

2386 

Submission Type:

Abstract Submission 

Authors:

Soroosh Golbabaei1, Marina Krylova1, Nathalie winter2, Igor Izyurov2, Hannes Meilicke2, Larissa McClain2, Jeannine Eichhorn2, Daniel Güllmar1, Laith Hamid2, Anja Buder2, Meng Li1, Martin Walter1, Lejla Colic1

Institutions:

1Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany, 2Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany, Jena, Germany

First Author:

Soroosh Golbabaei  
Jena University Hospital
Jena, Germany

Co-Author(s):

Marina Krylova  
Jena University Hospital
Jena, Germany
Nathalie winter  
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany
Jena, Germany
Igor Izyurov  
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany
Jena, Germany
Hannes Meilicke  
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany
Jena, Germany
Larissa McClain  
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany
Jena, Germany
Jeannine Eichhorn  
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany
Jena, Germany
Daniel Güllmar  
Jena University Hospital
Jena, Germany
Laith Hamid  
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany
Jena, Germany
Anja Buder  
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany
Jena, Germany
Meng Li  
Jena University Hospital
Jena, Germany
Martin Walter  
Jena University Hospital
Jena, Germany
Lejla Colic  
Jena University Hospital
Jena, Germany

Introduction:

Altered stress response dynamics contribute to the development of psychiatric disorders (Berretz et al., 2020). The autonomic nervous system (ANS) alters its activity during stressful events. One commonly studied measure of ANS activation is heart rate variability (HRV), which refers to the fluctuations in consecutive interbeat intervals (IBIs; Immanuel et al., 2023). However, understanding the dynamics of stress response requires examining multiple factors. For instance, neurometabolic levels in brain regions related to stress regulation and psychiatric disorders, such as anterior insula (aINS) and pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC), may play a role (Rosso et al., 2014). Additionally, developmental factors such as childhood trauma may impact the ANS response during stress (Jiang et al., 2019). The present study aimed to investigate the influence of childhood trauma and glutamate and γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels in the aINS and pgACC on changes in HRV during stress task.

Methods:

Fourteen participants (7 women, mean age=21.4, standard deviation=7.6) with no psychiatric or neurological diagnosis completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein et al., 2003) and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS). After the MRS, participants completed the Scan Stress Task (Noack et al., 2019), during which their heart rate was recorded using Photoplethysmography (PPG; sampling frequency= 400 Hz). The Scan Stress included two sessions, pre- and post-verbal feedback. MRS was collected using the MEGA-PRESS protocol and pulse sequences from the CMRR Spectroscopy Package (Tremblay et al., 2014), in single-voxels left aINS and bilateral pgACC with parameters: 10×20×20 mm³, echo-time=30 ms, repetition-time=3000 ms, flip angle=90°, averages=128 and water-averages=8. Spectra were analyzed using LCModel (V6.3; Provencher, 2001). Signal-to-noise ratio, Cramer-Rao lower bound, and full-width-at-half-maximum were used for quality checking, and we quantified glutamate, GABA, and total creatinine (tCr) as reference (Godlewska et al., 2017). From PPG, R-peaks and IBIs were extracted to construct Poincare plots (Brennan et al., 2001). The Poincare ratios (SD1/SD2) were calculated, and a normalized ratio between pre- and post-feedback was derived. Partial correlations were used to examine the relationships between glutamate/tCr and GABA/tCr from aINS and pgACC, CTQ-total score (CTQ-tot), and normalized Poincare ratio. Then, a backward regression was run with neuro metabolites, CTQ-tot, age, and sex to identify the best model for predicting the normalized Poincare ratio.

Results:

When controlling for age and sex, the normalized Poincare ratio was positively correlated with CTQ-tot, r(10)=.6, p=.04, and glutamate/tCr in aINS, r(10)=.7, p=.01. Regression analysis showed that aINS Glu/tCR, β=.6, p=.03, age, β=.6, p=.032, and CTQ-tot, β=.4, p=.08 best predicted the Poincare ratio, R2=.6, F(10)=6.1, p=.01.

Conclusions:

Our preliminary findings show that anterior insula glutamate and severity of childhood trauma contribute to stress dynamics measured via ANS in healthy participants. Both higher glutamate and childhood trauma were associated with higher ANS reactivity during a social stress task. Our findings emphasize the importance of both neural and physiological factors when examining the effects of stress on individuals.

Lifespan Development:

Early life, Adolescence, Aging 2

Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:

MR Spectroscopy 1

Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission :

Neurophysiology of Imaging Signals
Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission Other

Keywords:

Affective Disorders
Development
ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS)
MR SPECTROSCOPY

1|2Indicates the priority used for review

Provide references using author date format

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