ReviewPsychophysiology2019
Should heart rate variability be "corrected" for heart rate? Biological, quantitative, and interpretive considerations.
Review in Psychophysiology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 104 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
104 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Publication guidelines for human heart rate and heart rate variability studies in psychophysiology-Part 1: Physiological underpinnings and foundations of measurement.Psychophysiology · 2024Guideline
- Heart rate variability alterations in takotsubo syndrome and related association with psychological factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2023Pooled it
- Trauma-related dissociation and the autonomic nervous system: a systematic literature review of psychophysiological correlates of dissociative experiencing in PTSD patients.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of Cardiovascular Interval Training in Healthy Elderly Subjects: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in physiology · 2020Pooled it
- Respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity across empirically based structural dimensions of psychopathology: A meta-analysis.Psychophysiology · 2019Pooled it
- Exercise modality but not hypoxia alters heart rate variability after a single repeated-sprint session.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Trial
- Musician presence and its effects on physiological and psychological well-being in live versus livestreamed concerts.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Self-Chosen Music as a Contributor to Music-Induced Analgesia Across Diverse Socio-Cultural Backgrounds: A Crossover Randomised Controlled Trial.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Trial
- Chronic Effects of Different Intensities of Interval Training on Hemodynamic, Autonomic and Cardiorespiratory Variables of Physically Active Elderly People.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Short-term differences in cardiac function following controlled exposure to cookstove air pollution: The subclinical tests on volunteers exposed to smoke (STOVES) study.Environment international · 2021Trial
- Trial
- Differential associations of resting heart rate and heart rate variability indices with cardiovascular and coronary heart disease mortality risk: the prospective KORA study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Biobehavioral synchrony between three to four months old infants and psychologically healthy mothers during the face-to-face still-face paradigm.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Free-living associations between resting heart rate parameters and cardiometabolic health in adults.Physiological reports · 2026Article
- Daily Stress and Heart Rate Variability Among Mindfulness Meditation Practitioners: mHealth Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Observational
- Noninvasive Detection of Acute Hyperglycemia Using Signal from Wearable ECG Sensors Considering Individual HRV Response Delays to Glucose.Biosensors · 2026Article
- Analysis of Clinical Features in Children with Vasovagal Syncope Complicated by Convulsions or Incontinence.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Slow nocturnal body cooling during sleep increases interbeat intervals and is tightly coupled to high-frequency heart rate variability in healthy men.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Discrimination and Heart Rate Variability Responses in a Diverse Sample of Young Adults.Journal of psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Sex and age differences in the association between heart rate variability and cardiac chronotropy: A replication-extension study.Physiological reports · 2025Article
44 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Metrics of heart period variability are widely used in the behavioral and biomedical sciences, although somewhat confusingly labeled as heart rate variability (HRV). Despite their wide use, HRV metrics are usually analyzed and interpreted without reference to prevailing levels of cardiac chronotropic state (i.e., mean heart rate or mean heart period). This isolated treatment of HRV metrics is nontrivial. All HRV metrics routinely used in the literature exhibit a known and positive relationship with the mean duration of the interval between two beats (heart period): as the heart period increases, so does its variability. This raises the question of whether HRV metrics should be "corrected" for the mean heart period (or its inverse, the heart rate). Here, we outline biological, quantitative, and interpretive issues engendered by this question. We provide arguments that HRV is neither uniformly nor simply a surrogate for heart period. We also identify knowledge gaps that remain to be satisfactorily addressed with respect to assumptions underlying existing HRV correction approaches. In doing so, we aim to stimulate further progress toward the rigorous use and disciplined interpretation of HRV. We close with provisional guidance on HRV reporting that acknowledges the complex interplay between the mean and variability of the heart period.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.