SynthesisNeuroscience and biobehavioral reviews2020
Quantitative meta-analysis of heart rate variability finds reduced parasympathetic cardiac tone in women compared to men during laboratory-based social stress.
Synthesis in Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 2 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
29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- Heart rate variability in mental disorders: an umbrella review of meta-analyses.Translational psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Heart rate variability in patients with insomnia disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2023Pooled it
- Sex differences in brain functional connectivity changes to different energy densities of laser acupuncture at PC6 (Neiguan): a pilot resting-state fMRI study.Lasers in medical science · 2026Trial
- Guidelines for rigor and reproducibility of heart rate variability within human cardiovascular research.American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · 2026Review
- Psychophysiological responses to tactile contact with hairy versus hairless plant leaves.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Momentary anxiety and autonomic responses during everyday social interactions among patients with depression.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Heart rate variability in transgender people receiving Gender-Affirming hormone therapy.Endocrine · 2026Article
- Inhibitory control and stress biomarkers in response to social media stimuli: a Go/No-Go study using heart rate variability, alpha-amylase and oxytocin.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Central adiposity and sex are associated with the integrative architecture of physiological networks in healthy youth: a cross-sectional study in a cohort of Chinese college students.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Analysis of heart rate variability in critical septic patients using a smartphone application: a prospective cohort study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Association Between Obesity Indices and Heart Rate Variability: A Cross-Sectional Study in Asian Young College Students.Cardiology research and practice · 2026Article
- Heart rate variability reveals graded task difficulty effects and sensitization dynamics in anticipatory psychological stress via time-domain analysis.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2025Article
- Effects of Trapezius Muscle Self-Stretching on Muscle Stiffness and Choroidal Circulatory Dynamics: An Evaluation Using Ultrasound Strain Elastography and Laser Speckle Flowgraphy.Tomography (Ann Arbor, Mich.) · 2025Article
- Longitudinal Associations Between Peritraumatic Oestradiol and Fear Responding in Women and Men.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2025Article
- Prenatal dexamethasone programs autonomic dysregulation in female rats.American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · 2025Article
- Article
- Heart rate variability: A primer for alcohol researchers.Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- Anxiety and heart rate in a real-life class test in undergraduates choosing real-time or prerecorded oral presentations.Biologia futura · 2024Article
- Sex differences in heart rate variability measures that predict alcohol drinking in rats.Addiction biology · 2024Article
- Behavioural profiling following acute stress uncovers associations with future stress sensitivity and past childhood abuse.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Heart rate variability (HRV) is the inter-beat interval variation between consecutive heartbeats and an autonomic reflection of emotional regulatory abilities to flexibly respond to challenges, such as psychosocial stress. Whereas there are known sex differences in stress-induced hormonal and emotional responses, we identified a gap in our understanding of sex-specific autonomic cardiac control during stress. Thus, we assessed HRV prior to, during and after administration of a public speech task in healthy participants (n = 929) according to sex. Our meta-analysis found that during stress, women had lower HRV than men, with an overall Hedges' g of 0.29 (p < 0.0001) and 0.29 (p = 0.0003) for fixed and random effects models, respectively. We did not find significant heterogeneity or evidence of publication bias. Analyses of additional timepoints showed no baseline difference and marginally lower HRV in women during anticipation and recovery. Findings of the present meta-analysis confirm sex differences in stress-induced hyperarousal and form a justification for implementation of mechanistic studies evaluating gonadal hormones, their potent metabolites and pro-inflammatory cytokines as mediators of this relationship.
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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.