SynthesisCurrent cardiology reports2025
Associations Between Positive Affect and Heart Rate Variability: A Systematic Review.
Synthesis in Current cardiology reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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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.
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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.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Identifying stress-relevant events in everyday nursing practice using psychophysiological outcomes - an observational multimethod study.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- Acute Psychophysiological Effects Of 4-7-8 And Nadi Shodhana Breathing: A Randomized Crossover Study.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2026Article
- The Impact of Self-Managed Virtual Reality Relaxation on Non-invasive Ambulatory Physiological Markers in Home-Based Psychiatric Care.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2026Article
- Designing for Comfort in VR Public Speaking: How Avatar Realism and Natural Environments Shape User Experience and Stress Responses.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Autonomic and psychophysiological effects of a 13-week mindfulness-based intervention in university students.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Vascular and autonomic correlates of screening-positive depressive symptom burden in chronic atrophic gastritis: a multicenter observational study protocol.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- A novel integrated training program for police pistol use across multiple operational scenarios: a randomized controlled trial of integrated psychological skill.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Occupational stress, cardiovascular vulnerability and sudden cardiac death in police officers: mechanisms and the protective role of structured exercise.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Sleep dependent autonomic correlates of affect and arousal in younger and older adults.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2026Article
- Physiological and psychological outcomes of a community-based Kurort Health Walking program: A before-after study.PloS one · 2026Article
- Autonomic indicators of self-transcendence: insights from the numadelic VR paradigm.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purpose of reviewThe relationship between positive affect (PA) and heart rate variability (HRV) has attracted considerable interest due to its potential implications for emotion regulation and cardiovascular health. This systematic review synthesizes current literature on the association between PA and HRV, considering resting-state, stress-reactivity and recovery contexts, as well as variations in PA conceptualization. RECENT
findingsA total of 36 studies (N = 5501) were included, spanning experimental, ambulatory, cross-sectional, and mixed designs. Elevated PA was most often associated with higher vagally mediated HRV, measured as RMSSD or high-frequency (HF) power, but results varied by context. Resting-state and trait-like PA measures showed the most consistent positive associations. In stress-induction paradigms, effects depended on the stress phase and arousal level of PA, with RMSSD emerging as a more consistent index than other HRV metrics. In real-life settings, aggregated activated PA was linked to higher RMSSD, while momentary activated PA was linked to lower RMSSD, suggesting short-term allostatic adjustments. Findings for other HRV metrics, such as LF/HF ratio, LF-HRV, and SDNN, were mixed. Overall, this review highlights the complex interplay between PA and cardiac autonomic regulation and provides directions for future research, which should aim for greater methodological consistency and clarify the temporal dynamics of the PA-HRV relationship.
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