1. Cardiac Vagal Tone and Emotion Regulation OCRF Ellen Cohan ’10 Ebony Burton ‘11 Mentor: Nancy Darling Oberlin College Psychology Department

2. Outline Vagal Tone Transitions in Adolescent Relations Project My Research Question Results

3. Vagal Tone The vagus nerve is the tenth cranial nerve. It acts as a bridge between the brain and the heart. Vagal tone is impulses sent by the vagus nerve to inhibit heart beat. Vagal tone acts as a brake for the heart This brake is activated during expiration and inhibited during inspiration.

4. Respiratory Sinus Arrythmia Definition: variability in heartbeat during inspiration and expiration Measure: milliseconds between heartbeats

5. High vagal tone: high variability in heart rate Low vagal tone: low variability in heart rate

6. Vagal Tone Two distinct measures: – Baseline : RSA at rest – Baseline-to-task : RSA variation from rest to engaging task Social interaction Stressful activity

7. Implications of Vagal Tone High vagal tone – Better equipped to handle stressful situations Low Vagal tone – More likely to be controlled by physiology

8. Implications of Vagal Tone High Vagal Tone vs. Low Vagal Tone – Infants – Children – Adults Emotional Regulation Fight vs. Flight

9. Transitions in Adolescent Relations Project Part of larger study conducted by Nancy Darling Places where research has been conducted – Oberlin – Miami – New York – Pennsylvania – Italy – Philippines – Chile

10. Transitions in Adolescent Relations Project What we were measuring Parent-child conflict and communication Legitimacy of parental authority Emotion regulation

11. Methods: Recruitment Rising 5 th, 6 th and 7 th graders From Langston Middle School Website: http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/ndarling/tarp/

13. Study Protocol Participant rights – IRB, Confidentiality, etc. Self-report surveys – i.e. rules, child’s behavior and mother’s parenting, conflict management, depression scale, attachment style, etc. Paper products used for the study

14. Study Protocol Calming Music Task Video Recorded Tasks – K’Nex Task – Conflict Task

15. Study Protocol Video Recall

16. Study Protocol Objective Video Coding – K’Nex Task (ie. enjoyment, control, help-providing, use of help) – Conflict Task (ie. warmth, help-seeking (child), moralizing, seriousness, verbal aggression) Participant Rating Forms

17. Study Protocol Physiological Data: – Salivary assays Protocol: 3 samples Salivary Alpha Amylase Cortisol

18. Study Protocol Physiological Data: – Heart Rate Data Biolog setup Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA)

19. Biolog Setup:

20. Respiratory Sinus Arrythmia Definition: variability in heartbeat during inspiration and expiration Measure: milliseconds between heartbeats

21. Ellen’s research question! Concordance: – Is vagal tone passed down through the parents? – How similar is mother-adolescent vagal tone: Baseline Task Baseline-to-task

22. Past research on vagal concordance “Child and Mother Cardiac Vagal Tone: continuity, stability and concordance across the first five years” by Marc H. Bornstein and Patricia E. Suess – Baseline RSA not concordant – Baseline-to-task concordant for both 2-months and 5-years

23. My Results Baseline RSA correlation:.21! Low, but positive

24. Ebony’s results – which were cooler than mine High vagal tone in mother: – No lecturing – Warm child High vagal tone in a child: – Neither one lectures – Both are less verbally aggressive Moms and children with high vagal tone – Less sensitive moms

25. Thank You OCRF office Nancy Darling My adoring audience My mom