Act Nerv Super Rediviva 2016; 58(3): 77–82 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Activitas Nervosa Superior Rediviva Volume 58 No. 3 2016 This paper has been published under Creative Common Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) allowing to download articles and share them with others as long as they credit the authors and the publisher, but without permission to change them in any way or use them commercially. Heart rate variability in psychosocial stress: Comparison between laboratory and real-life setting Jakub Rajcani, Petra Solarikova, Daniela Turonova, Igor Brezina Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia Correspondence to: Jakub Rajčáni, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Gondova Street Nr. 2, SK-814 99 Bratislava, Slovakia, e-mail: jakub.rajcani@uniba.sk Submitted: 2016-09-01 Accepted: 2016-10-27 Published online: 2015-11-04 Key words: stress; heart rate variability; naturalistic setting; allergy; trait anxiety Act Nerv Super Rediviva 2016; 58(3): 77–82 ANSR580316A05 © 2016 Act Nerv Super Rediviva Abstract INTRODUCTION: Heart rate variability (HRV) is one of the important physiological biomarkers which can be used in the context of stress and also as an indicator of cardio- vascular health. In this study we aim to investigate autonomic dysregulations of stress reaction previously described in both highly anxious and allergic individuals. Similarities between these two groups were reported on level of subjective perception of stress and neuroendocrine stress reaction. In autonomic nervous system, some studies documented sympathetic hyperactivity in allergy, others found enhanced vagal activation and HRV. Results in highly anxious group document mostly decrease in HRV when compared to low anxiety controls. We assume, that Heart rate and HRV can be used as tools to investigate both sympathetic and vagal induced changes in stress reaction. To assess psychophysi- ological changes in stress reaction both in laboratory and “real-life” we used both settings and compare the findings in this study. METHOD: 27 subjects (aged 18–26) divided into three groups: allergy, high trait anxiety and controls participated in this study. In laboratory setting psychosocial stress test (PSST) based on simulated public speech was used. Naturalistic setting consisted of repeated mea- surements of ECG and assessment of subjectively experienced stress during stressful and relaxing days, which were individually chosen by each subject in relation to current events in their lives. ECG data were obtained using portable device FAROS 90º. Subjective stress measures used in both settings were methods STAI and PSS as well as simple 10-point scales of stress. FINDINGS: In comparison between laboratory and “real-life” setting in the same sample, we found the same trends in HR, HRV measures, as well as subjective stress measures. Stress reaction in both studies resulted in increased HR and decreased HRV, however, the effect sizes in laboratory study were stronger. In both allergy and highly anxious people we found higher RMSSD and HF-HRV during stress and not during relax. These finding although not statistically significant can be interpreted in relation to autonomic dysregulation and enhanced vagal activation previously described in allergy. High anxiety group however exhibited very similar pattern to allergy group. Similarities between groups can be seen in the context of prior findings of blunted cortisol stress reaction in both groups reported by neuroendocrine studies. Anxiety and allergy group also exhibited higher values of subjectively perceived stress, when compared to controls.