Heart rate variability responses to personalized and non-personalized affective videos. A study on healthy subjects and patients with disorders of consciousness.
Frontiers in psychology January 1, 2025 Sandra Goizueta, Anny Maza, Ana Sierra et al. 2 citations
Patients with disorders of consciousness, such as those in a minimally conscious state or with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, often face misdiagnosis because standard assessments rely on motor responses that can be absent due to cognitive-motor dissociation. This study tested whether heart rate variability (HRV) responses to personalized videos of acquaintances differ from responses to videos of strangers. In 17 healthy subjects, HRV measures significantly differed between personalized and non-personalized stimuli, but 11 patients with disorders of consciousness showed no such differences. Significant differences in HRV measures also emerged between the two groups. These findings suggest impaired emotional processing in patients with disorders of consciousness, and that integrating HRV measures may improve diagnosis.