Heart rate variability associated with the influence of mood

To understand the control of hemodynamic events elicited by positive and negative induction in mood, we studied heart rate continuously in 10 normal healthy volunteers. Each subject underwent a task in which they encoded positive and negative words, listening music for sad or happy induction for 3 min accompanied by the presentation of series of standardized emotional faces. The words, music and faces were matched in valence. Heart rate variability measured from the standard deviation significantly reduced for the positive mood compared with the negative mood. Power spectrum analysis showed distinctive change in frequency components. Low and high frequency components increased for positive mood. Very low frequency component and total frequency power increased relatively for negative mood. We attribute the increase in low and high frequency components to the response of autonomic arousal mechanism