Longitudinal Modulation of Heart Rate Variability During Progressive Cognitive Load

Parisa Sattar1, Giulia Baldazzi2, Katharina Thaler3, Magdalena Sophia Maurer4, Manuela Piazza5, Demis Basso6, Daniel Baumgarten7, Laura Zamarian3, Johannes Vorwerk8, Danilo Pani9
1MeDSP Lab, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, Italy; Interdepartmental Sleep Disorder Research Center, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy;, 2MeDSP Lab, DIEE, University of Cagliari;, 3Medical University Innsbruck, 4Biomedical Engineering Group, Department of Mechatronics, University of Innsbruck, Austria; Institute of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering, UMIT TIROL, Hall in Tirol, Austria, 5Cimec, 6CESLab, Faculty of Education, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, 7University of Innsbruck, 8Department of Mechatronics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria, 9MeDSP Lab, Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari

Abstract

Cortical-autonomic interactions link executive cognition and cardiovascular regulation via prefrontal-subcortical pathways. However, autonomic responses to cognitive load remain poorly explored longitudinally, specifically within-subject heart rate variability (HRV) dynamics during engagement. Thus, this work explores longitudinal cognitive-driven HRV modulation. To this aim, 13 healthy subjects (22±3 years) were enrolled for five daily sessions, each including a first resting state, memory task (MEM), a second resting state, strategy task (STR), and a last resting state; task involved fading cues over the days. Frequency-domain and nonlinear HRV features extracted from 60-s ECG segments, followed by Friedman and Wilcoxon statistical tests. Significant changes emerged during MEM and STR across days, while resting-state HRV remained stable, reflecting progressive task adaptation with increased vagally-mediated activity (p<0.01, HF and LF/HF) and altered short-term variability (p<0.01, α1). In conclusion, these findings indicate a consistent association between autonomic modulation and cognitive engagement, with progressive autonomic differentiation tracking cognitive load, thus supporting the role of HRV for monitoring sustained cognitive effort.