Recent focus on the consequences of early life adversity (ELA) in neurobiological research led to the generation of a variety of findings suggesting alterations in several physiological systems, such as the cardiovascular system. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we focused on the relationship between early life maltreatment (ELM), one form of ELA, and resting vagal activity indexed by resting-state heart rate variability (HRV). Systematic search of the literature yielded 1’264 hits, of which 32 studies reporting data for group comparisons or correlations were included. By quantitative synthesis of existing studies using random-effects models, we found no evidence for a relationship between ELM exposure and resting vagal activity in principal. Conducting meta-regression analyses, however, we found the relationship between ELM and resting vagal activity to significantly vary as a function of both age and presence of psychopathology. In light of the current multitude of vastly unclear pathways linking ELM to onset of disease, we emphasize the need for further research and outline several aspects to consider in future studies.

最近在神经生物学研究中对早期逆境（ELA）后果的关注导致了许多发现的产生，这些发现表明若干生理系统（例如心血管系统）发生了变化。在这项系统的回顾和荟萃分析中，我们重点研究了早期生命虐待（ELM），一种ELA形式与静息迷走神经活动之间的关系，静息迷走神经活动由静息状态心率变异性（HRV）来表示。系统搜索文献产生了1'264的命中，其中32项研究报告了组比较或相关性的数据。通过使用随机效应模型对现有研究进行定量综合，我们发现没有证据表明ELM暴露与静息迷走神经活动之间存在相关性。进行荟萃回归分析，年龄和精神病理学的存在。鉴于当前将ELM与疾病发作联系起来的途径还很不明确，我们强调需要进一步研究，并概述了在未来研究中应考虑的几个方面。