The purpose of the study was to examine effects of verbalization of affective experience on heart-rate variability and emotions (HRV). We measured HRV of 35 subjects while they were viewing and verbalizing 48 affective pictures (IAPS). Our results showed that sympathetic activity was lower and parasympathetic activity higher when subjects were verbalizing unpleasant pictures than it was when they were verbalizing pleasant pictures. To the best of our knowledge similar findings have not been earlier reported. Our results suggest that: 1. the effect of verbalization on heart-rate variability is determined by the valence of the stimuli and 2. verbalization has regulatory influences on autonomic activity during recall of unpleasant experiences. The effect of verbalization on subjects’ HRV and emotions can perhaps be best explained with unified exposure and regulatory effects that are facilitated by the reporting task of unpleasant stimuli. Active and intentional focus on unpleasant stimuli prevents avoidant behaviour by exposing subjects to unpleasant contents and language processing dampens subjects’ autonomic activity via amygdaloid-hypothalamic connections.

该研究的目的是检验情感体验的言语化对心率变异性和情绪（HRV）的影响。我们测量了35名受试者在观看和口述48幅情感图片（IAPS）时的HRV。我们的研究结果表明，与被摄对象表达愉悦图片相比，被摄对象表达令人不快的图片时的交感活动较低而副交感活动更高。据我们所知，类似的发现尚未得到较早的报道。我们的结果表明：1.言语化对心率变异性的影响取决于刺激的效价； 2.言语化对不良经历的记忆对自主神经活动有调节作用。言语化对受试者的HRV和情绪的影响也许可以用统一的暴露和调节作用来最好地解释，而这种不适作用由报告令人不快的刺激任务所促进。主动和有意地关注不愉快的刺激会通过使受试者接触不愉快的内容来防止回避行为，并且语言处理会通过杏仁状体-下丘脑的连接抑制​​受试者的自主活动。