Facilitated processing of negative information might contribute to the etiopathogenesis and maintenance of depressive symptoms. Cardiac vagal tone, indexed by heart rate variability (HRV), is believed to represent a proxy of the functional integrity of the neural networks implicated in brooding rumination, affective interference and depression. The present study examined whether HRV may moderate the relation between brooding rumination, affective interference and depressive symptoms in a sample of healthy individuals (n = 68) with different degrees of depressed mood. Self-report measures of depression and brooding were collected, whereas the emotional Stroop task was employed to measure affective interference. Three-minute resting-state electrocardiogram was recorded to obtain time- and frequency-domain vagally mediated HRV parameters. Stepwise linear regression analyses revealed that HRV was a significant moderator of the positive association between depression and brooding rumination, but not of the association between depression and affective interference. An integrated model is supported, in which vagally mediated HRV appeared to potentiate the positive link between depressive symptoms and brooding rumination. Considering that HRV and brooding rumination were found to have an interacting role in determining the severity of depressive symptoms, they may represent potential clinical targets in the prevention and treatment of depressive symptoms.

对负面信息的促进处理可能有助于抑郁症状的发病机制和维持。由心率变异性 (HRV) 索引的心脏迷走神经张力被认为代表了与沉思沉思、情感干扰和抑郁有关的神经网络的功能完整性。本研究检查了 HRV 是否可以调节健康个体样本中的沉思反刍、情感干扰和抑郁症状之间的关系（n = 68) 有不同程度的抑郁情绪。收集了抑郁和沉思的自我报告测量，而情绪 Stroop 任务用于测量情感干扰。记录三分钟静息状态心电图以获得时域和频域迷走神经介导的 HRV 参数。逐步线性回归分析表明，HRV 是抑郁和沉思反刍之间正相关的显着调节因子，但不是抑郁和情感干扰之间关联的显着调节因子。支持一个综合模型，其中迷走神经介导的 HRV 似乎加强了抑郁症状和沉思反刍之间的积极联系。考虑到 HRV 和沉思反刍被发现在确定抑郁症状的严重程度方面具有相互作用，