Cardiac activity is involved in the processes of organization of goal-directed behaviour. Each behavioural act is aimed at achieving an adaptive outcome and it is subserved by the actualization of functional systems consisting of elements distributed across the brain and the rest of the body. This paper proposes a system-evolutionary view on the activity of the heart and its variability. We have compared the irregularity of the heart rate, as measured by sample entropy (SampEn), in behaviours that are subserved by functional systems formed at different stages of individual development, which implement organism-environment interactions with different degrees of differentiation. The results have shown that SampEn of the heart rate was higher during performing tasks that included later acquired knowledge (foreign language vs. native language; mathematical vocabulary vs. general vocabulary) and decreased in the stress and alcohol conditions, as well as at the beginning of learning. These results are in line with the hypothesis that irregularity of the heart rate reflects the properties of a set of functional systems subserving current behaviour, with higher irregularity corresponding to later acquired and more complex behaviour.

Analytic and holistic thinking styles are known to be associated with individual differences in various aspects of behavior and brain activity. In this study, we tested a hypothesis that differences in thinking styles may also be manifested at the level of neuro-visceral coordination. Heart rate variability (HRV) was compared between analytic and holistic thinkers at rest, during a simple motor choice reaction time task and when solving cognitive choice reaction time tasks in conditions with varying instructions contrasting the role of the field when evaluating objects. Participants (N = 52) with analytic and holistic thinking styles were equally successful at solving the cognitive tasks but response times were longer in the analytic group, compared to the holistic group. Heart rate complexity, as measured by sample entropy, was higher in the analytic group during the cognitive tasks but did not differ from the holistic group at rest or during the simple motor task. Analytic participants had longer response times and higher heart rate complexity when evaluating objects in relation to the field than when evaluating objects irrespective to the field. No difference in response times or heart rate complexity between tasks was observed in the holistic group. Our findings demonstrate that differences in individual behavior, including those related to holistic and analytic thinking styles, can be reflected not only in brain activity, as shown previously using fMRI and EEG methods, but also at the level of neuro-visceral coordination, as manifested in heart rate complexity.

The article describes the results of a study of correlation between parameters of heart rate variability and characteristics of system organization of behavior, which is considered as the dynamic actualization of functional systems of different “age”. The proportion of “old” (low-differentiated) and “new” (high-differentiated) systems defines the general degree of differentiation of the set of functional systems actualized in particular behavior. Heart rate variability reflects the coordination of activity of heart cells and other body cells. This coordination is the important for achieving adaptive behavioral results. We hypothesized that temporary system dedifferentiation (reversible decreasing the number of highly differentiated systems subserving behavior) is accompanied by reduction of heart rate complexity. Beat-to-beat intervals were recorded during stress (Experiment 1) and alcohol administration (Experiment 2). We used approximate entropy (ApEn) as a measure of heart rate complexity. The decrease of approximate entropy was observed in both stress and alcohol conditions. It is concluded that reversible system dedifferentiation is reflected in heart rate dynamics as a reduction of complexity.

Despite a great progress in our understanding of alcohol influence on physiological processes and brain function, the mechanisms of alcohol effects on human social behaviour are still unclear. This work is focused on studying whether and how alcohol (ethanol, 1 g/kg) may affect evaluation of moral permissibility of harmful actions and the dynamics of heart rate characteristics during solving moral dilemmas. Subjects (n=40) were tested twice with the time interval of 2-4 months: once they assessed protagonists’ actions in moral dilemmas after drinking an alcoholic beverage and once – after drinking a non-alcoholic beverage (counterbalanced). The results showed that moral judgements did not always change under alcohol influence but when they did, responses shifted in different directions: some individuals began to judge harmful actions as less permissible while others began to judge them as more permissible. A negative correlation was shown between heart rate and time required for solving moral dilemmas in alcohol condition. Alcohol decreased heart rate variability, including a measure of complexity (ApEn). These results are in line with the view that alcohol intake causes a decrease in complexity of behaviour and its system organisation which may represent the general psychophysiological mechanism underlying various effects of alcohol on social behaviour. This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities (project № 14-06-00680, «Formation of moral judgments as a mechanism of human adaptation for social and cultural environment in norm and under alcohol intoxica- tion») and was performed as part of a research programme of one of the leading scientific schools of Russian Federation «System Psychophysiology» (НШ-9808.2016.6).

The article presents the results of a study of the dynamics of the characteristics of heart rate variability in the learning process in high-level virtual reality and behind a computer monitor. The continuous dynamics of the heart rate of senior and junior students (N=16, 8 — female, 8 — male, age from 18 to 22) was recorded at rest (sitting, in silence, with eyes closed) and during two short lessons in biology and mathematics in different conditions. After the training programs (classes), students were offered test questions on the materials they had listened to and a questionnaire for the subjective assessment of the lesson information in terms of the degree of novelty, complexity, clarity of the material, etc. It was shown that the dynamics of the functional state does not differ between lessons, the degree of activation and tension in terms of HRV increased equally when practicing in virtual reality and behind a computer monitor compared to the background. At the same time, after working in training programs in virtual reality, the students demonstrated a greater number of correct answers to test questions and evaluated the information in them as newer and more complex, compared to the lessons at the computer monitor. The conclusion is made about the effectiveness of the use of virtual reality technologies in education, as students demonstrate higher results with the same level of tension and activity.

Вопрос о закономерностях и принципах взаимосодействия физиологических процессов (мозговых и, в целом, общеорганизменных) при реализации поведения является актуальным для психологии и ее предметной обл