Keywords: Heart rate reactivity; Prolonged activation; Heart rate recovery; Emotional valence; Emotional arousal; Ambulatory

Recent ambulatory findings showing comparable cardiovascular effects of positive and negative emotions
are not consistent with the assumed etiological role of negative affect in stress-related diseases. We tested the
hypothesis that regardless of initial reactivity, responses associated with negative emotions would be prolonged
compared to responses associated with positive emotions. During 8 h, 33 healthy subjects from a general population
reported their emotional arousal, emotional valence and physical activity and recorded their heart rates (HR) after a
beep at each 60th min (?initial HR?; T0), followed by two ?prolonged activation? recordings, respectively 5 min later
(T1) and 10 min later (T2). While emotional arousal and activity predicted initial HR, prolonged activation at T1
was solely predicted by emotional valence (negative affect) at T0, independent of emotional recovery. The results
lend support to the hypothesis that cardiovascular activation after negative emotions last longer than after positive
emotions. This finding is consistent with the view that prolonged activation, and not so much reactivity, might be a
mechanism underlying the etiological role of negative emotions (?stress?) in somatic disease. Perseverative cognition
(worry, rumination) might be responsible for this prolonged activation.