Top‐Down Self‐Regulation: Bidirectional Associations Between Vagal Regulation and Cool and Hot Executive Functions in Adolescents

Vagal regulation and executive functions both reflect top‐down self‐regulation. However, how vagal regulation and executive functions are interconnected with each other during adolescence remains an open question. This study investigated bidirectional associations between vagal regulation and cool and hot executive functions in adolescents using a two‐wave data collection (T1: November 2021, T2: May 2023). At both waves, 163 Chinese adolescents ( M _age  = 12.92, SD _age  = 0.82; 47.24% females) underwent a speech task during which their baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and RSA suppression were obtained, assessing vagal regulation, and completed a Flanker task and an Emotional Stroop task, assessing cool and hot executive functions, respectively, indexed by intra‐individual reaction time variability. Results showed that baseline RSA was not significantly associated with either cool or hot executive functions at T1 or T2. Additionally, RSA suppression to the impromptu speech task was bidirectionally associated with hot executive functions across timepoints, while unidirectionally associated with cool executive functions, with only the predicted direction from RSA suppression to cool executive functions being found. Findings revealed distinct prospective associations between vagal regulation and hot and cool EFs, providing a possibility for further investigation of longitudinal co‐development of different aspects of top‐down self‐regulation during adolescence.

Summary

This study is the first to explore the bidirectional associations between vagal regulation and executive functions (EFs) as two aspects of top‐down self‐regulation.