Comparing psychological and physiological factors involved in perceived threats in behaviorally inhibited individuals

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Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament characteristic which is associated with increased vulnerability to stress compared to non-behaviorally inhibited (NBI) counterparts. The physiologic and psychologic substrate which underlies the difference between BI and NBI individuals is unknown. Our previously published study demonstrated that BI individuals have decreased heart rate variability (HRV) relative to NBI individuals suggesting that BI individuals have less parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) output; however, it is unknown how BI affects perceived stress. Our current study tested the hypothesis that BI individuals would have higher perceived stress and physiologic stress during transdermal electrical stimulation (TES). Participants were administered TES beginning at 5mV and increased by 5mV increments until 100mV was reached. We used the Adult Measure of Behavioral Inhibition (AMBI) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) to measure perceived stress, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scores to measure current stress, and a series of self-reported questionnaires to measure BI. Additionally, we used a BIOPAC data acquisition system to measure heart rate (HR), HRV, and blood pressure (BP) to measure physiological stress. Our pilot data suggests there was a non-significant trend of higher perceived stress after TES in BI individuals; however, there was a significant relationship between perceived stress and STAI scores. There was no significant difference in HR, HRV and BP between BI and NBI individuals. In conclusion, our pilot data suggests that a person’s BI or NBI status affects their perceived stress after a stressor is induced. BI individuals will have higher perceived stress after a stressor is presented as opposed to NBI individuals. We will conduct further studies using TES to further study this finding. Identification of these physiological factors could provide an additional mechanism for identifying individuals who are at a higher risk for developing stress and anxiety disorders. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.