Physiological Response Patterns Research Articles

Relationships among pleasure, anxiety and physiological response patterns during the sexual sequence in normal and dispermic subjects.

We examined the reported subjective level of pleasure and anxiety usually perceived during the four phases of the sexual sequence by 18 dispermic patients and 18 normal subjects. Relevant differences exist between the two groups in their perception of both emotions. The role of pleasure and anxiety in modulating some reflexive biological responses of the sexual sequence is discussed.

An Autonomic Nervous System Response Inventory (ANSRI): scaling, reliability, and cross-validation.

The Autonomic Nervous System Response Inventory (ANSRI) was designed to elicit individuals' self-reported patterns of peripheral physiological response to emotion-provoking stimuli. Fifty-one items reflecting such responses were rated as having been present (1 = absent to 5 = intense) during prototypical emotional situations drawn from experience, which were reconstructed and imagined by a subject. Items were rated for each of five conditions, four of which were emotions (fear, anger, sadness, joy) and one of which was an activation control condition (physical activity). Scales were developed to describe the relative activity of different physiological response systems: P scales based on physiological coherence of items and F scales based on factor analytic item clusters. The derivation and contents of the scales are described, and the following psychometric data are reported: test-retest reliabilities and internal consistency coefficients (original and cross-validation samples), factor analyses, and cross-validation of factors. Data indicate that the ANSRI and most of its scales are sufficiently reliable and replicable to warrant validity research.

Psychophysiological responses to masked auditory stimuli.

Psychophysiological responses to masked auditory verbal stimuli of increasing intensities were studied in twenty healthy women. Two experimental sessions corresponding to two stimulation contents (neutral or emotional) were conducted. At each session, two different sets of instructions (attending or not attending to stimuli) were used successively. Verbal stimuli, masked by a 40-dB white noise, were presented to the subject at increasing intensities by increments of 5 dB starting at 0 dB. At each increment, frontal EMG, skin conductance and heart rate were recorded. The data were submitted to analyses of variance and covariance. Psychophysiological responses to stimuli below the thresholds of identification and detection were observed. The instruction not to attend the stimuli modified the patterns of physiological responses. The effect of the affective content of the stimuli on responses was stronger when not attending. The results show the possibility of psychophysiological responses to masked auditory stimuli and suggests that psychophysiological parameters can constitute objective and useful measures for research in auditory subliminal perception.

Affective and physiological sexual response patterns: The effects of instructions on sexually functional and dysfunctional men

To more clearly characterize the patterns of cognitive-affective and physiological responses concomitant with male sexual dysfunction, the present study compared 14 sexually dysfunctional and 16 sexually functional men. All individuals listened to two sexually explicit tapes and engaged in a self-generated fantasy, while genital, heart rate and scaled cognitive affective responses were recorded. Two types of instructions, a performance demand set and a non-demand sensate focus set, preceded the erotic tapes in counterbalanced order. As predicted, dysfunctional men showed less genital tumescence to tapes preceded by the demand than the non-demand instructions. Contrary to expectation, functional men showed greater penile tumescence to the tapes preceded by demand instructions. Self-reported sexual arousal did not follow the penile tumescence pattern but instead indicated that the dysfunctional sample was significantly less subjectively aroused to the tapes and fantasy. There were other significant differences between the groups. Dysfunctional men showed greater general psychological distress, as measured by the SCL-90, including elevated somaticism, anxiety and depression scores. During the experimental session, dysfunctional men also evidenced greater awareness of a variety of physiological responses, as well as more negative and fewer positive cognitive-affective states. These data are discussed in terms of the interaction of affective and physiological responses, differences in contextual meanings of instructional sets given the presence of a dysfunction, and theoretical and clinical conceptualizations of male sexual functioning.

The Physiological Measurement of Imagery: An Overview

A substantial body of research indicates that physiological responses during imagery vary as a function of the nature of the image. A review of this research isolates a number of parameters that influence the magnitude of physiological changes during imaging and clearly demonstrates that images of different affective or emotional experiences are accompanied by different patterns of physiological responses. Physiological measures of imagery thus provide a powerful means of increasing our knowledge and understanding of imaginal processes. It is important, though, that imagery research does not rely exclusively upon physiological measures, for to do so fails to pay sufficient heed to the covert nature of imaging.

9 - Lost Opportunities for the Prevention of Fetal Asphyxia: Sedation, Analgesia, and General Anaesthesia

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS We have presented evidence that the current strong climate of opinion against using sedatives, analgesics and general anaesthetics during labour and delivery is badly misguided and is based on an upside-down interpretation of the significance of ‘apnoea neonatorum’ as it occurs in heavily sedated or anaesthetized newborns. The brief delays the anaesthetized newborn exhibits in initiating breathing movements, rather than signalling a developing harm to the newborn brain, indicate its protected state. The evidencefrom the 1930s to the 1950s that suggests that these agents damage the fetal and newborn brain is flawed. On the contrary, substantial evidence supports the view that these agents protect the fetal and newborn brain and that they may be life-savingwhen used on proper obstetric indication, at proper dose levels, and with proper precautions. We have presented evidence that fetal asphyxia, in most instances, develops as a result of maternal anxiety leading to an increased sympathetic nervous system activity as depicted in Figure 5. The fear-produced increased sympathetic nervous system activity constricts the maternal uterine blood vesselsand diverts maternal blood flow away from the uterus and intervillous space. We have advocated that sedatives and analgesics should be administered to high-risk mothers, to anxious mothers, and to mothers whose fetuses are demonstrated to be asphyctic at dose levels sufficient to quiet or calm the mother. We believe that such sedation will reduce maternal sympathetic nervous system tonus, redistribute maternal blood-flow back to the uterus and intervillous space, and prevent or dramatically relieve fetal asphyxia. We believe this action will prove to be of prime importance and that these drugs should be used prophylactically at sedative dose levels in high-risk mothers early in labour and in low-risk mothers when fetal asphyxia has been identified by heart rate or other methods of monitoring. Wehave proposed that anaesthetizing the mother and fetus with pharmacological agents similar to the barbiturates will significantly extend both the maternal and the fetal brain tolerances to asphyxia and, through this mechanism, will protect the fetal brain from injury should fetal asphyxia continue and become more marked. Using a barbiturate-type general anaesthesia to protect the fetal brain from asphyxia should be viewed as a last resort therapeutic measure taken to guard the fetus against brain injury should the severity of fetal asphyxia advance sufficiently and if measures taken to prevent or reduce the fetal asphyxia have failed. Such a last-resort use of general anaesthesia administered to relieve fetal asphyxia and to protect the fetal brain should represent only the first step in preparing the mother for rapid caesarean section delivery. Table 5 summarizes our view of maternal anxiety and a typical pattern of physiological response as expressed in a small proportion of women who are predisposed. Table 5 also outlines proposed methods of treatment according to magnitude of response. Sedative and analgesic drugs should be used only under clearly defined obstetric circumstances to prevent fetal asphyxia from developing or if it has already developed to significantly reduce it. If fetal asphyxia develops and all measures to relieve it fail (including provision of psychological reassurance and use of sedatives and analgesics), general anaesthesia with barbiturates should be instituted as the first step in preparing the mother for surgical delivery.

Individual differences in respiratory-heart period coupling and heart period responses during two attention-demanding tasks

Respiratory-heart period coupling was assessed via the weighted coherence (CW) statistic derived from cross-spectral analysis and was related to physiological response patterns during two attention-demanding tasks. Subjects with a high coherence responded with significantly larger heart period decelerations at the time of the imperative stimulus in a reaction-time task. Peak deceleration of the low-coherence subjects exhibited more temporal variability. In a vigilance task, individual differences in coherence assessed prior to task manipulations were maintained during the task and significantly decreased during the task. Individual differences in coherence between and within sessions were stable, whereas corresponding analyses for heart period, heart period variance, and spontaneous electrodermal activity reflected only significant within-session correlations. The data suggest that individual differences in respiratory-heart period coherence are stable and are related to phasic cardiac responses in a reaction-time task.

An analysis of the skin conductance orienting response in samples of American, British, and German schizophrenics

The existing literature dealing with the phasic orienting response (OR) in schizophrenia, examining, for the most part, the skin conductance component (SCOR), reports conflicting results with divergent implications for the nature of the attentional dysfunction in these patients. The present authors have contributed to that literature and to its divergencies. The present report addresses this issue by applying a common set of response definitions and uniform statistical-analytic procedures to the previously gathered electrodermal data obtained independently in each author's laboratory. A total of 14 studies is involved, drawn from six laboratories in the U.S.A., the U.K., and West Germany. Collectively, these studies examine chronic and acute schizophrenics, males and females, those receiving neuroleptic drugs and those not receiving them, recording SCOR from either (or both) hands using a variety of instruments and somewhat differing instructions and conditions, to both auditory and visual stimuli of different intensities and rise-time properties. The authors' purpose is two-fold. First, to determine whether some ‘universal’ dysfunction can be demonstrated across laboratories, conditions, and samples. Given the heterogeneous origins of these data such a finding would offer fairly strong evidence of ‘real’ dysfunction in schizophrenia. Second, where disagreement exists, to describe the scope and nature of the disagreement, and to articulate more clearly the findings on each side of a disputed area. One such ‘universal’ dysfunction emerged. Consistently, schizophrenics displayed an abnormally high incidence of nonresponsiveness, involving nearly 50% of the schizophrenic sample on average. The next most common finding is that many of the schizophrenics who display an SCOR often habituate faster than do nonschizophrenic responders. This was seen in a majority of the studies and laboratories, but conflicting evidence was presented by a minority. Evidence for a dysfunction simultaneously involving SCOR hypo- and hyper-responsiveness within schizophrenia was obtained, but in a minority of studies. The possible effects of neuroleptic drugs, stimulus intensity and rise-time factors, and differential significance evaluation on these findings was discussed. The possibility that schizophrenic dysfunction involves the input-facilitating OR but not input-attenuating ‘protective’ responses is examined. The correlates of hyporesponsiveness in schizophrenia, including physiological response patterns, clinical sympton patterns, and specific input deficiencies, is also examined. Several areas are noted where systematic research has only begun, and further study is particularly needed.

Physiology and morphology of substantia gelatinosa neurons intracellularly stained with horseradish peroxidase.

Neurons in Rexed's layer II were physiologically characterized with natural and electrical stimuli applied to their cutaneous receptive fields. The neurons were then intracellularly stained with horseradish peroxidase. Three general patterns of physiological responses were found. Nociceptive specific neurons did not respond to gentle mechanical stimulation. Most responded exclusively to tissue-damaging stimuli. Some also responded to moderately heavy pressure, but these responded to noxious stimuli with an increased discharge frequency. Wide dynamic range neurons responded to both gentle mechanical stimulation and to tissue-damaging stimulation. Low-threshold mechanoreceptive neurons responded only to gentle mechanical stimulation. Some of the low-threshold mechanoreceptive neurons were innervated by primary afferents with unmyelinated axons. Excepting those low-threshold mechanoreceptive neurons with input from unmyelinated afferents, the patterns of primary afferents innervation of layer II neurons were similar to the patterns of innervation that have been found for neurons in layers I and IV-V. All but 2 of the 22 neurons that we found were recognized as being of two general morphological types. Stalked cells had their perikarya situated along the superficial border of layer II. Most of their dendrites traveled ventrally while spreading out rostrocaudally. This gave their dendritic arbors a fan-like shape. Stalked cell axons arborized largely in layer I. Islet cell perikarya were found throughout layer II. Most of their dendrites traveled rostrocaudally. Their dendritic arbors were shaped like cylinders with their long axes parallel to the long axis of the spinal cord. Islet cell axons arborized in the immediate vicinity of their dendritic territories, within layer II. Stalked cells and those islet cells whose dendritic arbors were largely contained within the superficial one-third of layer II (layer IIa) were either nociceptive specific or wide dynamic range neurons. The islet cells whose dendritic arbors were largely within the deeper two-thirds of layer II (layer IIb) were all low-threshold mechanoreceptive neurons. These observations suggest that layers IIa and IIb have different functional roles and that stalked cells and islet cells are separate and distinct components of the neural circuitry of the superficial dorsal horn.

The effects of a subjective monitoring task in the physiological measure of genital response to erotic stimulation.

Instrumentation has been developed which promises to further our understanding of the relationship between cognitive and physiological factors in the sexual arousal process. Past research has examined this relationship by continuous measurement of genital response, and discrete posttest measurement of subjective arousal. The self-report or "cognitive lever" allows individuals to rate feelings of arousal continuously throughout a stimulus interval by positioning a lever device along a calibrated scale. In this way, structural patterns of physiological and cognitive response can be examined. However, since attention has been shown to be an important cognitive operation in the processing of sexual stimuli, there is concern that this subjective measuring task may confound laboratory assessment by altering genital responsivity through distractive or possibly facilitative mechanisms. In order to test the methodological limitations of the cognitive lever, 14 male and female college students were exposed to duplicate viewings of erotic videotapes while alternately using and not using the self-report device. Results indicated that lever usage was not obtrusive in females, but was in males to the point of altering physiological response. In addition, the study took advantage of the continuous, concurrent measurements and examined patterns of convergence and divergence between the two. Results of correlational analyses indicated, in line with past research, that for men greater degrees of erection result in significantly higher subjective-objective agreement. Patterns for women as a group were much less clear, with only two significant correlations appearing. Finally, the limitations of the cognitive lever were discussed.

"Development of Physiological Response Patterns Concomitant With the Learning of Voluntary Heart Rate Control": Corrections to Hatch and Gatchel.

"Development of Physiological Response Patterns Concomitant With the Learning of Voluntary Heart Rate Control": Corrections to Hatch and Gatchel.

Lip and nonpreferred forearm EMG activity as a function of orienting task

Subjects performed orthographic or semantic orienting tasks while preparing an overt response (pressing one of two buttons). Electromyographic (EMG) activity of lip and nonpreferred forearm muscles and heart rate were monitored. Only lip EMG activity distinguished the extent of covert processing, evidencing greater activity during the semantic than sensory task. In contrast, increased nonpreferred forearm EMG and cardiac activity accompanied the behavioral response. It was concluded that general semantic and autonomic activity serve biological needs, but in addition, there are specific patterns of physiological response that are intrinsic to covert information processing.

Physiological response patterns during ‘intake’ and ‘rejection’ tasks

Two 2-min tasks, one requiring outer-directed attention (intake task), the other a mental arithmetic task (rejection task) were presented to 20 subjects. According to Lacey the distinguishing feature of the response to intake task are cardiac deceleration and blood pressure decreases. None of these responses was obtained. Some variables, however, were only affected by one of the task; the intake task led to a decreased hand (skin) blood flow and an increased hand vascular resistance, whereas a heart rate acceleration and increased forearm (muscle) blood flow and decreased forearm vascular resistance were observed during the rejection task. Blood pressure, respiration rate and skin conductance were similarly affected by the two tasks. Inconsistencies among previous studies of the response to the two types of tasks were discussed and found to be partially explained by methodological differences.

Distinct α-noradrenergic receptors differentiated by binding and physiological relationships

In brain and peripheral tissues the α-noradrenergic agonists 3H-clonidine, 3H-epinephrine and 3H-norepinephrine label sites which are distinct from and do not interconvert with those labeled by the α-noradrenergic antagonist 3H-WB-4101 (2-([2', 6'-dimethoxy]-phenoxyethylamino) methylbenzodioxane). In general agonists have higher affinity for sites labeled by the 3H-agonists while antagonists prefer sites labeled by 3H-WB-4101, though ergots and the α-antagonist phentolamine have similar affinities for the two sites. Peripheral tissues vary in relative numbers of 3H-agonist and 3H-WB-4101 sites with heart and vas deferens having almost exclusively 3H-WB-4101 sites, the rabbit duodenum only 3H-agonist sites, while salivary gland, spleen and cerebral cortex display similar numbers of both sites. The two sites appear to be postsynaptic since 6-hydroxydopamine treatment does not reduce their numbers. In vas deferens, heart and spleen pharmacological potencies of α-agonists and antagonists correlate closely with affinities for 3H-WB-4101 but not 3H-clonidine sites, while potencies in rabbit duodenum correlate with affinities for 3H-clonidine but not 3H-WB-4101 sites. The correspondence of separate binding sites with distinctive patterns of physiological responses indicates the existence of two discrete types of postsynaptic α-receptors. We propose to designate sites labeled by WB-4101 as α-1 receptors and those labeled by 3H-clonidine, 3H-norepinephrine and 3H-epinephrine as α-2 receptors. Drug potencies at α-2 binding sites resemble their affinities for presynaptic α-noradrenergic autoreceptors.

Development of physiological response patterns concomitant with the learning of voluntary heart rate control.

Thirty-six male undergraduate students were instructed to raise or lower heart rate in a multiple-session biofeedback experiment. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, frontalis electromyographic activity, and skin conductance level were simultaneously recorded throughout biofeedback training. Principal axes factor analyses showed that physiological response patterning concomitant with the development of heart rate control was different early in training (Training Session 1) than it was late in training (Training Session 4) for both speeding and slowing conditions. These results indicate that different heart rate control strategies were used by the subjects early and late in training. The factor patterns also indicated a tendency for greater heart rate response specificity as training progressed for both speeding and slowing. Heart rate speeding sessions were also found to be associated with a significant increase in perceived state anxiety as measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. No significant change in perceived anxiety state, however, was associated with heart rate slowing.

Physiological response patterning in short- and long-term heart rate control training

The present investigation assessed the physiological response patterns which accompany heart-rate control performance, both early and late in training. Six subjects were employed who received six heart-rate control training sessions, half of which were speeding sessions and half of which were slowing. Heart rate, skin resistance, frontalis EMG, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and respiration rate were continuously recorded throughout all training sessions. Results indicated that the physiological response topography during heart-rate control performance changes from early to late training. Moreover, the changes are different for speeding and slowing performance, suggesting the involvement of different underlying physiological mechanisms in the two tasks.

Physiological response patterns in ulcer patients: phasic and tonic components of the electrogastrogram.

ABSTRACTPhysiological response patterns in duodenal ulcer patients, rheumatoid arthritics, and healthy subjects were investigated by recording electrogastrograms (EGGs) and several other physiological measures during presentations of mildly stressful stimuli. Ulcer patients were physiologically less reactive to the stimuli than the other groups; with the exception of increases in tonic galvanic skin potential (GSP) responses during arithmetic problems, ulcer patients were responsive only while viewing slides taken during autopsies when they evidenced increases in gastric activity and phasic GSP responses. The EGG proved to be a valuable measure for differentiating both the groups and the tasks. Both ulcer patients and healthy subjects demonstrated increases in phasic (frequency and amplitude) EGG activity during affective but not during cognitive stimuli, and ulcer patients and arthritics could be differentiated from healthy subjects on the basis of tonic (basal resting levels and displacement) EGG activity. These results were interpreted to surest the possibility that phasic and tonic components of the EGG may each be associated with different types of gastrointestinal activity.

Patterns of autonomic and central nervous system responding during human operant heart-rate conditioning

Automatic and central nervous system responding was assessed during human operant heart-rate acceleration and deceleration conditioning. The results indicated that the decelerative changes in heart rate that developed were relatively independent of responses in other physiological modalities. For subjects who were informed of the response-reinforcement contingencies, operant heart-rate acceleration was associated with an increase in respiratory rate. Both heart-rate acceleration and deceleration were superimposed upon a background of increased sympathetic-like skin responding. No significant changes in chin muscle tension and bi-temporal electroencephalographic alpha activity were noted during either operant heart-rate acceleration or deceleration. Individual subjects exhibited response stereotypy over sessions, although there were considerable differences between individuals in physiological response patterns. The results of the study and their relation to current theories concerning the mediation of operant heart-rate changes are discussed.

Heart rate and cardiac phase influences on visual perception.

Twenty-six subjects were tested with a tachistoscopic recognition task while heart rate and several other autonomic indexes were monitored. In Experiment 1, heart rate was employed as an independent variable, and stimulus presentation was contingent upon the presence of individually determined low, middle, and high heart rates. The results indicated that low heart rate facilitated performance especially for stimuli presented at the fastest exposure. In Experiment 2, stimulus presentation was dependent upon cardiac phase. The findings indicated that stimulus recognition was enhanced during the cardiac P wave, but the effect was apparent only during the fastest exposure. Multiple regression analyses of the individual subject's data during both experiments indicated that highly idiosyncratic patterns of physiological responses predicted perceptual performance. The results were interpreted as being consistent with the formulations of the Laceys and also suggested that cerebral perfusion be considered as a relevant determinant of behavior.

Physiologic response patterns to occlusion of clinically significant arteriovenous fistulas.

Seven patients with hemodynamically significant arteriovenous fistulas for dialysis angioaccess were studied by multivarient computer analysis of physiologic data derived from cardiogreen dye dilution curves and A-VO2 before and after acute occlusion of their fistulas and prior to clinical therapy. Three patterns of response were characterized. These patterns seemed to be related to the innate ventricular contractility status, the type of medications, the presence of autonomic neuropathy, and their interplay with alterations in preload and afterload with fistula occlusion. In one patient, the response pattern precluded banding or occlusion of the fistula. In the remainder, the physiolobic responses permitted treatment by banding or occlusion. It seems advisable to adequately evaluate the physiologic response patterns of patients with hemodynamically significant arteriovenous fistulas prior to definitive treatment.