bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Age‐related differences in the timing of stimulus and response processes during visual selective attention: Performance and psychophysiological analyses
Authors: ZEEF ELLY J. , KOK ALBERT
Published: February 2007

In this study, age‐related differences in the selection of visual information were investigated. Two groups of younger and older subjects performed focused‐ and divided‐attention (i.e., visual search) tasks. In the focused‐attention task, centrally presented target letters could be flanked by compatible or incompatible noise letters. In the visual search task, targets could be cued or uncued, and target locations could be spatially compatible or incompatible with the responding hand. P3 latency, lateralized readiness potentials, the electromyogram, and reaction times were used to detect possible age‐related differences in the timing of stimulus‐ and response‐related processes during selective processing of information. In the focused‐attention task, performance of older subjects showed greater interference by incompatible flankers than did that of younger subjects because of stronger response competition caused by partial activation of the incorrect response channel by the incompatible flankers. No evidence was found of specific age‐related differences in the efficiency of visual search in a divided‐attention task. Furthermore, in both tasks, younger subjects showed an earlier start of response execution (in the electromyogram) relative to the onset of response preparation (lateralized readiness potential) and a higher percentage of incorrect electromyographic activity than did older subjects.
Electrophysiological evidence for task effects on semantic priming in auditory word processing
Authors: BENTIN SHLOMO , KUTAS MARTA , HILLYARD STEVEN A.
Published: February 2007

Event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) associated with semantic relatedness were recorded in two auditory word recognition tasks. In the Memorize task, subjects listened to a list of words in anticipation of a subsequent recognition test. In the Count Nonwords task, subjects silently counted the number of nonwords occurring within a list of words. Within each list, target words were either semantically related or unrelated to the immediately preceding word. As in comparable visual tasks, the amplitude of a negative ERP component (N400) was significantly attenuated when targets were preceded by semantically related primes. This attenuation was greater in the Memorize than in the Count Nonwords task. These data are consistent with the view that the sensitivity of N400 amplitude to semantic relatedness is modulated by task variables that manipulate depth of processing.
Monitoring retrieval from long‐term memory by slow event‐related brain potentials
Authors: RÖSLER FRANK , HEIL MARTIN , GLOWALLA ULRICH
Published: February 2007

Slow event‐related brain potentials of nine subjects were recorded in an experimentally controlled long‐term memory retrieval task (the Fan paradigm) from electrode sites F3, Fz, F4, Cz, P3, Pz, and P4. In all retrieval conditions, a very pronounced DC‐like negative potential appeared over the left frontal cortex. This negativity was switched on with the presentation of the probe stimuli and prevailed in some conditions throughout the total recording epoch of 14 s. Particular retrieval conditions became manifest in distinct slow wave effects. The amplitude of a bilaterally distributed frontal negative slow wave increased when a more diversified associative structure had to be searched. The amplitude of another negative slow wave, which peaked bilaterally over parietal areas, was affected by the type of concepts that had to be retrieved. The amplitude was larger with general concepts (category labels) and smaller with specific concepts (category exemplars). These results suggest that distinct strategies are invoked when subjects are required to draw conclusions about different contents stored permanently in an associative network.
The effects of between‐source discriminability on attended and unattended auditory ERPs
Authors: MICHIE PATRICIA T. , SOLOWIJ NADIA , CRAWFORD JUNE M. , GLUE LEN C.
Published: February 2007

Event‐related potentials (ERPs) for tone pips from attended and unattended sources, which varied on discriminability, were compared with ERPs for the same stimuli recorded during performance of a visual task. This comparison revealed that Nd, the negative shift of attended relative to unattended ERPs, consisted of three components: a negativity in the attended ERP from 100 to 270 ms, a positivity in the unattended ERP from 170 ms to the end of the epoch, and a second negativity in the attended ERP from 270 to 700 ms. In general, the later onset of early Nd with more difficult between‐source discriminations could be attributed to the later onset of the positivity in unattended ERPs. A number of hypotheses were advanced for the origin of the unattended positivity: the suppression of the later of two negative components in the 100–220‐ms range, an enhanced P2 component, an endogenous positivity, or the resolution of a protracted negativity elicited by preceding attended stimuli.
Lead stimulation effects on reflex blink, exogenous brain potentials, and loudness judgments
Authors: PERLSTEIN WILLIAM M. , FIORITO EVELYN , SIMONS ROBERT F. , GRAHAM FRANCES K.
Published: February 2007

Prepulse inhibition of the reflex blink by a weak stimulus shortly preceding a blink‐eliciting stimulus has been described as a sensorimotor gating phenomenon that may protect processing of the first stimulus. To determine how a stimulus configuration that elicits prepulse inhibition also affects exogenous evoked potentials and perceived loudness of the paired stimuli, the three types of response were recorded simultaneously under four conditions: tone pairs of 75–110 dB and 75–75 dB and single control tones of each intensity. Two studies using different intrapair intervals found that blinks and exogenous potentials peaking after 50 ms were smaller for the second tone of pairs than for equal‐intensity single tones. Pairing also reduced the loudness of 110‐dB second tones, but the loudness of 75‐dB first and second tones was unaffected or increased. These effects are discussed in terms of parallel processing of transient, unmodulated information in specific paths, steady‐state modulated information in nonspecific paths, and a context‐dependent effect on loudness judgments.
Effects of eye position on event‐related potentials during auditory selective attention
Authors: OKITA TSUNETAKA , WEI JING‐HAN
Published: February 2007

Event‐related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from normal subjects who received random sequences of tone pips from loudspeakers located to the left and right of a central point. The task was to detect occasional higher pitched tones (targets) from one designated speaker. The negative difference (Nd) wave between ERPs for relevant and irrelevant tones was largest when subjects fixated on the relevant speaker, smallest when subjects fixated on the irrelevant speaker, and intermediate in a central fixation. In addition, the Nd modulation for the left tones was produced by the more negative (or less positive) shift of irrelevant‐stimulus ERPs and the less negative shift of relevant‐stimulus ERPs associated with fixating away from the relevant speaker. These findings suggest the possibility of both facilitatory and inhibitory effects of eye position on auditory spatial attention. The substantial modulation of ERPs due to eye position also indicated the necessity of fixation control in auditory attention ERP research.
The cold pressor test: Vascular and myocardial response patterns and their stability
Authors: SAAB PATRICE G. , LLABRE MARIA M. , HURWITZ BARRY E. , SCHNEIDERMAN NEIL , WOHLGEMUTH WILLIAM , DUREL LYNN A. , MASSIE CLIFFORD , NAGEL JOACHIM
Published: February 2007

The purposes of the present study were to compare the cardiovascular response patterns evoked by three versions of the cold pressor test (either forehead stimulation or hand or foot immersion) and to determine the reproducibility of the responses over a 2‐week interval. Blood pressure, heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, total peripheral resistance, and systolic time intervals were obtained during rest and during the cold pressor test in 42 young men. Across conditions, the pressor response was supported by peripheral resistance increases with concomitant stroke volume decreases. Although the response panerns were generally similar across sites, exceptions were apparent for heart rate. Forehead stimulation was characterized by no significant change in heart rate, whereas limb (hand or foot) immersion was associated with significant heart rate acceleration. The responses elicited by the three cold pressor test conditions were reliable and showed little evidence of attenuation over the test‐retest interval.
Attention and mismatch negativity
Authors: NÄÄTÄNEN R. , PAAVILAINEN P. , TITINEN H. , JIANG D. , ALHO K.
Published: February 2007

The mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the auditory event‐related potential (ERP) is elicited by infrequent, physically deviant stimuli in a sequence of frequent homogeneous stimuli (standards). It has been suggested that the MMN is generated by an automatic (attention‐independent) neural mismatch process with a memory trace that encodes the physical features of the standard stimulus. The proposed MMN independence of attention was addressed in the present study. Standard stimuli and two types of deviant stimuli, differing from standards either in frequency or intensity, were dichotically presented in random order and at a very rapid rate. The subject attended either to left‐or right‐ear stimuli, counting the number of a designated type of deviants in that ear. In the present conditions of very strongly focused attention, the MMN was elicited even by frequency change in the ignored input stream, and its amplitude was very similar to that of the MMN elicited by equivalent deviant stimuli (targets) in the attended input stream. In contrast, the MMN to intensity deviation was clearly attenuated in the absence of attention. This effect is, however, probably due to the attention effect on the MMN generator itself rather than the antecedent sensory‐analysis and ‐storing functions.
An event‐related potential study of semantic congruity and repetition in a sentence‐reading task: Effects of context change
Authors: MITCHELL PENNY F. , ANDREWS SALLY , WARD PHILIP B.
Published: February 2007

The experiment examined the joint effects of semantic congruity and repetition on event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited in a sentence priming task. In an initial training phase, subjects were familiarized with a list of 60 congruous and incongruous sentences. During the second phase, ERPs were recorded as subjects silently read a set of 180 unconnected sentences. One third of the sentences were presented exactly as they had been seen in training (Old sentences), one third were presented for the first time (Completely New sentences), and one third involved a re‐pairing of the frames and completions of the congruous and incongruous Old sentences (New Pair sentences). The N400 congruity effect was reduced for Old as compared with Completely New and New Pair sentence completions. These results suggest that N400 reflects processes that are sensitive to both existing semantic associations and representations of previous episodes that include the context of the eliciting stimulus. A late positive component (LPC) involving a sustained positive shift in the waveform after 600 ms was largest for incon‐grous completions and occurred somewhat earlier for Old sentences. This pattern of results is consistent with the notion that the LPC is an index of episodic retrieval and elaborative processes. The data also suggest the presence of an early onset slow positive shift that is only evident for New Pair congruous sentences.
Tonotopic auditory cortex and the magnetoencephalographic (MEG) equivalent of the mismatch negativity
Authors: TIITINEN H. , ALHO K. , HUOTILAINEN M. , ILMONIEMI R. J. , SIMOLA J. , NÄÄTÄNEN R.
Published: February 2007

Two tone stimuli, one frequent (standard) and the other infrequent (a slightly higher, deviant tone), were presented in random order and at short intervals to subjects reading texts they had selected. In different blocks, standards were either 250, 1,000, or 4,000 Hz, with the deviants always being 10% higher in frequency than the standards of the same blocks. Magnetic responses elicited by the standard and deviant tones included N1m, the magnetoencephalographic equivalent of the electrical N1 (its supratemporal component). In addition, deviant stimuli elicited MMNm, the magnetic equivalent of the electrical mismatch negativity, MMN. The equivalent dipole sources of the two responses were located in supratemporal auditory cortex, with the MMNm source being anterior to that of N1m. The dipole orientations of both sources in the sagittal plane depended on stimulus frequency, suggesting that the responses are generated by tonotopically organized neuronal populations. The tonotopy reflected by the frequency dependence of the MMNm source might be that of the neural trace system underlying frequency representation of auditory stimuli in sensory memory.
Perceptual context and the selective attention effect on auditory event‐related brain potentials
Authors: ALAIN CLAUDE , ACHIM ANDRÉ , RICHER FRANÇOIS
Published: February 2007

Two experiments examined the effect of the perceptual context established through tonal grouping on neuroelectric responses during selective listening. Subjects monitored one of the extreme pitches in four‐pitch tone sequences and detected rare longer tones of the designated pitch. In the first study, tonal grouping was manipulated by changing the tonal separation between the extreme pitches and their nearest neighbor, keeping the extreme pitches constant. Grouping increased the negativity of the attended–unattended difference potential. A second study examined the effect of grouping on the attention‐related negativity when it opposed the effect of physical similarity. The proximity of extreme pitches varied, keeping the middle pitches constant. The effect of grouping on event‐related potentials (ERPs) for the middle pitches was varied according to the tone being attended. ERPs for the middle tone adjacent to the attended tone became more negative with grouping, whereas ERPs for the distant middle tone became less negative with grouping. These effects suggest that the attention‐related negativity is sensitive to contextual information.
Autonomic activity in boys with disruptive behavior disorders
Authors: ZAHN THEODORE P. , KRUESI MARKUS J. P.
Published: February 2007

Skin conductance (SC) and heart rate (HR) were measured during rest, a series of tones, and a reaction time task in 34 boys with disruptive behavior disorder to ascertain (a) if this broadly defined group differed from control boys (n= 33) and (b) if there were differences within the spectrum related to component diagnoses or to target behaviors. Disruptive boys had higher resting HR than controls, due largely to those without a subdiagnosis of conduct disorder. Disruptive boys showed a smaller increment in SC response frequency for task instructions. They did not show a general deficit in phasic SC reactivity but habituated to signal stimuli at a faster rate than did controls. However, their SC response latencies were shorter despite slower motor reaction time. Responsivity variables were similar in boys with and without a subdiagnosis of conduct disorder. The data are not compatible with the hypothesis of low autonomic nervous system (ANS) baselines in disruptive boys but partially suggest low ANS reactivity. They generally support the validity of the disruptive behavior disorder spectrum. Correlations with measures of aggression and impulsivity suggest that individual differences within the spectrum might be more fruitfully described by behavior dimensions than by conventional subdiagnoses.
Familial influences on heart rate, blood pressure, and self‐report anxiety responses to stress: Results from 100 twin pairs
Authors: DITTO BLAINE
Published: February 2007

Two hundred healthy adolescent to middle‐aged individuals (12–44 years,M= 20 years) were tested in a standardized stress protocol. These individuals comprised 20 monozygotic female, 20 monozygotic male, 20 samesex dizygotic female, 20 same‐sex dizygotic male, and 20 opposite‐sex dizygotic twin pairs. Familial influences on heart rate, blood pressure, and self‐report anxiety responses to four different kinds of stressors (Visual‐Verbal Test for Conceptual Thought, mental arithmetic, isometric handgrip, cold pressor) were assessed using biometrical genetic model fitting. Evidence of significant genetic effects on resting heart rate and blood pressure was obtained, providing heritability estimates of .65, .63, and .58 for resting heart rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respectively. Cardiovascular reactivity to the Visual‐Verbal Test, mental arithmetic, and the cold pressor test appeared to be primarily influenced by genetic and idiosyncratic (nonfamilial) environmental factors, whereas reactivity to handgrip was more related to effects of the family environment. The results of multivariate model fitting suggested that the genetic effects on reactivity were relatively independent of those affecting resting heart rate and blood pressure and that there was significant overlap of genetic influences on heart rate and blood pressure responses to the two active coping tasks.
A method of constant stimuli for examining heartbeat detection: Comparison with the Brener‐Kluvitse and Whitehead methods
Authors: BRENER JASPER , LIU XIAOQING , RING CHRISTOPHER
Published: February 2007

A method of constant stimuli (MCS) for measuring heartbeat detection was examined by comparing performance on this method with the Brener and Kluvitse (BK) method and a variant of the Whitehead (WH′) method. All methods required subjects to judge the simultaneity of heartbeat sensations and tones, and each yielded measures of judgment precision and of the temporal location of heartbeat sensations relative to the electrocardiogram R‐wave. Both measures were found to be significantly correlated across tasks. A greater proportion of subjects met criteria for classification as heartbeat detectors on the MCS (54%) and BK (50%) tasks than on the WH’task (33%). In the MCS and BK tasks, subjects judged tones presented 100–300 ms after the R‐wave to be most simultaneous with heartbeat sensations. Intratask correlations showed that only the MCS procedure yielded stable measurements of both judgment precision and temporal location. The MCS procedure possesses commendable psychometric properties and provides a simpler means than the BK procedure of examining heartbeat detection.
Event‐related potentials indicate information extraction in a comparative judgement task
Authors: MECKLINGER AXEL , ULLSPERGER PETER , MÖLLE MATTHIAS , GRUNE KERSTIN
Published: February 2007

Event‐related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from normal subjects in a serial paired‐comparison task with the spoken digits one to five. For each digit, the subject decided whether it was smaller or larger than the preceding one. We examined to what extent ERP components are associated with the probability information each digit provides with respect to the subsequent response. Shortest reaction time (RT) and highest accuracy was obtained for the two end terms one and five. The N1 and P2 components of the ERP were attenuated for the two end terms. Three late positivities were found: early P3, P3b, and slow wave. P3b increased in amplitude the more information the eliciting digit provided with respect to the response to the subsequent digit. Moreover, a negative correlation was found between the P3b amplitude associated with information extraction and the RTs to the subsequent digit. During comparative judgement, subjects process the relative position of a stimulus within a stimulus set to extract information about the probability of a forthcoming response, and this process is reflected in P3b amplitude.
Autonomic space and psychophysiological response
Authors: BERNTSON GARY G. , CACIOPPO JOHN T. , QUIGLEY KAREN S. , FABRO VINCENT T.
Published: February 2007

Contemporary findings reveal that autonomic control of dually innervated target organs cannot adequately be viewed as a continuum extending from parasympathetic to sympathetic dominance. Rather, a two‐dimensional autonomic space, bounded by sympathetic and parasympathetic axes, is the minimal representation necessary to characterize the multiple modes of autonomic control. We have previously considered the theoretical implications of this view and have developed quantitative conceptual models of the formal properties of autonomic space and its translation into target organ effects. In the present paper, we further develop this perspective by an empirical instantiation of the quantitative autonomic space model for the control of cardiac chronotropy in the rat. We show that this model (a) provides a more comprehensive characterization of cardiac response than simple measures of end‐organ state, (b) permits a parsing of the multiple transformations underlying psychophysiological responses, (c) illuminates and subsumes psychophysiological principles, such as the Law of Initial Values, (d) reveals an interpretive advantage of expressing cardiac chronotropy in heart period rather than heart rate, and (e) has fundamental implications for the direction and interpretation of a broad range of psychophysiological studies.
Ontogenetic variations in auditory arousal threshold during sleep
Authors: BUSBY KEITH A. , MERCIER LISE , PIVIK R. T.
Published: February 2007

Developmental variations in auditory arousal thresholds during sleep were investigated in four groups of normal male subjects ‐ children, preadolescents, adolescents, and young adults. Arousal thresholds were determined during NREM and REM sleep for tones presented via earphone insert on a single night following two adaptation nights of undisturbed sleep. Age‐related relationships were observed for both awakening frequency and stimulus intensity required to effect awakening, with awakenings occurring more frequently in response to lower stimulus intensities with increasing age. Although stimulus intensities required for awakening were high and statistically equivalent across sleep stages in nonadults, higher intensity stimuli were required in Stage 4 relative to Stage 2 and REM sleep in adults. These results confirm previous observations of marked resistance to awakening during sleep in preadolescent children and suggest that processes underlying awakening from sleep undergo systematic modification during ontogenetic development.
Origins of baseline variance and the Law of Initial Values
Authors: BERNTSON GARY G. , UCHINO BERT N. , CACIOPPO JOHN T.
Published: February 2007

The Law of Initial Values (LIV) asserts that the magnitude of a phasic psychophysiological response is dependent on the initial baseline level. Although results in accord with the LIV are often observed, exceptions are frequent, especially for between‐subjects analyses. A general assumption in studies of the LIV is that a given baseline difference is equivalent regardless of its functional origin. The present study examined the relationships between basal heart period variance, arising from alternate sources, and the magnitude of the chronotropic response to a speech stressor. Results reveal that baseline differences due to orthostatic manipulations, which are known to be largely of autonomic origin, yielded larger LIV effects than did individual differences in basal heart period, which include a significant nonautonomic component. The minimal LIV‐like effects of baseline differences associated with non‐autonomic factors, relative to variations in autonomic control, may contribute to the inconsistent appearance of between‐subjects LIV effects.
Effects of PRES baroreceptor stimulation on thermal and mechanical pain threshold in borderline hypertensives and normotensives
Authors: RAU HARALD , BRODY STUART , LARBIG WOLFGANG , PAULI PAUL , VÖHRINGER MATTHIAS , HARSCH BEATE , KRÖLING PETER , BIRBAUMER NIELS
Published: February 2007

Prior studies have noted a pain relieving effect of baroreceptor stimulation and of higher tonic blood pressure in animals and humans. The present study used a new technique for the controlled, noninvasive stimulation of human carotid baroreceptors (PRES). PRES baroreceptor manipulation was delivered to both normotensive subjects (n= 11) and medication‐free labile hypertensive subjects (n= 10) during both thermal and mechanical pain. Consistent with prior research, hypertensives had a higher threshold for thermal pain than did normotensives. PRES baroreceptor manipulation had no significant effect on thermal pain threshold for either group. For the mechanical pain model, the opposite results were obtained; group pain threshold did not differ, but there was a significant PRES baroreceptor stimulation effect of increasing pain threshold for both groups. Results are discussed in terms of specific features of the stimuli, dampening of pain in hypertensives, and adaptation to pain.
Reliability of P50 auditory event‐related potential indices of sensory gating
Authors: SMITH DAVID A. , BOUTORS NASHAAT N. , SCHWARZOPF STEVEN B.
Published: February 2007

We examined the reliability of three traditional P50 auditory event‐related potential indices under paired‐click conditions: (a) the conditioning response (C), (b) the testing response (T), and (c) the testing to conditioning suppression ratio (T/C). Three alternative indices, (a) the (C−T) difference, (b) the (C−T)/(C+T) adjusted difference, and (c) the (T−T) residualized difference, where T′ is the regression of T on C, were also studied. The N 100 wave was used as a generalizability check. Although C and T amplitudes were reliably were reliably measured by traditional means, the T/C suppression ratio was not. for psychometric reasons that are described, the reliability of the suppression ratio is undermined principally by the correlation between C and T. The C−T difference score is a promising alternative to the unreliable T/C suppression ratio. Theoretical consequences of changed metrics are discussed.
Effect of relaxation training on cardiac parasympathetic tone
Authors: SAKAKIBARA MASAHITO , TAKEUCHI SATOSHI , HAYANO JUNICHIRO
Published: February 2007

To examine the hypothesis that the relaxation response is associated with an increase in cardiac parasympathetic tone, the frequency components of heart rate variability during relaxation training were investigated in 16 college students. Electrocardiograms and pneumograms were recorded during a 5‐min baseline period followed by three successive 5‐min sessions of the autogenic training (relaxation) or by the same periods of quiet rest (control), while subjects breathed synchronously with a visual pacemaker (0.25 Hz). Although neither the magnitude nor the frequeney of respiration showed a significant difference between relaxation and control, the amplitude of the high‐frequency component of heart rate variability increased only during relaxation (p= .008). There was no significant difference in the ratio of the low‐frequency (0.04–0.15 Hz) to the high‐frequency amplitudes. The increased high‐frequency amplitude without changes in the respiratory parameters indicates enhanced cardiac parasympathetic tone. Thus, our results support the initial hypothesis of this study. Enhanced cardiac parasympathetic tone may explain an important mechanism underlying the beneficial effect of the relaxation response.
The relationship between cardiovascular reactivity and heartbeat detection
Authors: EICHLER SEEMA , KATKIN EDWARD S.
Published: February 2007

This experiment tested the hypothesis that inotropic cardiovascular reactivity to stress is related to performance on heartbeat discrimination tasks. The experiment also compared the efficacy of a specific modification of two popular heartbeat discrimination paradigms, Whitehead's and Katkin's. Subjects were 48 male undergraduates who performed both discrimination tasks and then were subjected to mental arithmetic stress. Results indicated that high cardiovascular reactors were better detectors than low reactors. Results also indicated that subjects performed better on the modified Whitehead task than on the modified Katkin task.
The effects of an acute psychological stressor on cardiovascular, endocrine, and cellular immune response: A prospective study of individuals high and low in heart rate reactivity
Authors: SGOUTAS‐EMCH SANDRA A. , CACIOPPO JOHN T. , UCHINO BERT N. , MALARKEY WILLIAM , PEARL DENNIS , KIECOLT‐GLASER JANICE K. , GLASER RONALD
Published: February 2007

High and low reactors were preselected on the basis of their heart rate reactivity to a speech stressor in a prescreening session. In the main study, subjects were exposed to a mental arithmetic plus noise stressor. Cardiovascular activity was recorded during baseline and stressor, and blood was drawn prior to and following the stressor for endocrine and immune assays. Results revealed that the stressor decreased the blastogenic response to concanavalin A and increased natural killer cell numbers and cytotoxicity, absolute numbers of CD8+ T‐lymphocytes, nor‐epinephrine and epinephrine levels, heart rate, and blood pressure responses. In addition, cortisol and natural killer cell cytotoxicity responses to the stressor differentiated individuals high versus low in heart rate reactivity. These results suggest that the interactions among the autonomic nervous system, endocrine system, and immune system are not only amenable to psychophysiological analysis but that such analyses may play an important role in illuminating underlying mechanisms.
Stimulus dimensions of the cold pressor test and the associated patterns of cardiovascular response
Authors: PECKERMAN ARNOLD , HURWITZ BARRY E. , SAAB PATRICE G. , LLABRE MARIA M. , McCABE PHILIP M. , SCHNEIDERMAN NEIL
Published: February 2007

Hemodynamics of the cold pressor response in relation to its pain and nonpain stimulus components were investigated in normotensive college men using the foot and forehead cold pressor tasks. Mechanisms of pain‐ and non‐pain‐related increases in blood pressure were analyzed as residual effects of concurrent changes in total peripheral resistance and cardiac output. The identified partial relationships suggested that the response pattern associated with pain included positive change both in cardiac output and in total peripheral resistance, whereas the nonpain‐related response was limited to an increase in total peripheral resistance. Analyses of individual differences in car‐diovascular responses to pain further indicated that pain‐related increments in blood pressure were mediated by a steeper rise in total peripheral resistance, an increase in heart rate, and an apparent increase in preload. At baseline, high reactors to pain manifested relatively elevated total perpheral resistance, diminished cardiac output, and an indication of a reduced inotropic state, suggesting that altered basal homeostasis may discriminate normotensive individuals displaying heightened cardiovascular reactivity to aversive cold stimulation.
Cardiac stimulus intensity and heartbeat detection: Effects of tilt‐induced changes in stroke volume
Authors: RING CHRISTOPHER , LIU XIAOQING , BRENER JASPER
Published: February 2007

The effects of variations in stroke volume on the intensity of cardiac stimuli was examined in a series of three experiments that empolyed classical psychophsical methods to assess heartbeat detection. Stroke volume was manipulated by passive body tilt and recorded using impedance cardiography while subjects performed heartbeat detection tasks. The postural manipulation generated little or no change in contractility or momentum but did produce substantial changes in stroke volume. However, this potential source of variation in cardiac stimulus magnitude did not influence either the precision of heartbeat detection or the temporal location of heartbeat sensations. It is concluded that the intensity dimension of the heartbeat stimulus is not determined by stroke volume.
Autonomic cardiac control. III. Psychological stress and cardiac response in autonomic space as revealed by pharmacological blockades
Authors: BERNTSON GARY G. , CACIOPPO JOHN T. , BINKLEY PHILIP F. , UCHINO BERT N. , QUIGLEY KAREN S. , FIELDSTONE ANNETTE
Published: February 2007

Behavioral contexts can evoke a variety of autonomic modes of response, characterized by reciprocal, coactive, or independent changes in the autonomic divisions. In the present study, we investigated the reactive autonomic control of the heart in response to psychological stressors, using quantitative methods for analyzing single and double autonomic blockades, and through the use of noninvasive indices based on heart period variability and systolic time intervals. Analysis of the effects of pharmacological blockades revealed an overall pattern of increased sympathetic and decreased parasympathetic control of the heart during speech stress, mental arithmetic, and a reaction‐time task. Unlike the classical reciprocal sympathetic‐parasympathetic response to orthostatic challenge, however, the responses of the autonomic branches to stress were uncorrelated. This reflected notable individual differences in the mode of autonomic response to stress, which had considerable stability across stress tasks. The putative noninvasive indices of sympathetic (preejection period) and parasympathetic (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) control changed in accord with the results of pharmacological blockades. Together, these results emphasize the substantial individual differences in the mode of autonomic response to stress, the advantages of a quantitative approach to analyzing blockade data, and the importance of validity estimates of blockade data.
ERP indices of auditory selective attention in aging and Parkinson's disease
Authors: KARAYANIDIS FRINI , ANDREWS SALLY , WARD PHILIP B. , MICHIE PATRICIA T.
Published: February 2007

In the present study, we compared the performance of normal subjects in three age groups and of medicated Parkinson's disease patients on auditory selective attention processes. Two tone sequences were dichotically presented. Subjects responded to deviant tones in the attended location. Event‐related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from nine scalp electrodes. The old group showed significant decline in hit rate, increase in N1 amplitude, and reduction in P3a, P3b, target negativity, and mismatch negativity amplitude. The amplitude and duration of late Nd increased with age, reflecting modulation of both attended and unattended standard ERPs. Although the middle group showed a similar pattern of ERP changes, the effects were generally nonsignificant. The Parkinson's disease group showed little further disruption of behavioral or ERP measures. However, Parkinson's disease affected late Nd in the direction opposite of that of aging, reflecting differential modulation of unattended standard positivity.
Assessment of baroreflex control from beat‐to‐beat blood pressure and heart rate changes: A validation study
Authors: WATKINS LANA L. , FAINMAN CLAUDIA , DIMSDALE JOEL , ZIEGLER MICHAEL G.
Published: February 2007

In this study, we tested the validity of a new method designed to estimate baroreflex control of heart rate from spontaneous changes in systolic pressure and pulse interval. This method was compared with a conventional method of assessing baroreflex control through measuring reflex adjustments in pulse interval associated with pharmacological manipulations of blood pressure. The estimates of baroreflex control derived from the two methods were signficantly correlated; however, only the estimate derived using pharmacological changes in pressure detected significant impairment of baroreflex control in patients with damage to baroafferents produced by radiation for oropharyngeal cancer. Analysis of spontaneous changes in pressure and pulse interval therefore provide a meaningful estimate of baroreflex control of heart rate that is, however, less sensitive than estimates obtained using pharmacological manipulations in pressure.
Parental history of hypertension and enhanced cardiovascular reactivity are associated with decreased pain ratings
Authors: FRANCE CHRISTOPHER R. , STEWART KATHRYN M.
Published: February 2007

Ischemic pain was examined in adult males with and without a parental history of hypertension. Blood pressure and heart rate were recorded during baseline, cold pressor, and ischemia. Repeated pain ratings were obtained during cold pressor and ischemia, and the McGill Pain Questionnaire was completed after each stressor. A median split was used to identify high and low mean arterial pressure and heart rate reactors to cold pressor. Parental history of hypertension, high heart rate reactivity, and high mean arterial pressure reactivity were each associated with significantly lower ischemic pain ratings on the McGill Pain Questionnaire, suggesting that risk for hypertension is associated with hypoalgesia in normotensives.
Determinants of subjective experience of sexual arousal in women: Feedback from genital arousal and erotic stimulus content
Authors: LAAN ELLEN , EVERAERD WALTER , VAN DER VELDE JANNEKE , GEER JAMES H.
Published: February 2007

Sixty‐two women participated in a study designed to explore the association between gential and subjective sexual arousal. Four stimulus conditions were created, designed to evoke differential patterns of genital arousal over time. Subjects were instructed to report sensations in their genitalia while being exposed to the same erotic stimulus on repeated trials or to a series of varying erotic stimuli. Detection of genital arousal was facilitated by the occurrence of changes in genital arousal over trials. That is, genital and subjective sexual arousal were linearly related in conditions that resulted in large differences in genital arousal over trails, whereas such a relation was absent in conditions in which genital arousal levels remained relatively constant. In women, peripheral feedback from consciously detected genital arousal seems to be a relatively unimportant determinant of subjective sexual arousal.
Consistency of heart rate and sympathovagal reactivity across different autonomic contexts
Authors: SLOAN R. P. , SHAPIRO P. A. , BAGIELLA E. , FISHKIN P. E. , GORMAN J. M. , MYERS M. M.
Published: February 2007

Theories that psychophysiological reactivity constitutes a risk factor for coronary artery disease assume that reactivity is a consistent individual characteristic. We tested this assumption by measuring reactivity to three psychologically challenging tasks performed by 22 healthy subjects across different autonomic contexts produced by positional change. Dependent variables included heart rate (HR), low‐frequency (LF; 0.04–0.15 Hz) and high‐frequency (HF; 0.15–0.50Hz) heart period variability, and the LF/HF ratio. HR (r= .44,p< .05) and LF/HF ratio (r= .48,p= .03) reactivity were modestly correlated across the different autonomic contexts, but HF and LF power reactivity were not. These findings suggest that HR reactivity to psychological challenge is a modestly consistent characteristic of individuals, despite differences in autonomic context. Although the same is true of cardiac sympathovagal balance, reactivity of HF and LF power were less consistent.
Time and frequency domain methods for heart rate variability analysis: A methodological comparison
Authors: LITVACK DANIEL A. , OBERLANDER TIM F. , CARNEY LAUREL H. , SAUL J. PHILIP
Published: February 2007

The purpose of this paper is to analytically evaluate and compare two of the most common methods for measuring respiration‐related heart rate fluctuations: linear detrended heart rate power spectral analysis and the Porges technique of filtered variance. Low‐frequency power was removed from instantaneous 4‐Hz R‐R interval signals using either a first‐order linear (linear/spectral technique) or a third‐order polynomial (MPF‐var technique). The signals were band‐pass filtered and analyzed in both the time and frequency domains. Although in most cases the two techniques yielded substantially similar results, the MPF‐var technique resulted in signal amplification at a few specific frequencies. The frequency range and effect of amplification of the MPF‐var technique were dependent upon the polynomial size, sampling frequency, and frequency content of the signal.
Response complexity and precue interval effects on the lateralized readiness potential
Authors: HACKLEY STEVEN A. , MILLER JEFF
Published: February 2007

Fundamental properties of an important new tool in cognitive electrophysiology, the lateralized readiness potential (LRP), were examined in two experiments. Experiment 1 resolved an apparent inconsistency in the literature by demonstrating that this response‐specific lateralization is larger preceding complex then preceding simple finger movements. In Experiment 2, the foveally presented precue, which indicated hand of response, preceded the go/no‐go stimulus by 0, 100, 300, or 1,400 ms. Analyses of LRP latency indicated that hand‐specific preparation began earlier with longer foreperiods but was temporally linked to the reaction stimulus as well as the precue. Although the degree of lateralization did not predict reaction speed in either study, a nonlateralized, response‐locked negativity was larger prior to faster reactions.
The N400 as a function of the level of processing
Authors: CHWILLA DOROTHEE J. , BROWN COLIN M. , HAGOORT PETER
Published: February 2007

In a semantic priming paradigm, the effects of different levels of processing on the N400 were assessed by changing the task demands. In the lexical decision task, subjects had to discriminate between words and nonwords and in the physical task, subjects had to discriminate between uppercase and lowercase letters. The proportion of related versus unrelated word pairs differed between conditions. A lexicality test on reaction times demonstrated that the physical task was performed nonlexically. Moreover, a semantic priming reaction time effect was obtained only in the lexical decision task. The level of processing clearly affected the event‐related potentials. An N400 priming effect was only observed in the lexical decision task. In contrast, in the physical task a P300 effect was observed for either related or unrelated targets, depending on their frequency of occurrence. Taken together, the results indicate that an N400 priming effect is only evoked when the task performance induces the semantic aspects of words to become part of an episodic trace of the stimulus event.
Removing the heart from the brain: Compensation for the pulse artifact in the photon migration signal
Authors: GRATTON GABRIELE , CORBALLIS PAUL M.
Published: February 2007

Various factors, including variations in the concentration of hemoglobin, determine changes in the transparency of living tissue to near‐infrared light. Hence, optical measures have been proposed as a noninvasive method for investigating regional changes in brain activity. However, the amount of near‐infrared light traversing a region of the head is also influenced by the periodic changes in blood pressure that occur during the cardiac cycle (pulse). These large changes may obscure smaller, localized events associated with brain activity. We developed a least‐squares regression algorithm for compensating for the artifact introduced by the pulse. This procedure takes into account beat‐to‐beat variability in heart rate and differences in the shape of the pulse among subjects and among recording conditions.
Conditioning with facial expressions of emotion: Effects of CS sex and age
Authors: MAZURSKI EVALYNN J. , BOND NIGEL W. , SIDDLE DAVID A. T. , LOVIBOND PETER F.
Published: February 2007

Two experiments examined the effects of facial expressions of emotion as conditioned stimuli (CSs) on human electrodermal conditioning and on a continuous measure of expectancy of the shock unconditioned stimulus. In Experiment 1, the CS+ was a picture of a person displaying an angry face and CS− was a neutral face. For half of the subjects, the expressions were depicted by males, for the other half by females. Male subjects showed larger skin conductance responses to pictures of males than did females. The responding of female subjects was the same regardless of the sex of the person in the picture. In Experiment 2, the CS+ and CS− were pictures of an angry or a happy face. For half of the subjects, the expressions were depicted by adult males, for the other half by preadolescent males, Subjects displayed greater differentiation when an adult male depicting anger was employed as the CS+ than when a preadolescent male depicting anger was the CS+. There were no differences when an adult or a child displayed happiness.
The impact of performance uncertainty on the postimperative negative variation
Authors: KLEIN CHRISTOPH , ROCKSTROH BRIGITTE , COHEN RUDOLF , BERG PATRICK , DRESSEL MARC
Published: February 2007

In a delayed matching‐to‐sample task, the impact of clear or ambiguous go versus clear no‐go signals on the post‐imperative negative variation (PINV) was examined in 11 patients with a chronic schizophrenic disorder (DSM‐III‐R) and in a control group of 13 healthy subjects matched to the patient sample by age, sex, and education. Size and spatial position of a visual S2 had to be matched to one of two visual patterns in the S1 presented 4 s earlier. In 96 trials, the S2 was identical in size with one of the two patterns of S1 (clear matching). These trials varied pseudorandomly, with 60 trials in which the S2 was of intermediate size. On a randomly interspersed additional 48 trials, an S2 differing in color and shape signaled no‐go. The electroencephalogram was recorded from Fz, Cz, Pz, F3, F4, C3, C4, P3, and P4. Although groups did not differ in contingent negative variation amplitude the PINV was generally more pronounced in patients than in controls. In both groups, ambiguity of the to‐be‐matched S2 produced larger PINV amplitudes; the no‐go signal elicited only a small PINV. Differential effects of ambiguity and no‐go on PINV amplitude and its scalp distribution suggest that “performance” and “action” uncertainty contribute to PINV generation and that thresholds for both effects are reduced in schizophrenics.
The ontogenetically earliest discriminative response of the human brain
Authors: CHEOUR‐LUHTANEN M. , ALHO K. , SAINIO K. , RINNE T. , REINIKAINEN K. , POHJAVUORI M. , RENLUND M. , AALTONEN O. , EEROLA O. , NÄÄTÄNEN R.
Published: February 2007

Speech sounds elicited electric brain responses in healthy premature infants born 30–35 weeks after conception, demonstrating that the human brain is able to discriminate speech sounds even at this early age, well before term, and supporting previous results suggesting that the human fetus may learn to discriminate sounds while still in the womb. We presented preterm infants with stimulus sequences consisting of a repetitive vowel that was occasionally replaced by a different vowel. This infrequent vowel elicited a response resembling the adult mismatch negativity, which is known to reflect the brain's automatic detection of stimulus change. The present results constitute the ontogenetically earliest discriminative response of the human brain ever recorded.
Blood pressure publication guidelines
Authors: Shapiro David , Jamner Larry D. , Lane James D. , Light Kathleen C. , Myrtek Michael , Sawada Yukihiro , Steptoe Andrew
Published: February 2007

Blood pressure is one of the most commonly recorded functions in physiology and medicine, and it has become a major variable in recent psychophysiological and behavioral medicine research. Many methods have been developed for the measurement of blood pressure in clinical, laboratory, and natural settings. The broad objectives of this report are to summarize the most critical methodological issues in the measurement of blood pressure and to present principles and recommendations for the evaluation of blood pressure methods and findings in published studies.