The continuing problem of false positives in repeated measures ANOVA in psychophysiology: a multivariate solution.
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Analysis of Variance↗
Biomedical subjects
J F Thayer
Publications and source records attributed to J F Thayer.
A behavioral link between the oculomotor and cardiovascular systems.
Although the eyes and the heart serve very different purposes, each receives autonomic innervation. Capitalizing on recent theoretical and technological innovations in the understanding and assessment of oculomotor and cardiovascular behavior, three experiments measured behavioral covariation between the oculomotor and cardiovascular systems. Measures of dark focus and dark vergence indexed oculomotor tone, and the spectral decomposition of variations in heart rate indexed cardiovascular control mechanisms. In Experiment 1, individual differences in cardiovascular parameters could predict individuals' dark vergence (R2 = .806) but not their dark focus (R2 = .404). In Experiment 2, the same parameters were measured from subjects who experience either panic attacks (n = 11) or blood phobia (n = 9). Heart rate was positively correlated with dark vergence and the two subject groups were separable based on both oculomotor and cardiovascular variables. Using a within-subjects approach, Experiment 3 found that both dark vergence and dark focus tended to be nearer during sympathetic dominance of the heart than during parasympathetic dominance, within-subjects variations in cardiovascular parameters could predict dark focus, and between-subjects variations in interbeat intervals could predict dark vergence. Shared patterns of autonomic activation may be responsible for this eye-heart link.
Accommodation, Ocular↗
Attentional bias in active smokers, abstinent smokers, and nonsmokers.
Attentional bias was studied with a modified version of the Stroop test in active smokers, abstinent smokers, and nonsmokers. The task was color-naming of incongruent color-words, smoking-related words, and neutral words. The results showed that the active smokers used longer verbal reaction time (VRT) to smoking-related words compared to abstinent smokers, i.e., indicating stronger attentional bias in the active smokers. Furthermore, longer VRTs to the Stroop words compared to the smoking words and the neutral words were found only in nonsmokers and abstinent smokers. Finally, a significant negative correlation was found between attitudes against smoking and VRTs to the smoking-related words. Taken together the main finding was that the active smokers showed no differential response to the stimuli. This could be caused by a lack of ability to modulate attentional processes in active smokers.
Adult↗
Neurological bases for balance-anxiety links.
This review paper examines neurologic bases of links between balance control and anxiety based upon neural circuits that are shared by pathways that mediate autonomic control, vestibulo-autonomic interactions, and anxiety. The core of this circuitry is a parabrachial nucleus network, consisting of the parabrachial nucleus and its reciprocal relationships with the extended central amygdaloid nucleus, infralimbic cortex, and hypothalamus. Specifically, the parabrachial nucleus is a site of convergence of vestibular information processing and somatic and visceral sensory information processing in pathways that appear to be involved in avoidance conditioning, anxiety, and conditioned fear. Monoaminergic influences on these pathways are potential modulators of both effects of vigilance and anxiety on balance control and the development of anxiety and panic. This neurologic schema provides a unifying framework for investigating the neurologic bases for comorbidity of balance disorders and anxiety.
Anxiety Disorders↗
Fitness and gender-related differences in heart period variability.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to elucidate the processes of autonomic nervous system control of the heart in high fit and low fit men and women by examining indices of vagally mediated cardiac control. METHOD: There were 40 participants (19 women and 21 men) classified as either high fit or low fit on the basis of scores from the University of Houston Non-Exercise Test (N-EX). Both time domain and frequency domain cardiovascular measures were calculated during a resting baseline period (BL), a facial cooling task (FCT) designed to elicit parasympathetic activity, a reaction time task (RT) designed to elicit primarily sympathetic activity, and a combination task (COMBO) designed to elicit a combination of both parasympathetic and sympathetic activation and recovery periods after each task. RESULTS: Both time and frequency domain indices of heart period variability (HPV) indicated that high fit individuals exhibited greater vagal control of the heart relative to low fit individuals at baseline and across all tasks. In addition, the results suggest greater relative vagal control of the heart in women compared with men. Reactivity scores revealed significant main effects for condition for both time and frequency domain measures of HPV, but no main effects or interactions involving fitness or gender. CONCLUSIONS: First, small differences in aerobic capacity result in meaningful differences in cardiac autonomic control, with high fit individuals clearly demonstrating greater vagally mediated cardiac control. Second, important gender-related differences in HPV indicate that women exhibit greater vagal control and men exhibit more sympathetic cardiac control even though heart period (HP) did not differ. Third, the mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of fitness and those placing women at a reduced risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) seem to be similar.
Adolescent↗
Effect of autonomic nervous system manipulations on gastric myoelectrical activity and emotional responses in healthy human subjects.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the gastric myoelectrical and emotional responses provoked by two psychophysiological stimuli known to cause in one case increased sympathetic nervous system activity and in the other increased parasympathetic nervous system activity. METHODS: Electrogastrograms (EGGs) were recorded, and interbeat intervals (IBIs) were obtained from electrocardiographic recordings from 20 subjects during baseline and in response to a shock avoidance task (shock stimulus) and forehead cooling (dive stimulus). After each experimental period, subjects reported their emotional experience by rating descriptors ranging from serenity to excitement. RESULTS: During the shock stimulus, IBIs decreased significantly (p < .05), gastric tachyarrhythmias increased (p < .05), and emotional arousal increased, as indexed by reports of increased interest, excitement, and activation. In contrast, during the dive stimulus, IBIs increased (p < .05), but there were no associated changes in gastric myoelectrical activity or emotional arousal. CONCLUSIONS: Acute stress can evoke arousal and dysrhythmic gastric myoelectrical activity, and these acute changes, which occur in healthy individuals, may provide insight into functional gastrointestinal disorders.
Adult↗
Ambulatory blood pressure responses and the circumplex model of mood: a 4-day study.
BACKGROUND: The relation between mood or emotions and concurrent ambulatory blood pressure responses holds both fundamental and clinical interest. METHODS: The primary sample consisted of 69 normotensive or borderline hypertensive but otherwise healthy adult males. The validation sample consisted of 85 healthy male undergraduate college students. Both samples underwent half-hourly 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure measurements on four separate workdays, 1 week apart. At each ambulatory measurement, subjects recorded their behavior, environment, and mood. The circular mood scale, a circular visual analogue scale based on the circumplex model of mood, was used to reflect the totality of a participant's affective state space. Longitudinal random effects regression models were applied in the data analysis. RESULTS: The results for both samples were quite similar. Sleep and posture had the greatest influence on ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate. The effects of the environmental setting, social setting, and consumption were modest but statistically significant. Independent of these covariates, mood exerted a significant effect on blood pressure and heart rate. Relative to the "mellow" default category, blood pressure increased both for "anxious/annoyed" and "elated/happy" and decreased during "disengaged/sleepy" mood. The range of mood-related blood pressure estimates was 6.0/3.7 mm Hg. CONCLUSIONS: The pattern of blood pressure responses suggests that they were related to the degree of engagement of a mood rather than the degree of unpleasantness. The hypothesis that posits that negative affect-related cardiovascular reactivity mediates the observed correlation between negative affect and disease risk should be reconsidered.
Adolescent↗