Effects of coping on blood pressure responses to threat of aversive stimulation.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Biomedical subjects
S B Manuck
Publications and source records attributed to S B Manuck.
The voluntary control of heart rate under differential somatic restraint.
The purpose of this investigation was to test the hypothesis that subjects (Ss) can exert voluntary, bidirectional heart rate (HR) control in the absence of concomitant changes in respiration rate (RR) and muscle activity (chin EMG). Feedback-assisted HR control was studied under four experimental conditions involving increasing levels of somatic restraint: (a) No somatic controls, (b) RR pacing, (c) EMG feedback, to maintain constant muscle activity, and (d) RR pacing plus EMG feedback. Fifteen Ss, eight females and seven males, were assigned to each of these four conditions (N = 60). The HR control task involved ten increase and ten decrease trials in random order, each lasting 60 sec and preceded by a 60-sec resting baseline period. The results indicated that Ss produced significant HR increases (Xdelta = +3.4 bpm), but were unable to effect decreases (Xdelta = -.3 bpm). Furthermore, the magnitude of the obtained HR changes did not differ by experimental condition, i.e., by level of somatic restraint. While concomitant bidirectional RR changes were found, the pacing procedure effectively reduced, and on HR increase trials, nearly eliminated, RR involvement. No increases in EMG activity were found on HR increase trials for any of the four experimental conditions, whereas all groups showed some EMG decreases on HR deceleration trials. With respect to the question of somatic mediation of autonomic control, it is concluded that HR increases produced under paced respiration "favor" an interpretation of unmediated HR acceleration.
Biofeedback, Psychology↗
Role of feedback in voluntary control of heart rate.
The relative effectiveness of biofeedback techniques on the voluntary control of heart rate was examined by randomly assigning 32 Ss to one of four feedback conditions in a bi-directional heart-rate control task: (1) no feedback, (2) binary feedback--S was signaled when an interbeat interval had changed in the correct direction, (3) "real-time," proportional feedback--S was provided information about the relative duration of successive interbeat intervals, and (4) numerical, proportional feedback--each interbeat interval was represented as a numeral indicating its relationship to pre-trial mean by direction and magnitude. Significant over-all heart-rate changes were evidenced for both increase and decrease directions, but no differences were found between the feedback conditions. While these data suggest that feedback may be a relatively insignificant factor in voluntary heart-rate control, it was recommended that further investigation examine the role of feedback within the context of other training, mediating and motivational variables.
Adult↗
Life stress, locus of control and state and trait anxiety.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Anxiety↗
Life-stress, locus of control, and treatment-seeking.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Anxiety↗
Effects of suggestion on total respiratory resistance in mild asthmatics.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Airway Resistance↗
Parental hypertension, affect, and cardiovascular response to cognitive challenge.
This investigation examined the cardiovascular and affective reactions of offspring of hypertensive and normotensive parents on exposure of subjects to a frustrating cognitive task. Subjects were 44 normotensive, male undergraduate volunteers, 22 with and 22 without a parental history of hypertension. Heart rate (HR) and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) measurements were recorded under resting (baseline) conditions and during subjects' performance of a 3-min mental arithmetic task. Subjects were also administered state forms of the State-Trait Anxiety and Anger Inventories following baseline measurements and immediately after the experimental task. Results indicated that relative to sons of normotensive parents, offspring of hypertensives showed significantly greater HR and DBP elevations during mental arithmetic. However, neither task performance nor task-related changes on the state measures of anxiety and anger varied reliably with differences in parental status. When subjects were divided into groups of high- and low-affect (i.e., anxiety, anger) responders, the HR reactions of persons having hypertensive and normotensive parents were found to differ significantly only among subjects who reported experiencing the most appreciable anxiety--and to a lesser extent, anger--when performing the mental arithmetic task. This finding suggests that persons at familial risk for hypertension possess a heightened cardiovascular response "potential" which is expressed, in part, in relation to concomitant affective experiences of the individual.
Affective Symptoms↗
Effects of menstrual phase and parental history of hypertension on cardiovascular response to cognitive challenge.
The effects of parental history of hypertension and menstrual phase on systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) and heart rate (HR) responses to two frustrating cognitive tasks were examined in 47 normotensive, young adult women. Subjects with and without a parental history of hypertension were scheduled to be tested during either the follicular (days 7-11 of a 28-day cycle) or luteal (days 17-22) phase of the menstrual cycle. During the laboratory session, HR, SBP, DBP, and self-report of affective states were measured while subjects performed two cognitive tasks (mental arithmetic and concept formation). Results indicated that the magnitude of SBP responses to the two tasks was significantly greater in subjects tested during the follicular phase than in subjects tested in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. No effect of parental hypertension was observed on cardiovascular response measures, though offspring of hypertensive parents reported experiencing significantly less anger during the tasks than subjects with normotensive parents.
Adolescent↗
Familial aggregation of blood pressure and heart rate responses during behavioral stress.
Parent-offspring and sibling resemblances in blood pressure and heart rate responses to behavioral stress were evaluated in a sample of 142 families residing in an upper-middle-class community in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area between 1983 and 1985. The sample consisted of 121 daughters and 96 sons ranging in age from 7 to 18 years, and 141 mothers and 119 fathers ranging in age from 31 to 62 years. Three stressors were presented to all participants: serial subtraction, mirror image tracing, and isometric handgrip exercise. Multivariate analyses of the stress responses were based on maximum likelihood estimations of the magnitude of association, which provided collective significance tests, and were adjusted for familial resemblance of resting pressure and heart rate as well as body mass index. These analyses showed significant parent-offspring and sibling associations in resting blood pressure and body mass index, which replicate those found in previous epidemiological investigations. The novel findings in this study were the sibling similarities in heart rate responses to mirror image tracing and in systolic blood pressure responses to isometric handgrip exercise. An analysis of a subset of the sample--only those nonmedicated parents compliant with instructions not to smoke or drink caffeinated or alcoholic beverages for 3 hr prior to testing and their children--showed a parent-offspring resemblance in systolic blood pressure responses to isometric exercise. This analysis, along with the significant sibling association from the full sample, suggests that systolic blood pressure responses to static exercise might aggregate in the family. The results are discussed in light of previous twin data. The relative paucity of significant parent-offspring associations of physiological parameters during serial subtraction and mirror image tracing tasks implies that non-familial influences are most important in determining cardiovascular responses to psychological stress.
Adolescent↗
Behaviorally elicited heart rate reactivity and atherosclerosis in female cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis).
We previously reported that the coronary atherosclerosis of cholesterol-fed, male cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) was exacerbated among animals that exhibited the largest heart rate (HR) reactions to a standard laboratory stressor. Here we report a similar relationship between behaviorally induced HR reactivity and atherosclerosis in females of the same species. Twenty-one female monkeys were fed a moderately atherogenic diet for 30 months. Near the end of this period, animals were fitted with electrocardiogram telemetry devices and their HRs were recorded under baseline and stressed conditions. Stress period HR measurements were obtained during a standard challenge involving threatened capture and physical handling of the animals. At necropsy, sections taken from the left anterior descending, left circumflex, and right coronary arteries were examined histologically. Mean intimal area measurements were then compared between animals identified as High (n = 7) and Low (n = 7) HR reactors. High HR reactive animals were found to have significantly greater coronary artery atherosclerosis than Low reactors; atherosclerosis at the right carotid bifurcation also differed significantly between High and Low reactive monkeys. Groups did not differ in baseline HR, blood pressure, and total or HDL cholesterol concentrations. Relative to Low HR reactors, however, High reactive animals weighed less and were less ponderous, had greater heart weights (adjusted for differences in body weight), were behaviorally less aggressive, and had lower luteal phase progesterone concentrations. These relationships were corroborated in correlation analyses employing data of all 21 study animals.
Aggression↗
The effect of propranolol on behavioral interactions among adult male cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) housed in disrupted social groupings.
We report here on the social behavior of 30 adult male cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis), half of which were chronically administered propranolol HCl. All monkeys were maintained in groups of five, fed an atherogenic diet, and subjected to a social manipulation involving repeated disruption of social groups through redistribution of group memberships. One year of intensive behavioral observations were made, involving quantification of 27 kinds of social interaction typically exhibited by this species in captivity. Propranolol treatment resulted in a significant reduction in heart rate and blood pressure. Comparisons between propranolol-treated and untreated monkeys revealed no effects of beta-blockade on social dominance, aggressiveness, or active aspects of affiliation (e.g., grooming). The fact that few behavioral differences were found between conditions in this investigation indicates to us that such effects as were observed may owe as much to chance as to the action of the drug. Overall, these findings suggest that chronic beta-adrenergic blockade has minimal effects on the most prominent features of macaque monkey social behavior, especially those behavioral factors (aggressiveness and competitiveness) associated with risk for coronary disease in this species and in human beings.
Aggression↗
Social support reduces cardiovascular reactivity to psychological challenge: a laboratory model.
In this study we investigated the effects of nonevaluative social interaction on the cardiovascular response to psychological challenge. Thirty-nine college-age females appeared accompanied ("Friend" condition) or unaccompanied ("Alone" condition) to an experimental laboratory. In the Friend condition, partners were present while the subject participated in two laboratory tasks, and the partners' evaluation potential was minimized by design. Subjects in the Friend condition showed reduced heart rate reactivity to both tasks, relative to the Alone group, an attenuated task-related systolic blood pressure response to one of the tasks, and a reduced diastolic blood pressure increase during a solitary interview. In two other instances, partner-related response reductions were apparent only for Type A subjects. None of these effects was accompanied by differences in task performance or self-reported emotional response. Interpersonal support may reduce cardiovascular responsivity to stress, an effect with possible implications for understanding the association between social relationships and cardiovascular risk.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
The effects of fat and cholesterol on social behavior in monkeys.
We report here on the social behavior of 30 adult male cynomolgus monkeys, maintained in social groups of five animals each and assigned for 22 months to one of two dietary conditions: a) "luxury"--relatively high fat, high cholesterol (43% calories from fat, 0.34 mg cholesterol/Calorie of diet); or b) "prudent"--relatively low fat, low cholesterol (30% calories from fat, 0.05 mg cholesterol/Calorie of diet). The dietary manipulation resulted in higher total serum cholesterol (TSC) and lower high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC) concentrations in luxury diet animals than in their prudent diet counterparts (p's less than 0.05). Additionally, we monitored the occurrence of 21 behavioral acts frequently exhibited by this species in captivity. Of these behaviors, only contact aggression differed between dietary conditions (p less than 0.03), with prudent diet monkeys initiating more aggression than luxury diet animals. These results are consistent with studies linking relatively low serum cholesterol concentrations to violent or antisocial behavior in psychiatric and criminal populations and could be relevant to understanding the significant increase in violence-related mortality observed among people assigned to cholesterol-lowering treatment in clinical trials.
Aggression↗
Does cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress have prognostic value in postinfarction patients? A pilot study.
The possible relationship between mental stress-induced cardiovascular reactivity and clinical prognosis was examined in a pilot study of 13 postinfarction patients. All patients had previously participated in the placebo condition of a secondary intervention trial. On completion of the trial, blood pressure, heart rate, and venous plasma catecholamines were evaluated at rest and in response to a modified Stroop test on two occasions. At follow-up 39 to 64 months later, five patients had suffered a new clinical event (reinfarction and/or stroke). These patients had shown significantly larger systolic and diastolic blood pressure responses to the Stroop test than had patients who remained event-free at follow-up. Catecholamine concentrations also differed between groups during mental stress, but on only one of the two test days. Groups did not differ on baseline measurements, cardiovascular response to exercise testing, fasting serum lipid and glucose concentrations, age, or duration of follow-up.
Blood Pressure↗
Lymphocyte subset and cellular immune responses to a brief experimental stressor.
To evaluate effects of acute mental stress on aspects of cellular immunity, lymphocyte populations and phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated T-cell mitogenesis were measured in 33 healthy young men, both before and immediately following subjects' performance of a frustrating, 21-minute laboratory task (Stroop test). Relative to baseline evaluations, post-task measurements showed a significant reduction in mitogenesis and alterations in various circulating lymphocyte populations; the latter included a diminished T-helper/T-suppressor cell ratio and an elevation in the number of natural killer cells. Eleven subjects assigned to a control (unstressed) condition exhibited no changes in lymphocyte populations, but did show an increase in T-cell proliferation, compared with pretask measurements.
Adult↗
Opioidergic inhibition of circulatory and endocrine stress responses in cynomolgus monkeys: a preliminary study.
Twenty-five female cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) were exposed to psychological stress (threat of capture) after blockade of endogenous opioids with naloxone and after saline control injections. Heart rates were monitored continuously and blood samples were obtained for determination of plasma levels of cortisol and beta-endorphin-like immunoreactivity. Results indicate that the stress manipulation resulted in increased heart rates as well as plasma cortisol levels in monkeys pretreated with saline. Blockade of opioid receptors with naloxone potentiated the stress-induced rise in plasma cortisol and stimulated release of beta-endorphin-like immunoreactivity. The drug effect on heart rate reactivity was significantly correlated with the drug effects on both cortisol and beta-endorphin. When saline-treated monkeys were divided into high and low heart rate reactivity groups, the effects of naloxone on heart rate, cortisol, and beta-endorphin-like immunoreactivity responsiveness were significantly greater in low heart rate reactors. These data suggest that monkeys with low heart rate responses to stress have an effective opioidergic inhibition of circulatory and pituitary-adrenocortical reactivity. Monkeys showing excessive heart rate reactivity during psychological stress have a less active opioidergic inhibitory mechanism. The potential pathophysiological consequences of impaired opioidergic inhibition are discussed in light of the relationship between exaggerated stress reactivity and atherosclerotic lesion formation.
Animals↗
Blood platelet responsivity to acute mental stress.
To evaluate the effects of mental stress on blood platelet activity, platelet secretion and aggregation were measured in 40 healthy young men, assigned in a 3:1 ratio to an experimental and control condition. After a baseline period, experimental subjects participated in a 21-minute, frustrating computer task (the Stroop test), while control subjects remained seated quietly for the same duration. Blood was drawn from all subjects immediately before and after the task period for assessment of platelet activity (secretion of ATP and aggregation in response to 5 and 20 microM ADP). Heart rate and blood pressure were also assessed at baseline and throughout the task period. Results indicated that measures of platelet secretion, heart rate, and blood pressure rose significantly from baseline to posttask assessments in subjects exposed to the experimental stressor (p < .05), but not among controls. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that stress may potentiate coronary disease pathogenesis, in part, via activation of blood platelets and their associated effects on coronary artery occlusion and/or constriction.
Adenosine Triphosphate↗
Cardiovascular reactivity and the course of immune response to an acute psychological stressor.
This study evaluated the temporal nature of cellular immune responses, as well as the effects of cardiovascular reactivity on immune responses after exposure to an acute psychological stressor. Lymphocyte subsets and lymphocyte proliferative response to phytohemagglutinin were assessed at baseline and at 5 and 21 minutes after stressor onset in the experimental group and at the same time points in a nonstressor control group. By 5 minutes after stressor onset, the number of CD8 suppressor/cytotoxic T and CD16/56 natural killer cells increased and proliferative response to phytohemagglutinin decreased. These changes were maintained at 21 minutes. Those subjects showing the greatest cardiovascular reactivity had the largest immune alterations. These data did not indicate that gender significantly moderated immune responses. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that sympathetic activation mediates stressor-induced quantitative alterations of peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations and nonspecific mitogen stimulated proliferation.
Adolescent↗