International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology
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The present experiment was a test of a new six-system model of anxiety, which includes physiological, behavioral, cognitive, affective, trait, and state components of anxiety and also differentiates between direct and mediated responses. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was used to screen 795 undergraduates at the University of Maryland. Of the 52 subjects chosen, half were high trait anxious and half low. ⋯ It was found that the most influential factor in resultant arousal was situational stress. Trait anxiety, state anxiety, and cognitive vs. affective sensitivity also significantly influenced both direct and mediated physiological and subjective anxiety responses. In addition, rather than leading to increased arousal, as hypothesized, the presence of trait and state anxiety reduced arousal under certain conditions.
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Int J Psychophysiol · Aug 1999
Clinical TrialAutonomic activity during task performance in adults with closed head injury.
Skin conductance (SC) and heart rate (HR) were recorded in two experiments in persons who had suffered a closed head injury (CHI) at least 2 years previously and in control subjects. Experiment 1 consisted of a rest period, a series of innocuous tones, and a short simple reaction time (RT) task. Experiment 2 consisted of initial and final rest periods and a longer RT task with constant and variable preparatory intervals. ⋯ SC responses to both innocuous tones and RT stimuli had longer latencies in the CHI group. The results show that selective deficits in tonic and phasic autonomic responding to meaningful, significant, or demanding situations and stimuli are long-term sequelae to CHI. These attenuated activation increases may be related to inadequate mobilization of processing resources and to behavioral deficits shown by these patients.
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Int J Psychophysiol · Jun 1998
Clinical TrialFacial and emotional reactions to Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles.
The purpose of the study was to investigate facial and emotional reactions while viewing two different types of smiles and the relation of emotional empathy to these reactions. Facial EMG was recorded from the orbicularis oculi and zygomaticus major muscle regions while subjects individually watched two blocks of stimuli. One block included posed facial expressions of the Duchenne smile (a felt smile) and a neutral face, the other block included expressions of another type of smile called non-Duchenne smile (an unfelt smile) and a neutral face. ⋯ Facial EMG reactions differentiated between the neutral face and the Duchenne smile but not between the neutral face and the non-Duchenne smile. The Duchenne smile block induced experience of pleasure for the subjects who saw it as the first stimulus block. Empathy was correlated to the rated experiences of pleasure and interest after the Duchenne smile block.
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Int J Psychophysiol · Sep 1997
Clinical TrialMenstrual cycle, blood pressure and ischemic pain sensitivity in women: a preliminary investigation.
Eleven women were tested twice for ischemic pain sensitivity; once during their follicular phase (Days 4-9) and once during their mid-late luteal phase (5-10 days after ovulation) of a confirmed ovulatory cycle. Additionally, in order to examine blood pressure-related hypoalgesic effects, each had 3-4 clinic blood pressures determined during an initial screening interview and each also completed a daily symptom calendar for one complete menstrual cycle prior to testing in order to investigate relationships between 'real life' symptomatology and laboratory-induced pain sensitivity. ⋯ Real-life physical symptom ratings were predictive of laboratory pain intensity ratings during the follicular phase and tended to predict unpleasantness ratings during both phases. These results not only confirm recent reports of greater sensitivity to ischemic pain in women during the luteal phase of their cycle, but extend the literature by demonstrating pressure-related hypoalgesic effects in women during both cycle phases.
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Int J Psychophysiol · Jun 1997
ReviewPhase correlation among rhythms present at different frequencies: spectral methods, application to microelectrode recordings from visual cortex and functional implications.
In classical EEG analysis rhythms with different frequencies occurring at separable regions and states of the brain are analysed. Rhythms in different frequency bands have often been assumed to be independent and their occurrence was interpreted as a sign of different functional operations. Independence has scarcely been proved because of conceptual and computational difficulties. ⋯ Our suggestions include: (1) visual feature linking across different temporal and spatial scales provided by coherent oscillations at high and low frequencies; (2) linking of visual cortical representations (high frequencies) to subcortical centers (low frequencies) like the thalamus and hippocampus; and (3) temporal segmentation of the sustained stream of incoming visual information into separate frames at different temporal resolutions in order to prevent perceptual smearing due to shifting retinal images. These proposals are, at present, merely speculative. However, they can, in principle, be proved by microelectrode recordings from trained behaving animals.