Premium
A refractory period for the heart rate response in infant visual attention
Author(s) -
Casey Betty Jo,
Richards John E.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.420240503
Subject(s) - stimulus (psychology) , refractory period , heart rate , psychology , audiology , medicine , developmental psychology , anesthesia , blood pressure , cognitive psychology
A refractory period for the heart rate (HR) response of 14‐, 20‐, and 26‐week‐old infants to second stimulus onset and primary stimulus offset during termination of visual attention was investigated. A stimulus that elicited a significant HR deceleration was presented. Following the return of HR to prestimulus level, a second stimulus occurred or the first stimulus ended at time delays of 0, 3, 6, and 9 s. If the second stimulus occurred at 0 or 3 s after HR returned to its prestimulus level, the HR response was smaller than the initial HR orienting response (OR). A usual HR OR resulted by waiting 6–9 s after the return of HR to prestimulus level. A significant offset response occurred only for the 6‐sec delay. Active inhibition of vagal cardiac activity during attention termination may cause the observed refractory period in the HR response, which appears to last from 3–6 s following sustained attention.