Open AccessThe Influence of Neuroticism on the Muscle Response in the Trapezius and Frontalis Muscles to Anticipatory Stress
Author(s) -
Florestan Wagenblast,
Robert Seibt,
Thomas Läubli,
Markus Rieger,
Benjamin Steinhilber
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.443
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 2151-2124
pISSN - 0269-8803
DOI - 10.1027/0269-8803/a000289
Subject(s) - neuroticism , electromyography , anticipation (artificial intelligence) , psychology , personality , trapezius muscle , physical medicine and rehabilitation , audiology , medicine , social psychology , psychiatry , artificial intelligence , computer science
. Objective quantification of mental stress in the workplace would be beneficial for designing work tasks to avoid the negative consequences of mental stress. Methods such as surface electromyography have proven to be sensitive to mental demands. However, there is little knowledge about the muscle response and moderating factors during anticipatory stress paradigms. This study examined whether the personality dimension neuroticism moderates the muscle response to the expectation of an unpredictable electrical shock. Forty-seven subjects underwent three expectation phases, in which they could expect a pleasant audio signal (NoShock) or an electric shock in two conditions (anticipation of the first: Shock1, and second electric shock: Shock2) at an unpredictable moment. The frontalis muscle activity and the upper and upper/middle parts of the trapezius muscle were recorded using surface electromyography. Neuroticism was surveyed using the Big Five Inventory to assign the subjects to a group with lower or higher neuroticism. Shock1 only induced higher trapezius muscle activity in the higher neuroticism group, which vanished during Shock2, while the frontalis muscle showed no significant effects. The results suggest that neuroticism should be considered a moderating factor in assessing anticipatory stress using surface electromyography at the trapezius muscle.