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THE EVOKED HEART RATE RESPONSE: THE INFLUENCE OF AUDITORY STIMULUS REPETITION, PATTERN REVERSAL, AND AUTONOMIC AROUSAL LEVEL
Author(s) -
Meyers William J.,
Gullickson Gary R.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1967.tb02737.x
Subject(s) - habituation , psychology , stimulus (psychology) , skin conductance , arousal , audiology , heart rate , orienting response , developmental psychology , neuroscience , medicine , blood pressure , cognitive psychology , biomedical engineering
A brief two‐component auditory stimulus was repeatedly presented at 10‐sec intervals to 48 college students. Analysis of the pattern of sec‐by‐sec changes in heart rate (HR) revealed that the only reliable response to the first stimulus was HR deceleration. During the remainder of the first 20 trials, an acceleration was the predominant response in the HR curves. When the stimulus pattern was reversed on trial 21 to study “dishabituation,” only a HR deceleration was again observed. A significant habituation effect appeared across trials employing an index based upon the difference between peak and trough values. Further analysis revealed that the two response components reflected in the peak and trough values of this index showed different rates of response decrement. The acceleratory component showed a rapid initial decrement and remained stable on subsequent trials, whereas the deceleratory component diminished more gradually. Level of autonomic arousal, as measured by skin conductance level, was unrelated to HR habituation.