Respiratory sinus arrhythmia in response to fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant stimuli.
Author
Summary, in English
Heart period variability and heart rate were studied in 15 women and 15 men while they were viewing negatively (snakes/spiders), neutrally (scenic views), and positively (cats and kittens/puppies and dogs) valenced films. Time-frequency analyses of the heart period variability power spectrum in the high frequency region (0.12-0.4 Hz), reflecting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), were carried out during 5 minutes in each condition. The main finding showed that RSA-magnitude (high frequency power) was inversely related to emotional valence: lowest magnitudes were found in response to positive films, and highest magnitude to negative films. The findings were interpreted as reflecting motor or behavioral inhibition, and increased attention to negatively valenced, stimuli.
Department/s
- Department of Psychology
- Mathematical Statistics
- Statistical Signal Processing Group
Publishing year
2008
Language
English
Pages
123-131
Publication/Series
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
Volume
49
Issue
2
Links
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Topic
- Psychology
Status
Published
Research group
- Statistical Signal Processing Group
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1467-9450