Cardiovascular Differentiation of Sensory Stimuli

Abstract

Replication was achieved of previous demonstrations that sensory stimuli involving continuous environmental input decelerate heart rate even in the presence of increased sympathetic tonus as measured by skin resistance. Systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure were not found to change, indicating that the bradycardia was not induced by baroreceptor effects. On the other hand, noxious stimuli and a conceptual task resulted in heart rate acceleration, increased systolic blood pressure, peripheral vasoconstriction, and decreased skin resistance. This evidence is taken to be consistent with a conceptual scheme which considers cardiovascular activity as instrumental in enhancing, or rejecting, environmental inputs.