The cardiac responses of schizophrenics to orienting, signal and non-signal tones.
The cardiac responses of schizophrenics were examined under three conditions: (1) to repeated 75 dB, 1000 Hz (orienting) tones of no attentional significance; (2) to 75 dB, 1000 and 2000 HZ tones presented randomly and requiring a motor response to the 1000 HZ (signal) tone; (3) to 85 dB, 1000 HZ orienting tones. Responses of non-psychotic psychiatric patients were examined to the 75 dB tones. All patients were subdivided upon the basis of electrodermal responsivity during conditions (1) and (3), into groups of responders - no habituation of responses; non-responders - no responses; habituators - responses habituated to criterion. All groups exhibited a decelerative response with a latency of less than 1 sec. The groups were differentiated by the second component of the response to the orienting tones: responders - acceleration; habituators - deceleration; non-responders - predominantly no response. All exhibited accelerative responses to the signal tones. Parallels between cardiac and electrodermal responsivity are outlined.
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010897:Pitch Discrimination / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*