title: Heart rate responsivity to a high intensity auditory stimulus: a comparison of male alcoholics and normal controls.
abstract: Previous research has demonstrated the presence of two heart rate acceleration responses to high intensity auditory stimuli. Both responses, the short latency acceleration peaking at 3-4 beats poststimulus and the long latency acceleration peaking at approximately 30-35 sec poststimulus, have been related to defensive responding to aversive stimuli and thus were employed to examine a stress-related hypothesis of alcoholism. A group of male alcoholics (n = 15) and a group of male controls (m = 15) received a 100 dB tone while heart rate was recorded. While both groups exhibited equal amplitudes on the short latency component, alcoholics exhibited a slower initial response time and relative to normal controls, failed to exhibit a secondary acceleration response. The results are discussed with respect to previous findings of hypo-responsivity observed in alcoholics.
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology*; D001143:Arousal / Q000187:drug effects*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects