title: Airways, respiration, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia during picture viewing.
abstract: Emotional stimuli can cause airway constriction; however, it is uncertain whether a dimensional or categorical model of emotion can better describe airway changes. Also, little is known about the affective modulation of respiration and vagal activity, which can influence airway tone. We studied changes in oscillatory resistance (Ros), respiration, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in asthmatics and controls during viewing of affective pictures eliciting anxiety, depression, disgust, happiness, contentment, erotic tension, or neutral affect. Ros, respiration, cardiac activity, and self-report were measured during picture presentations. Ros increased monotonically with picture unpleasantness mainly due to disgust pictures. RSA and respiratory timing parameters were particularly sensitive to erotic pictures. Differences between asthmatics and controls were minimal, suggesting that airway responses to unpleasant pictures are not specific to asthma.
authors.affiliation: Psychological Institute III, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany. thomas.ritz@uni-hamburg.de
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ritz
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thöns
authors.forename: Saskia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fahrenkrug
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dahme
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000403:Airway Resistance / Q000502:physiology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D001146:Arrhythmia, Sinus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001249:Asthma / Q000503:physiopathology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008176:Lung Volume Measurements; D008297:Male; D009991:Oscillometry; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D012123:Pulmonary Ventilation / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D013223:Statistics as Topic