The dynamics of cardiac defense: from attention to action.
The attentional and motivational significance of cardiac defense is examined in two studies. In Study 1, cardiac defense was evoked by an intense acoustic stimulus in the context of either a visual search or a memory search task using letters as stimuli. Results showed a potentiation of the long latency acceleration of cardiac defense in the visual search task. In Study 2, participants performed the same visual search task using pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures as stimuli. Results showed a further potentiation of the long latency acceleration of cardiac defense when the visual search task was performed with unpleasant, compared to pleasant or neutral pictures. These results indicate that cardiac defense has both attentional and motivational contributions, where the attentional significance is related to increased sensory processing, whereas the motivational significance is associated with preparation for active defense.
Ramírez
Isabel
I
Department of Personality, Spanish National Open University, Madrid, Spain. iramirez@psi.uned.es
Guerra
Pedro
P
Muñoz
Miguel Angel
MA
Perakakis
Pandelis
P
Anllo-Vento
Lourdes
L
Vila
Jaime
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult