ISSN:
1469-8986
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Medicine
,
Psychology
Notes:
Autonomic and somatic concomitants of simple reaction time performance were examined in normal and brain-damaged patients. The reaction time task involved a warning stimulus preceding the execution stimulus by a variable foreperiod. The normal Ss displayed the expected relationships between performance and physiological activity, such that fast reaction times were associated with greater HR deceleration, larger electrodermal response magnitudes, and less EMG activity during the preparatory foreperiod of the task. BD Ss, however, generally displayed either no relationships between autonomic or somatic activity and reaction time or a relationship opposite to that seen in normals, namely, that slower reaction times were associated with larger autonomic responses to the warning stimulus. The results were discussed in terms of two possible mechanisms which may be operative in the BD Ss: (1) that their autonomic responsivity becomes “dissociated” from changes in the external environment, and (2) that such “dissociated” activity may represent or reflect an active source of interference with the S's ability to attend to or to efficiently execute the task.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1972.tb00753.x
