Emotional Dampening in Persons with Elevated Blood Pressure: Affect Dysregulation and Risk for Hypertension

McCubbin, James A.; Loveless, James P.; Graham, Jack G.; Hall, Gabrielle; Bart, Ryan M.; Moore, DeWayne; Merritt, Marcellus M.; Lane, Richard D.; Thayer, Julian F.

doi:10.1007/s12160-013-9526-2

Cited by 34 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Though seemingly counterintuitive, the current findings follow the long-standing association between BP and sensitivity to physical pain (Bruehl & Chung, 2004) and recognition of emotional stimuli (McCubbin et al, 2014; Pury et al, 2004). The former specifically suggests that higher, rather than lower, BP may have functional significance for both physical and social pain (Dworkin, 1988; Dworkin et al, 1979).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

“…Thus, higher resting blood pressure has been related to reduced valence and arousal ratings of both negative and positive images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; Pury, McCubbin, Helfer, Galloway, & McMullen, 2004). Similar findings were observed in a separate study examining blood pressure and intensity ratings of stimuli with emotional content (sentences and facial expressions; McCubbin et al, 2014). To the extent that social pain from perceiving threats to one’s social value from others is similar to emotional experiences from witnessing emotional content, then this work may further suggest a potential negative relationship between resting blood pressure and sensitivity to social pain.…”

supporting

confidence: 83%

“…We note, however, that these are neither exhaustive explanatory pathways nor are they mutually exclusive as candidate mechanisms potentially linking systemic blood pressure and social pain. For example, an additional possibility is that features of blood pressure control and sensitivity to social pain could be related because of convergent processes mediated by brain circuits that are jointly involved in the processing of affective information and visceral control (e.g., anterior cingulate cortex, insula; cf., McCubbin et al, 2014). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on this literature and colloquial understanding of the link between aversive (distressing) stimuli and cardiovascular function, one hypothesis is that higher resting blood pressure will be associated with greater sensitivity to social pain. However, if similar biological factors influence physical and social pain, a competing hypothesis based on the literature linking higher blood pressure to lower sensitivity to physical pain and emotional responding more generally (e.g., Dworkin et al, 1994; McCubbin et al, 2014), suggests that higher resting blood pressure will be associated with lower (i.e., blunted) sensitivity to social pain.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Taking rejection to heart: Associations between blood pressure and sensitivity to social pain

Inagaki

Jennings

Eisenberger

et al. 2018

Biological Psychology

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A reliable finding from the physical pain literature is that individuals with higher resting (i.e., tonic) blood pressure experience relatively less pain in response to nociceptive stimuli. Converging lines of evidence suggest that biological factors that influence the experience of physical pain may also relate to social pain. An open question, however, is whether higher blood pressure per se is a biological factor associated with lower sensitivity to social pain. This possible association was tested in three studies. Consistent with prior findings on physical pain, higher resting blood pressure was associated with lower self-reported sensitivity to social pain across individuals (Study 1 r = −.303, Study 2 r = −.262, −.246), even after adjusting for confounding factors related to blood pressure (Study 3 r = −.222). Findings suggest a previously unknown biological correlate of sensitivity to social pain, providing further evidence for possible shared substrates for physical and social pain.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

supporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Taking rejection to heart: Associations between blood pressure and sensitivity to social pain

Inagaki

Jennings

Eisenberger

et al. 2018

Biological Psychology

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“…Several recent studies have shown that elevated resting BP is related to a more general dampening of emotional response to a variety of aversive stimuli. For example, resting BP has significant correlations with emotional responses to evocative photographic scenes (Pury, McCubbin, Helfer, Galloway, & McMullen, ) and perception of emotions in facial expressions and written narratives (McCubbin et al, ). This BP‐associated emotional dampening may be one mechanism by which resting BP is associated with subjective reports of pain.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Resting blood pressure differentially predicts time course in a tonic pain experiment

et al. 2016

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Resting blood pressure (BP) shows a negative relationship with pain sensitivity (BP-related hypoalgesia). In chronic pain conditions, this relationship is inverted. The precise mechanisms responsible for the inversion are unknown. Using a tonic pain protocol, we report findings closely resembling this inversion in healthy participants. Resting BP and state measures of anxiety and mood were assessed from 33 participants (21 female). Participants then immersed their dominant hand in painfully hot water (47 °C) for five trials of 1-min duration, with 30-s intertrial intervals. Throughout the trials, participants continually registered their pain. After a 35-min intermission, the trial sequence was repeated. A disassociation of the negative relationship of resting systolic BP (as per Trial 1) was found using hierarchical linear modeling (p < .001, R(2) = .07). The disassociation unfolds over each consecutive trial, with an increasingly positive relationship. In Sequence 2, the initially negative relationship is almost completely absent. Furthermore, the association of BP and pain was found to be moderated by anxiety, such that only persons with low anxiety exhibited BP hypoalgesia. Our findings expand the existing literature by incorporating anxiety as a moderator of BP hypoalgesia. Furthermore, the protocol emulates the changing relationship between BP and pain observed in chronic pain patients. The protocol has potential as a model for chronic pain; however, future research should determine if similar physiological systems are involved. The finding holds potential diagnostic or prognostic relevance for certain clinical pain conditions, especially those involving dysfunction of the descending modulation of pain.

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Assessing emotional processing difficulties in normotensive individuals with high and isolated blood pressure elevations

2017

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This study examined the effect of sense modality (auditory/visual) on emotional dampening (reduced responsiveness to emotions with elevation in blood pressure). Fifty-six normotensive participants were assessed on tasks requiring labelling and matching of emotions in faces and voices. Based on median split of systolic and diastolic blood pressures (SBP and DBP, respectively), participants were divided into low BP, high BP and isolated BP groups. On emotion-labelling tasks, analysis revealed reduced emotion recognition in the high BP than the low BP group. On emotion-matching tasks, reduced emotion recognition was noted in high and also isolated BP group as compared to low BP group for the task that required matching a visual target with one of the four auditory distractors. Our findings show for the first time that even isolated elevations in either SBP or DBP may result in emotional dampening. Furthermore, the study highlights that the emotional dampening effect generalises to explicit processing (labelling) of emotional information in both faces and voices-and that these effects tentatively occur during more pragmatic and covert (matching) emotion recognition processes too. These findings require replication in clinical hypertensives.

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Emotional Dampening in Persons with Elevated Blood Pressure: Affect Dysregulation and Risk for Hypertension

Abstract: Cardiovascular emotional dampening is independent of alexithymia and affect in men. Dampened emotion recognition could potentially influence interpersonal communication and psychosocial distress, thereby further contributing to BP dysregulation and increased cardiovascular risk.

Cited by 34 publications

References 40 publications

Taking rejection to heart: Associations between blood pressure and sensitivity to social pain

Taking rejection to heart: Associations between blood pressure and sensitivity to social pain

Resting blood pressure differentially predicts time course in a tonic pain experiment

Assessing emotional processing difficulties in normotensive individuals with high and isolated blood pressure elevations

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