Establishing the relationship between shifting spatial attention and sympathetic nervous system activity

Abstract

This novel study describes the correlations between the frequency of shifting spatial attentions and activations in the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). In the past, it has been established that an increased activity in the SNS increases pupil dilation, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. The hypothesis was that decreasing frequencies of shifting spatial attentions would lead to a decreased but positive change in heart rate, a decreased but positive change in blood pressure, and decreased pupillary dilations. In this study, subjects were told to look at one color on a transverse arrangement of colors as directed by the experimenter. Throughout the different trials, the frequency of the color attention switches increased while the blood pressure, heart rate, and eye movements were monitored. Afterwards, results showed that frequency of spatial attention shifts and relative activity of the sympathetic nervous system are inversely related. It was seen that a decrease in the frequency of shifting spatial attentions increased the change in heart rate, had no effect on the change of blood pressure, and increased pupillary dilations across the participants in the study.