Individual Differences in Behaviorally Evoked Cardiovascular Response: Temporal Stability and Hemodynamic Patterning

Abstract

This study evaluates the reproducibility of individual differences in behaviorally evoked cardiovascular reactivity among 39 young adult males. Presented also are initial data describing idiosyncratic patterns of hemodynamic adjustment that may underlie pressor responses to laboratory stressors. Subjects were administered three experimental stressors (mental arithmetic, mirror tracing, and bicycle exercise) on two occasions, four weeks apart. Heart rate, blood pressure, and impedance-derived measurements of cardiac pre-ejection period, stroke index, cardiac index, and total peripheral resistance were obtained during baseline and task periods at each session. To index task-induced "reactivity," residualized (baseline-adjusted) change scores were calculated for all variables; percentage change from baseline was also calculated for impedance-derived hemodynamic measurements. Test-retest (inter-session) correlations were significant for nearly all baseline, task, and change-score measurements. The few exceptions included diastolic blood pressure changes during mirror tracing and bicycle exercise and changes in stroke index and peripheral resistance during mental arithmetic. Although virtually all baseline and task correlations exceeded .60, reactivity indices yielded consistently lower retest correlations (significant r's = .35-.78; median r = .49). In subsequent analyses, subsets of individuals were identified whose reactions to mental arithmetic at the first laboratory session reflected changes in either cardiac output (CI reactors, n = 9) or total peripheral resistance (TPR reactors, n = 6), or a combination of cardiac and vascular influences (Mixed reactors, n = 8). This typology of hemodynamic response: (a) was corroborated by corresponding group differences in heart rate, pre-ejection period, and stroke index; (b) was reproducible on retesting; and (c) showed some generalization to the mirror tracing task, though not to bicycle exercise.

Type D personality and hemodynamic reactivity to laboratory stress in women

“…Given that hemodynamic variables are particularly sensitive to task type, the fact that Type D personality predicted CO reactivity in a different way across the two studies might be related to qualitative differences in the two stressors. Mental arithmetic typically elicits a myocardial response profile, where changes in blood pressure are due to increased beta-receptor activation (Kasprowicz et al, 1990;Sherwood and Turner, 1993;Lawler et al, 1995). While the response profile for serial subtraction is not as established, previous work by Girdler, Turner, Sherwood, and Light (1990) showed that serial subtraction and mental arithmetic produced markedly different This study extended previous investigation of CVR in Type D individuals by examining specific response profiles.…”

“…This pattern of change in both variables appears consistent with an adaptive homeostatic response to stress. As CO increases in response to stress, the pressure placed on the vasculature is offset by an accompanying decrease in TPR, thereby limiting the risk of shear-stress damage in the cardiovascular system as a whole (cf., Obrist, 1981;Eliot et al, 1982;Kasprowicz et al, 1990). However, in the Type D group, no such homeostatic relationship can be seen in that increases in CO are accompanied by small increases in TPR, which may indicate a maladaptive "mixed" response to stress (Kasprowicz et al, 1990).…”

“…The dynamic relationship between CO and TPR, or hemodynamic profile, may be further characterized as myocardial (changes in CO exceed proportional changes in TPR) or vascular (changes in TPR exceed proportional changes in CO). There is evidence that certain characteristics of hemodynamic profile indicate potentially harmful disruption of the inherent homeostasis between CO and TPR (Obrist, 1981;Eliot et al, 1982;Kasprowicz et al, 1990). Thus, examination of the physiological determinants of blood pressure, and in particular, hemodynamic profile (i.e., relative change in CO and TPR), may help to clarify whether Type D personality influences physiological reactivity to stress, which in turn could have long-term consequences for physical health.…”

Vascular profile, delayed recovery, inflammatory process, and ambulatory blood pressure: Laboratory-to-life generalizability

“…The trial was over when the subject returned to the starting point, followed by the placement of a new pattern and a new trial. The mirror task was included in the assessment as a standardized nonphysical stressor, eliciting a vascular response (Kasprowicz et al, 1990).…”

Love Styles and Cardiovascular Responder Types

“…Firstly, cardiovascular responder types were measured and determined as reactivities to a social speech task. Because cardiovascular reactivities have been shown to be retained for more than ten years (Sherwood, et al, 1997) and across tasks (Kasprowicz, et al, 1990;Sherwood, Dolan, et al, 1990), the reactivities to an arbitrary task, as far as it induces large reactivity, such as a speech task, can be used to determine or directly reflect cardiovascular responder types. To classify possible responder types we measured five cardiovascular variables, that is: heart rate; systolic and diastolic blood pressure; pre-ejection period; and baroreflex sensitivity.…”