Modification in Autonomically Mediated Physiological Responses to Cold Pressor by Cognitive Activity: An Extension

Abstract

The SNS response decrement obtained by Mefferd and Wieland (1965) when a congitive task was imposed during a painful stimulus was reproduced with 15 Ss under conditions involving minimal motor activity. The results support the conclusion that cognitive activity/»er se was the major determinant of the decrement.After a decrease caused by alerting the S for the first passage no further significant changes in BSR occurred. The mean GSR (sum of transient decreases in resistance adjusted to a per minute basis) increased from .99 kilohms during the baseline period to 3.78 kilohms during the passage alone (two-tailed t test, p < 0.01) and to 6.60 kilohms during the cold pressor. Immediately after the passage was imposed on the cold pressor the GSR decreased, and the mean for the period was 4.00 kilohms-a significant decrease from the cold pressor period (p < 0.01, two-tailed t test). These results are the same as those obtained in our earlier study. They support the conclusion that the key determinant of the response decrement was not the motor activity of work association, and demonstrate that the results can be generalized to a larger population.

Physiological Responses to Mild Heteromodal Sensory Stimulation

“…We first noted in a longitudinal experiment (Mefferd & Wieland, 1965) and confirmed in a cross sectional study (Sadler, Wieland, Mefferd, Benton, & McDaniel, 1967) that when a cognitive task was superimposed at the height of the pain in an ongoing cold pressor exposure, the autonomic activity did not increase as expected. This suggested that although the signals had widely different sources and, supposedly, were processed in different parts of the CNS, the input signals interacted in the CNS so as to reduce or limit the signal fiow to the ANS.…”

Assessing Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in the Laboratory

“…A common method of assessing pain tolerance or experiences during the administration of pain is the Cold Pressor Test (CPT; Sadler, Welland, Mefferd, et al, 1967; Lovallo, 1975; Stam, Petrusic & Spanos, 1981). In the CPT, the participant immerses one (or both) arms in an ice bath, typically maintained at 1–4 degrees Celsius.…”