Motor preparation aspects of cardiovascular reactivity to psychological challenge

Program running versus problem solving: Mental task effect on tonic heart rate

“…This effect, however, can perhaps be better explained in terms of behavioral uncertainty (lack of certainty as to the outcome of behavior) than in terms of cognitive load (cf. Brener, 1987;Obrist et al, 1978;Sherwood, Allen, Murrell, & Obrist, 1988). For example, tonic HR increase diminishes with performance of a series of tasks even if their difficulty remains unchanged (Light & Obrist, 1983;Sosnowski, Nurzynska, & Polec, 1991).…”

“…In particular, it has been shown that cardiac output increase during reaction‐time tasks occurs via the simultaneous increase of heart rate and stroke volume, whereas increased heart rate during the solving of arithmetic tasks is accompanied by decreased stroke volume (cf. Allen & Crowell, 1989; Allen, Obrist, Sherwood, & Crowell, 1987; Sherwood et al, 1986, 1988). The results of these studies and other research (Langer et al, 1985; Obrist et al, 1978) suggest also that heart rate increase during a reaction task is primarily beta‐adrenergically mediated, whereas heart rate increase during mental arithmetic is also at least partially the result of vagal withdrawal (cf.…”

Effects of physical provocations on heart rate reactivity and reactive aggression in children

“…We presume that children defended themselves after they had evaluated the retaliation options against prior knowledge of likely outcomes, given the intensity of the provocation as well as the physical and social status of the opponent [Berkowitz, 2000;Crick and Dodge, 1994;Lazarus, 1991]. Therefore, the variation in mean HR reactivity may be conceived to represent the net effect of the affective, cognitive, and motor processes involved in the expression of reactive aggression that (n)either escalate the conflict (n)or be deemed inappropriate by others [Bettencourt and Miller, 1996;Hare, 1972a,b;Hare et al, 1970;Lacey, 1967;Lang et al, 1993;Sherwood et al, 1988;Suomi, 2001;Yuille and Hare, 1980;Youniss, 1980]. 4 While the inter-individual variation in the length of the task conditions and the number of R-R intervals does not permit the exact derivation of the component processes within our mean HR data, the statistically generated profile of Strong HR Increase may characterise children who found the provocations emotionally challenging, but who at the same time controlled their behaviour through cognitive processing of the provocation cues.…”

“…A more sustained contemplation of both stimulus and response cues in order to determine the optimal level of reaction intensity should, in turn, evoke a mean/ phasic increase of HR [e.g., Bongard et al, 1997;Yuille and Hare, 1980]. The execution of (motor) reactions may induce an additional increase of HR [Sherwood et al, 1988].…”