Relationship between Acute and Chronic Fear and the Gastric Acidity and Blood Sugar Levels in Macaca mulatta Monkeys

Abstract

J_ HIS paper reports an investigation that is primarily a systematic study of hydrochloric acid secretion during acute and chronic fear. It also attempted to study the relationship between changes in gastric acidity and in blood sugar levels. The need for such an experiment arises from a previous study of chronic fear and hydrochloric acid secretion in dogs, from considerations of the applicability of Cannon's emergency hypothesis to. chronic emotions and the psychosomatic disorders, and from considerations of the etiology of peptic ulcer.In a previous experiment (26) the gastric acidity and heart rate of dogs were measured during control conditions and during a modified conditioning procedure designed to produce chronic fear behavior. Considering the group of dogs as a whole, the experimental procedure resulted in chronic fear behavior and a significant increase in both the gastric acidity and the non-resting heart rate.Cannon s theory of the emergency function of emotions (10) states that during rage and fear physiological changes occur which in general are a result of discharge over the sympathetic-adrenal division of the autonomic nervous system and simultaneous inhibition of the parasympathetic division. The resulting pattern of autonomic changes is regarded as the normal autonomic effector pattern of fear or anxiety, rage, and anger in an acuteemergency situation.Although the emergency theory was originally based on studies of acute responses, this

News, Politics, and Negativity

“…to heightened heart rate, blood pressure and perspiration, and prepares the organism for either fighting or fleeing (Cannon 1932). 18 The evolutionary account is supported by a body of work finding evidence of a negativity bias in animals other than humans (e.g., Miller 1961;Garcia and Koelling 1966;Hodge and Stockin 1912;Warden and Aylesworth 1927;Mahl 1952;Brosnan et al 2007). It has been suggested as an explanation for negativity in news content by Shoemaker (1996), among the first to highlight a potential relationship between theories of evolution and accounts of media content.…”

Language in Psychotherapy

“…My concerns had evolved from the experimental production of increased gastric (HC1) acid secretion in dogs, monkeys, and humans via the instigation of chronic anxiety in the laboratory to a desire to study variations in HC1 secretion in humans during spontaneously occurring, "real life" fluctuations in anxiety (Mahl, 1949(Mahl, , 1950(Mahl, , 1952Mahl & Brody, 1954;Mahl & Karpe, 1953). The intensive psychotherapeutic interview promised to be a fruitful situation for such research.…”

Behavioral Medicine: Symbiosis between Laboratory and Clinic

“…Helplessness and defeat correlated with reduced tone and motility and induced diarrhea. A previous study of a man with an accident-induced fi stula into the stomach had shown that thoughts of food or aggressive attitudes increased stomach secretions and motor activities while disgust, repn:ssion, or fear reduced them (Wolf & Wolf 1947 (Cannon 1953), a series of experiments by Mahl on dogs and monkeys and observations on people showed that chronic fear increased acid secretion (Mahl 1949(Mahl , 1950(Mahl , 1952Mahl & Karpe 1953).…”