Cardiac defense responses to natural (human scream) and artificial (white noise) sounds at high and moderate intensities

Guerra, P., and Vila, J.
University of Granada

The concept of defense relates to the idea that organisms react physiologically to the presence of danger or threat in order to protect themselves from potential injury or death. Here we present data from two experiments assessing cardiac reactions to both high (95 dB) and moderate (85 dB) aversive stimuli (white noise/ human scream). Following a 10 minutes baseline, participants were presented with a burst of either white noise or a human scream for 2 seconds, followed by an inter-trial interval of 90 seconds. Heart rate was measured before, during and after stimulus presentation. Results yielded identical cardiac defense patterns at high intensities. Moreover, the habituation pattern for both stimuli was similar. However, the presentation of the human scream during the first block of trials was related to a better response recovery effect during the second block for the white noise.

Symposium 28: Cardiovascular psychophysiology
13.06.2009, 09:00-10:15
Seminarraum 10