Cardiovascular Psychophysiology: A Perspective

240 Pages·1981·4.283 MB·English

by  Paul A. Obrist (auth.)

Cardiovascular
Psychophysiology
A Perspective
Cardiovascular
Psychophysiology
A Perspective
Paul A. Qbrist
University of North Carolina
Owpel Hill, North Carolina
Plenum Press . New York and London
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Obrist, Paul A
Cardiovascular psychophysiology.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Psychology, Physiological. 2. Cardiovascular system -Diseases-Psychosomati c
aspects. I. Title.
QP360.027 616.1'08 80-28582
ISBN- 13: 978-1-4684-8493-9 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-8491-5
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4684-8491-5
© 1981 Plenum Press, New York
Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1981
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
233 Spring Street, New York, N.Y. 10013
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher
Preface
It was my original intention to write a reasonably advanced psycho
physiology text that would go beyond cardiovascular activity. This I
believed would require a collaborative effort since my expertise outside
of cardiovascular psychophysiology is too limited. After some initial
limited efforts to organize such a venture, it became apparent that a
text of this nature was not feasible. Thus, the effort was dropped. I did,
however, receive encouragement to write the present monograph,
which is more a personalized document than a text. As will become
apparent, this monograph relies heavily on research from my laboratory
and details the manner in which our conceptualizations of the issues
have developed. At first, I believed such an effort premature since such
a personalized document was something one composes upon retire
ment. However, I was persuaded by some individuals (who shall re
main anonymous, just in case they end up regretting their actions) to
undertake the present effort.
There are several people, who have rendered assistance in the
preparation of this monograph, for whose efforts I am extremely grate
ful. Extensive editorial assistance and encouragement were provided
by Kathleen C. Light and Alberto Grignolo. Also assisting editorially
were Ellen Z. Curtin, Allison Cahill, and Carolyn Williams. I wish also
to thank my long-time secretary, Virginia Hodson, and Jenny Adams,
for their typing assistance.
There are six people to whom I would like to dedicate this book.
First are my wife, Eleanor, and our four children, Lynne, Philip, Bar
bara, and Kathleen. They tolerated me well over the years this mono
graph covers, and without their support and affection it is unlikely that
this effort would have come to fruition. I would also like to dedicate
v
vi Preface
this work to the memory of Abe Black. Abe's untimely death came as I
finished the first draft. He was a trusted and loved colleague who was
always supportive of my efforts.
Paul A. Obrist
Chapel Hill, N. C.
Contents
Chapter 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2
Some Elements of Cardiovascular and Renal Physiology . . . . . . . .. 11
1. Introduction........................................... 11
II. The Innervations and Catecholamines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 12
III. The Exercise Response-Mechanisms of a Fundamental
Cardiovascular Adjustment ............................. 18
A. General Commentary .............................. 18
B. The Cardiac Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 21
1. The Heart Rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 21
2. The Stroke Volume. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 23
3. Cardiac Contractility ........................... 27
4. Summary...................................... 30
C. Regional Blood Flow ............................... 30
IV. Some Aspects of Blood Pressure Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 32
A. Diastolic Blood Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 34
B. Systolic Blood Pressure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 36
C. The Role of the Cardiac Output ..................... 37
D. Summary of Blood Pressure Control ................. 38
V. Renal Physiology-A Brief Overview .................... 39
VI. Summary ............................................. 43
vii
viii Contents
Chapter 3
The Cardiac-Somatic Relationship ............................ 47
I. Introduction........................................... 47
II. Paradoxical Heart Rate Changes ......................... 49
III. Classical Conditioning-The Behavioral Strategy. . . . . . . . .. 50
IV. The Role of the Innervations ............................ 54
V. Cardiac-Somatic Covariation ........................... 58
A. Initial Studies with Dogs ........................... 58
B. Human Studies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 61
VI. Commentary.......................................... 73
A. The Cardiac-Somatic Hypothesis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 73
B. Other Psychophysiological Data. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. 77
VII. Summary ............................................. 80
Chapter 4
Cardiac-Somatic Uncoupling ................................. 83
I. Introduction........................................... 83
II. Phasic Sympathetic Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 84
III. Tonic Sympathetic Effects and Active Coping . . . . . . . . . . . .. 89
IV. Other Stimulus Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 96
V. Individual Differences and Base Level Effects ............. 99
VI. ,a-Adrenergic Reactivity-Metabolic Relevance ........... 109
VII. Summary ............................................. 117
Chapter 5
Hypertension-The Symptom and a Hemodynamic Model ....... 119
I. Introduction ........................................... 119
II. Blood Pressure-The Symptom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 119
III. Blood Pressure Control in Hypertension .................. 125
A. Hemodynamics in Borderline Hypertension .......... 125
B. ,a-Adrenergic Influences in Borderline Hypertension .. 129
C. The Transition Mechanism ......................... 129
Contents ix
D. Blood Pressure as a Predictor and the Lability Problem 131
E. The Hemodynamic Model-Counterarguments ....... 135
IV. Summary ............................................. 139
Chapter 6
Hypertension-Behavioral Influences .......................... 141
I. Introduction ........................................... 141
II. f3-Adrenergic Influences on BP .......................... 141
A. Systolic Blood Pressure ............................. 141
B. Diastolic Blood Pressure Effects ..................... 143
C. Other Observations and Comments ................. 145
III. Behaviorally Evoked ,B-Adrenergic Hyperreactivity: A
Precursor of Hypertension? ............................. 147
A. Individual Differences, Base Level Effects, and
Relationship to Heart Rate Reactivity ................ 147
B. Family History Data ................................ 153
C. Another Issue and Some Observations ............... 161
D. Summary ......................................... 164
IV. Some Other Thoughts and Asides ....................... 165
A. Diastolic Blood Pressure and Vascular Reactivity ...... 165
B. Hypertension and the Kidney ....................... 167
C. On Individual Differences ........ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 173
D. "The" Cause of Hypertension ....................... 174
E. The Behavioral-Biological Strategy .................. 176
V. Summary ............................................. 177
A. Problems with the Symptomatic Approach in
Treatment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 178
B. Treatment-Prevention and the Mechanisms ......... 180
Chapter 7
Some Asides and Other Issues 183
I. On the Measurement of Myocardial Performance .......... 183
A. Rate of Change Measures ........................... 184
x Contents
B. Time Intervals ..................................... 187
C. T-Wave Amplitude ................................ 190
D. Discussion and Summary ........................... 193
II. Cardiovascular Indices of Behavioral States . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 194
A. Phasic Heart Rate .................................. 194
B. Tonic Heart Rate ................................... 197
C. Phasic and Tonic Blood Pressure .................... 199
D. Discussion and Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 200
III. Active-Passive Coping ................................. 201
A. Mobilization vs. Immobilization .................... 202
B. Some Reservations and Questions ................... 204
C. Summary ......................................... 207
IV. Cardiac-Somatic Formulation-Some Inconsistencies ..... 208
References .................................................. 211
Index ....................................................... 233
1
Introduction
In its brief history, cardiovascular psychophysiology has primarily ad
dressed two interrelated problems. One is whether cardiovascular
events constitute indices of behavioral states as correlates of such pro
cesses as emotion, motivation, attention, and learning. This approach
is most explicitly illustrated by Gantt (1960), who, in reviewing his own
research efforts, concludes, among other things: "Though the observed
actions of men hide their real thoughts and feelings, these are revealed
by the observation of their hearts" (p. 290). This in effect says that one
can objectify behavioral events or processes by the assessment of car
diovascular activity. A second-concern of cardiovascular psychophys
iology focuses on whether the organism's interactions with its
environment contribute to the etiology of pathophysiological processes
of the cardiovascular system. This is the problem commonly called
"psychosomatic" disease, a term that unfortunately perpetuates the
dualistic view of "psyche" (mind) and "soma" (body) as discrete enti
ties, with the mind capable of insidiously evoking pathophysiological
conditions. It is my belief that all aspects of our bodily functioning,
from overt acts of behavior to emotional experience to the division of a
single cell, are biological events and must be treated as such in our
inquiries. This is not to advocate reductionism as the only workable
strategy. In our own research, we deal basically with molar events, e.g.,
cardiac output, blood pressure, coping styles; our strategy is to syn
thesize these and other elements. A reductionism that ignores such
information cannot succeed: it doesn't know what to look for. Page
(1977), in a discussion of the etiology of hypertension and his mo
saic model (a multiple causal model), makes this point clearly. He states:
1