Cardiovascular Responses to Threat: Effects of the Difficulty and Availability of a Cognitive Avoidant Task

Measures of heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were taken during an interval immediately preceding a period in which male subjects were to perform an easy or difficult memory task to avoid a noxious noise, or simply wait to receive the noise. As predicted, anticipatory elevations in SBP and HR were relatively higher in the difficult avoidance condition than in the easy and impossible avoidance conditions. In contrast, anticipatory DBP change-scores decreased linearly from easy to difficult to impossible avoidance conditions. Results are discussed in terms of a recent motivational theory suggesting that energy mobilization in the face of threat should be a function of what can, will, and must be done to cope.