Physiological foundations of behaviour

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Physiological foundations of behaviour

     

Cardiovascular reactivity to psychological stress in aerobically trained versus untrained mild hypertensives and normotensives

Cardiovascular reactivity to video game and mental arithmetic stressors was compared among three groups of men: aerobically trained mild hypertensives, untrained mild hypertensives, and a comparison group of untrained normotensives. Relative to the untrained hypertensives, the trained hypertensives reacted to the video game with marginally smaller systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, but there were no significant differences between these groups in reactivity during the mental arithmetic task. Comparisons between each hypertensive group and the normotensive group showed that blood pressure (BP) reactivity of normotensives during the video game was generally similar to that of trained hypertensives but smaller than that of untrained hypertensives. These results indicate that aerobic training, which has been found to reduce resting BP in mild hypertensives, may also exert a favorable impact in reducing cardiovascular reactivity of hypertensives during some stressful situations.     

Adaptation to displacing prisms in human infants.

This research reports a first attempt to study adaptation to laterally displacing prisms in human infants of ages six to ten months. Twenty infants were tested over four days under conditions similar to those used in adult adaptation studies. Evidence was found of vigorous adaptation when infants were exposed to base-right prisms under conditions of active exposure. Detailed consideration is given to the conditions and methods of studying adaptation in infants and implications for adult studies.