Key result
Viewing unpleasant pictures, mainly those eliciting disgust, increased oscillatory resistance similarly in both asthmatics and controls, while erotic pictures affected respiratory timing and RSA.
Why the study?
Does viewing affective pictures alter airway resistance, respiration, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia in asthmatics and controls?
Observational
Does viewing affective pictures alter airway resistance, respiration, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia in asthmatics and controls?
Emotional stimuli, particularly disgust and erotic pictures, modulate airway resistance and respiratory sinus arrhythmia similarly in both asthmatics and healthy controls.
Should not yet inform asthma assessment; hypothesis-generating for affective modulation of respiratory parameters.
Emotional stimuli can cause airway constriction; however, it is uncertain whether a dimensional or categorical model of emotion can better describe airway changes. Also, little is known about the affective modulation of respiration and vagal activity, which can influence airway tone. We studied changes in oscillatory resistance (Ros), respiration, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in asthmatics and controls during viewing of affective pictures eliciting anxiety, depression, disgust, happiness, contentment, erotic tension, or neutral affect. Ros, respiration, cardiac activity, and self-report were measured during picture presentations. Ros increased monotonically with picture unpleasantness mainly due to disgust pictures. RSA and respiratory timing parameters were particularly sensitive to erotic pictures. Differences between asthmatics and controls were minimal, suggesting that airway responses to unpleasant pictures are not specific to asthma.
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Ritz et al. (2005) conducted an observational in Asthma. Viewing affective pictures vs. Neutral affect pictures was evaluated on Changes in oscillatory resistance (Ros), respiration, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Viewing unpleasant pictures, mainly those eliciting disgust, increased oscillatory resistance similarly in both asthmatics and controls, while erotic pictures affected respiratory timing and RSA.
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