Spontaneous Autonomic Activity, Anxiety, and “Hyperkinetic Impulsivity”

In a psychophysiologic study of the relationships between spontaneous resting cardiac and sudomotor activity, visual-motor performance, and ratings of “emotional” and “behavioral impulsivity,” attempts to reproduce correlations originally reported by Lacey and Lacey1 were partially successful. Cardiac “labiles” tended to exhibit superior visual-motor performance. Sudomotor lability was not predictive of visual-motor performance, although skin resistance level was. No relationships were found between clinical impulsivity and visual-motor performance or physiology. Succeeding subjects exhibited progressive change in autonomic responsiveness and visual-motor performance. This subject order effect was presumed to reflect systematic diminution in test-induced anxiety. It was concluded that the relationships between cardiac lability and visual-motor performance were a function of individual differences in response to test stress.