Blood pressure reaction to negative stimuli: Insights from continuous recording and analysis

Figures

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  Figure 1. Experiment 1+2 design. The procedure for both experiments was similar except for the duration and the number of stimuli presented. The figure shows an example of a block depicting negative‐valenced pictures followed by a block depicting neutral pictures. Differences between the two experiments are indicated. Exp. 1:16 blocks containing either neutral or negative‐valenced pictures were presented in randomized order (8 blocks of neutral pictures and 8 blocks of negative‐valenced pictures). Each block contained a stimuli exposure period that lasted 60s, followed by 60 s of recovery. Each stimuli exposure period contained 10 pictures, either neutral or negative. Each trial during that period began with a fixation cross shown for 1 s, followed by a picture presented for 5 s. Exp. 2:12 blocks containing either neutral or negative pictures were presented in randomized order. Each block contained a stimuli exposure period that lasted 27.5 s, followed by 30 s of recovery. Each stimuli exposure period contained 5 neutral or negative‐valenced pictures. Each trial during that period began with a fixation cross shown for 0.5 s, followed by a picture presented for 5 s

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  Figure 2. Model visualizing BP and HR time course reaction in Experiment 1. A decrease in systolic BP (a), diastolic BP (b) and HR (c) was observed in response to negative‐valenced stimuli, followed by recovery. Red represents the reaction to neutral pictures and blue represents the reaction to negative‐valenced pictures averaged across blocks during the stimuli exposure (6–60 s; the first 5 s were excluded from analysis, see text for details) and the recovery periods (60–120 s). The green line represents time points with significant differences between conditions. Dotted blue lines mark the end of the stimuli exposure period (after 60 s). The gray areas are 95% confidence intervals. Baseline—defined as the averaged BP or HR during the 5 s before the beginning of each block—was subtracted from the BP or HR values during the stimulation and recovery periods. Note that the first BP/HR response measured during the block is not necessarily equal to the averaged BP/HR in the 5 s before block onset

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  Figure 3. Model visualizing BP time course reaction in Experiment 2. A decrease in systolic BP (a), diastolic BP (b) and HR (c) was observed in response to negative‐valenced stimuli, followed by recovery. Red represents the reaction to neutral pictures and blue represents the reaction to negative‐valenced pictures during the stimuli exposure (6–27.5 s; the first 5 s were excluded from analysis, see text for details) and recovery periods. The green line represents time points with significant differences between conditions. Dotted blue lines mark the end of the stimuli exposure period (after 27.5 s). The gray areas are 95% confidence intervals. Baseline—defined as the averaged BP or HR during the 5 s before the beginning of each block—was subtracted from the BP or HR values during the stimulation and recovery periods. Note that the first BP or HR response measured during the block is not necessarily equal to the averaged BP or HR in the 5 s before block onset