The Cardiac‐somatic Relationship: Some Reformulations

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to propose a scheme as to how the activities of the heart might be viewed in psychophysiological endeavors and theory. It is proposed that a necessary starting point is the metabolically relevant relationship between cardiac and somatic processes. This relationship is relevant to both an understanding of basic behavioral processes as well as psychopathological states of cardiac functioning. For these purposes, a strategy is outlined which, among other things, involves the evaluation of the influence of the cardiac innervations. Here it is proposed that heart rate most unequivocally reflects vagal activity, while the contractile properties of the heart manifest most unequivocally sympathetic effects. The implications of these arguments are discussed with regard to current studies involving the operant modification of heart rate. It is suggested that the significance of current operant to both issues of learning theory and psychopathology of cardiac function is questionable.