Gary Berntson

The Ohio State University | OSU · Department of Psychology

This Committee Report provides methodological, interpretive, and reporting guidance for researchers who use measures of heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) in psychophysiological research. We provide brief summaries of best practices in measuring HR and HRV via electrocardiographic and photoplethysmographic signals in laboratory, field...

Traditional disciplines have frequently dealt with complex phenomena from a given level of analysis, be that molecular, cellular, organ system or organismic level. This can yield highly valuable information on biological and psychological processes. There is an explanatory value added, however, by an integrative multilevel approach, in which differ...

The present paper considers recent progress in our understanding of the afferent/ascending neural pathways and neural circuits of interoception. Of particular note is the extensive role of rostral neural systems, including cortical systems, in the recognition of internal body states, and the reciprocal role of efferent/descending systems in the reg...

The relationship between the autonomic nervous system and emotion has been a topic of intense debate and research throughout the history of psychology. The present article considers some of the more influential theoretical frameworks that continue to drive contemporary research on the relationship between emotion and psychophysiological processes.

Understanding psychosomatic relations, and their implications for heath, is importantly dependent on our conceptual and measurement models. The historical view of reciprocal control of the autonomic branches is applicable in some contexts, but not others. Control of the autonomic branches can vary reciprocally, independently, and even coactively. A...

Metrics of heart period variability are widely used in the behavioral and biomedical sciences, although somewhat confusingly labeled as heart rate variability (HRV). Despite their wide use, HRV metrics are usually analyzed and interpreted without reference to prevailing levels of cardiac chronotropic state (i.e., mean heart rate or mean heart perio...

Introduction: Stroke volume (SV) and cardiac output are important measures in the clinical evaluation of cardiac patients and are also frequently used in research applications. This study was aimed to improve SV scoring derived from spot-electrode based impedance cardiography (ICG) in a pediatric population of healthy volunteers and patients with...

The link between affective states and psychophysiological activity has been central to the study of behavior for well over a century. With his publication of The expression of the emotions in man and animals, Charles Darwin (1872) provided a foundation for over 140 years of research into the nature of emotions and their physiological and behavioral...

INTRODUCTION The cardiovascular system is essential for life and has been a central focus of psychophysiological investigation for several reasons. First, at least some of its parameters, like heart rate and blood pressure, are readily observed and quantified. Second, the cardiovascular system is a rich and intricate physiological system with multi...

The first Handbook of Psychophysiology was published more than four decades ago (Greenfield & Sternbach, 1972). Coverage in that Handbook emphasized the peripheral nervous system (PNS), an emphasis that many still identify with the term psychophysiology in accord with the history of psychophysiology. As is the case for physiological and other scien...

The Handbook of Psychophysiology has been the authoritative resource for more than a quarter of a century. Since the third edition was published a decade ago, the field of psychophysiological science has seen significant advances, both in traditional measures such as electroencephalography, event-related brain potentials, and cardiovascular assessm...

The precise relationship between the autonomic nervous system and emotion has been a topic of intense debate and research throughout the history of modern psychology. The present article considers some of the more influential theoretical frameworks that continue to drive contemporary research on the relationship between emotion and physiological pr...

A stimulation analysis was completed, by the use of roving stimulation electrodes, of an area in the cat hypothalamus where biting attack and threat behavior can be elicited. Results indicated that, while attack and threat have partially overlapping anatomical representations, there is considerable anatomical dissociation between these behaviors, e...

The relationship between adaptive behavior and cardiac indices of orienting, habituation, and associative learning were evaluated in a heterogeneous population of developmentally disabled infants and young children. Cardiac reactivity and habituation were examined through responses to simple nonsignal stimuli, and associative learning was evaluated...

This research was designed to investigate the relationship between sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses to the perception of social targets varying in social status. Participants varying in subjective financial status were presented with faces assigned with either a low, average, or high financial status. Electro...

This study examines the relationship between autonomic functioning and neuropathology following cardiac arrest (CA) in mice. Within 24 h of CA, parasympathetic cardiac control, as indexed by high frequency (HF) heart rate variability, rapidly decreases. By day 7 after CA, HF heart rate variability was inversely correlated with neuronal damage and m...

Begin forwarded message: Recent advances in neuroimaging have allowed researchers to begin to examine the neural substrates of social cognition and behavior. While this research is nascent, researchers have begun applying it toward understanding the areas of the brain associated with prejudice and stereotyping. While some reliable findings have imp...

The construct of reductionism has taken many forms, but a common feature is that higher level or otherwise complex systems can be understood in terms of (reduced to), the properties of the lower-level elements of which they are comprised. Reductionism as a philosophical doctrine could be considered in an abstract, meta-physical sense, apart from an...

Consciousness has been cast as epiphenomenal. We show that this conclusion is based on the analysis of consciousness in the context of the individual human brain. The premise of social neuroscience is that the study of the human brain is incomplete when treated as a solitary organ. When the brain is viewed within a social context — that is, within...

o h n T . C a c i o p p o , G a r y G . B e r n t s o n , C a t h e r i n e J . N o r r i s , a n d J a c k i e K . G o l l a n ABSTRACT The ability to differentiate hostile from hospitable stimuli is ubiquitous in animals. The evaluative space model (ESM) is a theory of the functional structure and operating characteristics of these evaluative pro...

Psychological research during the 20th century championed psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and the cognitive sciences-all of which emphasized individualism. This research focus mirrored Western society, which saw advocates of individualism, such as Ayn Rand, Richard Dawkins, and Milton Friedman, elevated to celebrity status. In this context, it is easy...

Evolution has sculpted the incredibly complex human nervous system, among the most complex functions of which extend beyond the individual to an intricate social structure. Although these functions are deterministic, those determinants are legion, heavily interacting and dependent on a specific evolutionary trajectory. That trajectory was directed...

Oxytocin (OT) is a nonapeptide neurohormone that is involved in a broad array of physiological and behavioral processes related to health including hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning, autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and social behaviors. The present study sought to explore the influence of genetic variation in the oxytoci...

Evaluative processes have their roots in early evolutionary history, as survival is dependent on an organism’s ability to identify and respond appropriately to positive, rewarding or otherwise salubrious stimuli as well as to negative, noxious, or injurious stimuli. Consequently, evaluative processes are ubiquitous in the animal kingdom and are rep...

Complex social behaviors allow various social organisms to create emergent organizations that extend beyond the individual. Social neuroscience is a burgeoning field that strives to understand the genetic, hormonal, and neural mechanisms responsible for these social structures and behaviors. Consequently, social neuroscience is highly interdiscipli...

Rutherford and Lindell (2011) review an extensive literature on lateralization of emotion. As they note, an important issue surrounding this question is the nature of emotion, which bears on what, precisely, is lateralized. The present comments are intended to broaden the context of the review, by considering lateralization from the standpoint of a...

Social species, by definition, form organizations that extend beyond the individual. These structures evolved hand in hand with behavioral, neural, hormonal, cellular, and genetic mechanisms to support them because the consequent social behaviors helped these organisms survive, reproduce, and care for offspring sufficiently long that they too repro...

Low socioeconomic status (SES) has been associated with higher levels of allostatic load (AL). Posited mechanisms for this association include stress, personality, psychosocial variables, coping, social networks, and health behaviors. This study examines whether these variables explain the SES-AL relationship in a population-based sample of 208 51-...

The insula has been implicated as a component of central networks subserving evaluative and affective processes. This study examined evaluative valence and arousal ratings in response to picture stimuli in patients with lesions of the insula and two contrast groups: a control-lesion group (the primary contrast group) and an amygdala-lesion group. P...

Social species create emergent organizations beyond the individual. These emergent structures evolved hand in hand with neural, hormonal, cellular, and genetic mechanisms to support them because the consequent social behaviors helped these organisms survive, reproduce, and care for offspring sufficiently long that they too reproduced. Social neuros...

The current study examined the role of perceived social isolation in moderating the effects of oxytocin on cardiac autonomic control in humans. Intranasal administration of 20 IU oxytocin resulted in a significant increase in autonomic (parasympathetic and sympathetic) cardiac control. Specifically, oxytocin increased high frequency heart rate vari...

Psychological factors, including depression and social isolation, are important determinants of cardiovascular health. The current study uses a well-validated mouse model of cardiac arrest/cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CA/CPR) to examine the effect of social environment on several pathophysiological and behavioral responses to cerebral ischemia. M...

The neuropeptide oxytocin has been implicated in a wide range of social processes, such as pair bonding, affiliation, and social judgments that may contribute to normal adjustment and psychiatric states. The present experimental study sought to elucidate potential underlying mechanisms by which oxytocin may impact social processes by examining the...

Advancements in the measurement of neural function have allowed for unprecedented growth in the multilevel measurement of neurobehavioral processes. Over the past two decades, it has become increasingly clear that a comprehensive understanding of human behavior must entail the measurement of psychological and neurophysiological processes across mul...

The structure of evaluative space shapes emotional life and must be capable of an astonishing range of emotional experience and expression. In this article, we outline the current status of research on the Evaluative Space Model (ESM; Cacioppo et al., 1997, 1999), which proposes that behavioral predispositions (e.g., approach, withdrawal) are the u...

Social neuroscience is the study of the associations between social and neural levels of organization and the biological mechanisms underlying these associations. Neuroscientists have tended to focus on single organisms, organs, cells, or intracellular processes. Social species create emergent organizations beyond the individual. These emergent str...

Social psychophysiology is characterized by the use of noninvasive procedures to study the relationships between actual or perceived physiological events and the verbal or behavioral effects of human interactions. The field represents the intersection of social psychology and psychophysiology. Social psychology, the older of the two spawning discip...

Social species, by definition, create emergent organizations beyond the individual that range in humans from dyads, families, and groups to cities, civilizations, and cultures. These emergent structures evolved hand-in-hand with neural, hormonal, and genetic mechanisms to support them because the consequent social behaviors helped these organisms s...

Outside of the tropics, environmental conditions fluctuate in a generally predictable manner across the year. Many small mammals have evolved mechanisms, such as seasonal breeding and annual adjustments in physiology, morphology, and behavior, that promote winter survival when food is scarce and thermoregulation is challenging. Photoperiod (day len...

The concept of autonomic balance views autonomic states along a bipolar continuum from sympathetic (S) to parasympathetic (P) dominance, whereas regulatory capacity models emphasize overall autonomic flexibility as a marker of the capacity for regulation. These two concepts were evaluated for their utility in characterizing patterns of autonomic co...

Previous research has demonstrated that nucleus basalis magnocellularis (nbm) corticopetal cholinergic neurons modulate anxiety-like states, but cortical modulation by these neurons during anxiety-like states has not been characterized. In order to address this, we documented the effect of nbm corticopetal cholinergic lesions on cortical activity i...

Previous studies have demonstrated that corticopetal cholinergic lesions applied to the nucleus basalis magnocellularis and substantia innominata (NBM/SI) attenuate operant suppression induced by aversive events. However, these lesions have no effect on open-arm behavior in the elevated plus-maze or changes in startle reactivity induced by bright l...

Spirituality has been suggested to be associated with positive health, but potential biological mediators have not been well characterized. The present study examined, in a population-based sample of middle-aged and older adults, the potential relationship between spirituality and patterns of cardiac autonomic control, which may have health signifi...

This chapter describes a collaborative interdisciplinary program to elucidate the links and underlying mechanisms of psychophysiological relations and their implications for health. This ranges from psychophysiological studies in humans to neural and physiological investigations in animals. Work on basic patterns of autonomic control has helped cla...

ABSTRACT During the past quarter century, advances in imaging technology have helped transform scientific fields. As important as the data made available by these new technologies have been, equally important have been the guides provided by existing theories and the converging evidence provided by other methodologies. The field of psychological sc...

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and learn to avoid it. Again, learning is guided by a universal psychological architec-ture and explained according to the adaptive challenges it has been designed to solve. If all humans have the same design of the mind, does that mean human behavior is genetically determined? Adaptations have a genetic basis. However, Hagen argues that because th...

A fundamental computation performed by humans is the differentiation between hostile and hospitable stimuli. Survival depends on the ability to perform this computa-tion and adapt one's behavior accordingly. Evaluative processes refer to the operations supporting the computa-tion, or set of computations, that are involved in the dif-ferentiation of...

IntroductionInferring the Psychological Significance of Physiological Signals: From Early Enthusiasm to Cautious OptimismTowards a Multi-level Analysis of Social PhenomenaHow Can Psychophysiology Contribute to Social Psychology?Conclusion

The contributions to this special issue illustrate the value of cognitive methods and theory in the study of affect. Together, this work makes a compelling case that it is time to move beyond the question of whether human affect and cognition represent completely independent constructs, and that there is much yet to be gleaned about affect from the...

Measures of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) have been widely applied in the physiological and psychophysiological literature as an index of vagal control of the heart. Despite an extensive literature, however, differences in interpretation remain within the field. A guiding conception for several contributions in this issue is the notion of sepa...

The amygdala has been implicated in emotional processes, although the precise nature of the emotional deficits following amygdala lesions remains to be fully elucidated. Cognitive disturbances in the perception, recognition or memory of emotional stimuli have been suggested by some, whereas others have proposed changes in emotional arousal. To addr...

The B point on the impedance cardiograph waveform corresponds to the opening of the aortic valve and is an important parameter for calculating systolic time intervals, stroke volume, and cardiac output. Identifying the location of the B point is sometimes problematic because the characteristic upstroke that serves as a marker of this point is not a...

The biologist Richard Lewontin (2000) characterized living organisms as electromechanical devices made up of articulated physical parts that, for purely thermodynamic reasons, eventually wear out and fail to function. Lithgow and Kirkwood (1996), in their review of research on the biology of aging, observed that it is "disadvantageous to increase m...

Loneliness is characterized by feelings of social pain and isolation and has both heritable and unshared environmental underpinnings. An evolutionary theory of loneliness is outlined, and four studies replicate and extend prior research on the characteristics of lonely individuals. Studies 1 and 2 indicate that loneliness and depressed affect are r...

Health psychology is the scientific study of psychological processes related to health and health care. Although the field is only 25 years old, it has burgeoned into a major scientific and clinical discipline. Health psychology has excellent scientific journals, thousands of scientists and practitioners, and many students. Yet, there has not been...

Previous research has suggested that cholinergic neurons in the nucleus basalis magnocellularis and substantia innominata (NBM/SI) may be important in mediating aversive states. The authors investigated the effect of NBM/SI cholinergic lesions, induced with 192 IgG saporin, on behavioral measures of aversive states in rats. Behavior in the elevated...

We examined the effects of brief psychological stressors on cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and cellular immune response in 22 older women to investigate the common effects of stress across systems. Results revealed that psychological stressors heightened cardiac sympathetic activation, elevated plasma catecholamine concentrations, and affected the...

Relative to watching in a natural manner, people asked to suppress or exaggerate their facial response to a negative emotional stimulus experience greater activation of the sympathetic nervous system but report a similar subjective emotional experience. The present research extends prior research on response modulation in two important ways. First,...

The reticular activating system consists mostly of ascending noradrenergic and cholinergic projections originating in the brainstem. These projections enter the cortex, thalamus and basal forebrain, and mediate increases in wakefulness and arousal. Contemporary hypotheses describe these systems as actively regulated afferent components of forebrain...

The autonomic nervous system has been viewed as a reflexive system for maintaining internal homeostasis. It is now clear, however, that the autonomic nervous system has reciprocal interactions with higher neurobehavioral substrates, influencing both autonomic control and cognitive/behavioral processes.

The impact of stress on age-related physiological capacities (i.e., resilience) is influenced not only by endowed genetic substrate, but also by individual differences, including the frequency of exposure to stress, the nature and intensity of psychological and physiological reactions to stress, and the efficacy of restorative processes that replen...

Comment on "Psychology Needs Realism not Instrumentalism" by B. Haig (see record 2004-14303-015), "Ontological and epistemic claims of realism and instrumentalism" by Lau (see record 2004-14303-016)and "The scientific denial of the real and the dialectic of scientism and humanism" by Ramey and Chrysikou (see record 2004-14303-017) which were all co...

Two functionally distinct natural killer (NK) subsets can be identified according to surface CD56 expression: CD56lo cells compose the majority of NK cells and function as cytotoxic cells, whereas CD56hi cells have an immunomodulatory function through the secretion of cytokines. These NK subsets also differ in the expression levels of adhesion mole...

The root mean square successive difference (RMSSD) in heart period series is a time domain measure of heart period variability. The RMSSD is sensitive to high-frequency heart period fluctuations in the respiratory frequency range and has been used as an index of vagal cardiac control. By transfer function simulations, the RMSSD statistic is shown t...

Understanding the behaviour of R-R interval data and its successive differences is critical to the dynamics of cardiac control. Several time domain measures that quantify R-R interval variability have important clinical significance in terms of risk stratification and evaluating the effectiveness of treatment procedures. The present approach at exa...

Among the major evolutionary advances in humans is the striking development of the human cerebral cortex, especially the frontal and temporal regions . The cerebral cortex is a mantle of between 2.6 to 16 billion neurons with each neuron receiving 10,000 to 100 ,000 synapses in their dendritic trees (e.g., Pakkenberg , 1966). The frontal and tempor...

Behrendt & Young's (B&Y's) theory offers a potentially important perspective on the neurobiology of schizophrenia, but it remains incomplete. In addition to bottom-up contributions, such as those associated with disturbances in sensory constraints on cognitive processes, a comprehensive model requires the integration of the consequences of abnormal...

Intraperitoneal epinephrine enhances the cerebral auditory evoked potential (AEP), an effect that is dependent on the basal forebrain cortical cholinergic system. The present study examined the hypothesis that ascending noradrenergic projections from brainstem autonomic substrates to the basal forebrain cholinergic system represent an essential com...

Scientific realism holds that scientific theories are approximations of universal truths about reality, whereas scientific instrumentalism posits that scientific theories are intellectual structures that provide adequate predictions of what is observed and useful frameworks for answering questions and solving problems in a given domain. These philo...