John J Sollers

North Carolina Central University | NCCU · Department of Psychology

Negative stress due to human handling has been reported for a number of domestic animals, including dogs. Many companion dogs display significant stress during routine care in the veterinary clinic, risking injury to staff and potentially compromising the quality of care that these dogs receive. On the other hand, positive interactions with humans...

Objective We evaluated the effects of menstrual types inclusive of PMS on reports of chronic pain intensity and psychopathology in twenty-eight women (mean age 38.93 ± 13.51) with Sickle Cell disease (SCD). Methods Using the Menstrual Symptoms Questionnaire, we compared women with PMS to those with less distressing spasmodic cycle types. Results...

This paper presents a brief historical look at education for young African American men from the post-Civil War era to the present. It explores reasons why education for this group has become a less favorable aspiration than when education became available to them. Changing role models are strong factors that negatively influence school participati...

Children and adolescents with long-term physical conditions are at increased risk of psychological problems, particularly anxiety and depression, and they have limited access to evidence-based treatment for these issues. Biofeedback interventions may be useful for treating symptoms of both psychological and physical conditions. A systematic review...

This research investigated depression in relation to SCD patients who feared movement.

This research investigated the effects of time spent in religious practices on percieved stress in patients with Sickle Cell Disease.

Objectives Laughter has long been regarded as beneficial for health, but the mechanisms are not clearly understood. The current study aimed to compare the acute cardiovascular effects of spontaneous and simulated laughter. Design A mixed factorial experiment was performed to examine changes in cardiovascular variables in response to experimental t...

Objective: Black Americans (BAs) are at an elevated risk for morbidity and mortality in comparison to White Americans (WAs). Racial stressors are a common occurrence in American culture and is theorized to contribute to these disparities. When race-focused, stereotype threat (ST) is considered to be a factor that is detrimental to health in BAs; ho...

Background: Craving among smokers is increased by stress and exposure to smoking-related visual cues. However, few experimental studies have tested both elicitors concurrently and considered how exposures may interact to influence craving. Objective: The current study examined craving in response to stress and visual cue exposure, separately and...

Vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) is a measure of cardiac vagal tone, and is widely viewed as a physiological index of the capacity to regulate emotions. However, studies have not directly tested whether vmHRV is associated with the ability to facially express emotions. In extending prior work, the current report tested links between...

Rationale Piperazine-based designer drugs such as benzylpiperazine (BZP) and trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP) have been marketed and sold as legal alternatives to dexamphetamine and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) until 2008 in New Zealand. When administered in combination, BZP + TFMPP have been reported to produce drug-drug synergi...

Patients with high cervical complete spinal cord injuries (tetraplegia) sustain damage to the autonomic neural pathways that influence cardiovascular functioning and produce variability in the heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP). In non-injured individuals, an inverse relationship exists between resting autonomic control of the heart (as eviden...

The study explored the relationship between time- and frequency-domain indices of cardiac autonomic control and 24 h blood pressure variability (BPV) in a sample of healthy men and women. Vagally mediated cardiac control was inversely related to 24 h BPV, and measures of cardiac autonomic control were better predictors of systolic BPV in men and be...

Chronically elevated total peripheral resistance (TPR) is a suspected contributor to the greater rates of hypertension in African Americans. Previous research suggests that over 50% of the variability in measures of vascular resistance may be attributable to genetic effects and genetic effects may play an even greater role in variability of TPR in...

Rationale: Exercise has been shown to attenuate cigarette cravings during temporary smoking abstinence; however, the mechanisms of action are not clearly understood. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to compare the effects of three exercise intensities on desire to smoke and explore potential neurobiological mediators of desire to smo...

Objective: The hypothesis that muscular states are related to emotions has been supported predominantly by research on facial expressions. However, body posture also may be important to the initiation and modulation of emotions. This experiment aimed to investigate whether an upright seated posture could influence affective and cardiovascular resp...

Background: Ethnic disparities in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality are widely documented in the literature. Recently, research has shown that decreased parasympathetic cardiac modulation is associated with the established and emerging risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke. In consideration of the disproportionate CVD risk...

There is a burgeoning interest in, and evidence of, quality of life and burnout issues among doctors. It was hypothesized that the junior doctors in this study would experience psychosocial and physiological changes over time, and that the obtained measures would indicate psychosocial and physiological anomalies. In addition, it was hypothesized th...

It is important for robot designers to know how to make robots that interact effectively with humans. One key dimension is robot appearance and in particular how humanlike the robot should be. Uncanny Valley theory suggests that robots look uncanny when their appearance approaches, but is not absolutely, human. An underlying mechanism may be that a...

Objectives: The current study investigates heart rate variability (HRV) responses to a psychosocial stressor in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, and the potential role of anxiety as a confounding factor in this relationship. Additionally, this study also investigates the influence of anxiety on sleep and depressive symptoms a...

Efficient functioning of the peripheral vasculature is an essential component in healthy cardiovascular regulation. Alterations in this functioning have been linked to the etiology and pathophysiological course of cardiovascular disease (CVD), especially hypertension. Given its significant role in the maintenance of both healthy and pathological bl...

Although mindfulness has been generally linked to superior emotional functioning, several areas remain unclear. In extending prior work, the current report evaluated the link between trait mindfulness and physiological patterns of recovery from negative emotion and . investigated possible associations between trait mindfulness and emotion different...

This study compared expert yoga practitioners (n = 18) with a metabolically matched group (n = 17) and a group with comparatively higher cardiovascular fitness (n = 19) to investigate autonomic effects of yoga compared with physical exercise. Mean interbeat interval (in milliseconds) and heart rate variability were recorded in response to physical...

Poster

The widely-observed behavior of holding losing stocks longer than winning ones, is known as the disposition effect. This failure to realise paper losses is a major cause of eventual loss in investing. There is increasing evidence that financial choices, particularly those where there is threat of loss, such as the disposition effect, could be relat...

Cardiac Output (CO) is an important hemodynamic index of blood flow from and to the heart. Numerous estimation methods have been developed and validated for obtaining CO in clinical applications; however, the invasive nature of these may preclude their utility in less controlled settings. Additionally, several of the available non-invasive applicat...

While frank obesity is associated with reduced HRV, indicative of poorer autonomic nervous system (ANS) function, the association between body mass index (BMI) and HRV is less clear. We hypothesized that effects of adiposity on ANS are mostly mediated by visceral fat and less by subcutaneous fat; therefore, centrally distributed adipose tissue, tha...

The widely-observed behavior of holding losing stocks longer than winning ones, is known as the disposition effect. This failure to realise paper losses is a major cause of eventual loss in investing. There is increasing evidence that financial choices, particularly those where there is threat of loss, such as the disposition effect, could be relat...

Persons with elevated blood pressure (BP) show dampened emotional responses to affect-laden stimuli. We sought to further examine cardiovascular-emotional dampening by examination of the relationship between resting hemodynamic measures and recognition of emotion in an African American community-based sample. Participants were 106 African American...

Fatigue is a notable clinical problem in cancer survivors, and understanding its pathophysiology is important. This study evaluated relationships between fatigue and both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity in breast cancer survivors. Norepinephrine and heart rate variability (HRV) were evaluated at rest, as well as during and a...

Electrophysiology, behavioral, and neuroimaging studies have revealed sex-related differences in autonomic cardiac control, as reflected in measurements of heart rate variability (HRV). Imaging studies indicate that the neurobiological correlates of autonomic nervous system (ANS) function can be investigated by measuring indices of HRV during the p...

Research indicates that major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with alterations in autonomic control, particularly cardiac control as measured by heart rate variability (HRV). In this preliminary study, we investigated the neural correlates of autonomic control by measuring both HRV and associated brain activity during the performance of mil...

The aim of the present manuscript is to present a user-friendly and flexible platform for transforming Kubios HRV output files to an .xls-file format, used by MS Excel. The program utilizes either native or bundled Java and is platform-independent and mobile. This means that it can run without being installed on a computer. It also has an option of...

AIMS: In this study we investigated the effects of the physical work environment on two physiological measures of the stress response. METHODS AND RESULTS: Circadian variations in vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV) and the morning rise in cortisol were evaluated in 60 participants working in a government building either in a traditi...

In this study we investigated the effects of the physical work environment on two physiological measures of the stress response. Circadian variations in vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV) and the morning rise in cortisol were evaluated in 60 participants working in a government building either in a traditional (individual offices and old...

Poster

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulates vital organs by countering changes in the internal or external environment of the body. The ANS is controlled by the brain stem and hypothalamus. During emotional distress, influences from the limbic system and cerebral cortex affect the activity of the hypothalamus and brain stem, causing the ANS to ind...

Conceptualizations of parasympathetic and sympathetic activity of the autonomic nervous system as representing a bi-dimensional autonomic space have driven recent discussions surrounding the degree of respective and interactive influence of each branch on visceral organs (e.g. heart). An important consideration of autonomic influences on cardiac fu...

There is a strong relationship between suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and depression. Rates of successful suicides are relatively high among the chronically ill compared to other populations but are reduced with treatment. Depression and suicide rates also often differ among blacks as compared to other populations. Using survey methods, we ev...

Several blood pressure indexes of autonomic dysregulation, including stress-induced blood pressure responses (i.e., reactivity), have been associated previously with stroke, silent cerebrovascular disease, and decreased cognitive function. The authors examined the cross-sectional relations among systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pre...

The ability to produce appropriate physiological and psychological responses to stressful situations depends on accurate recognition and appraisal of such situations. Such ability is also important for proper emotion regulation. A number of studies have suggested that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a significant role in emotion regulatio...

Identifying brain systems that regulate or modulate autonomic nervous system functions may identify pathways through which psychosocial factors can influence health and disease. Reduced high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) characterizes anxiety disordered patients and is predictive of adverse myocardial events. Sex differences in the prev...

The Neurovisceral Integration Model is based on the premise of significant central nervous system–peripheral nervous system interactions. In support of this model we have previously shown that the prefrontal cortex tonically inhibits cardioacceleratory circuits as evidenced by increased heart rate (HR) when the prefrontal cortex is inactivated by i...

Coping is recognized as an increasingly important consideration in the management of chronic disease. Prayer, hostility and John Henryism appeared to be the most frequently discussed but least understood coping strategies associated with health outcomes in African Americans. The current study evaluated if prayer, hostility and John Henryism (JH) pr...

There is considerable controversy with regards to which index of heart rate variability (HRV) is the most reliable across multiple situations. Recent evidence from Pentilla and colleagues (2001) suggests that certain indices of HRV appear to be less affected by fluctuations in respiration, and may thus be a more robust indicator of parasympathetic...

The current study examined the effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on neuropsychological test performance. Forty-six patients completed brief neuropsychological and psychological testing before and after receiving ECT for the treatment of recalcitrant and severe depression. Neuropsychological testing consisted of the Levin Selective Remindin...

Autoregressive and fast Fourier transform spectral analyses of high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) result in exponentially-distributed values that make standard parametric statistical analyses problematic. In this paper, we evaluate three transforms of raw HF-HRV spectral power. Two occur commonly in the literature (a natural log [ln] tr...

Appropriate regulation of emotions is an important component of health. The physiological effects of coping with anger are a topic of particular interest. In a pioneering series of studies Hokanson found that the mode of anger expression following anger instigation had differential effects on vascular recovery. These differential effects were thoug...

Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis involves examining the normal rhythmic fluctuations in heart rate using statistical indices (e.g. standard deviation, root mean square of the successive differences) or more complex spectral analytic techniques. Recently, Balocchi et al (2006) found that the ratio of the standard deviation of the r-r interval (...

Aging is associated with increases of sympathetic nervous system activation implicated in the onset of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the practice of Tai Chi Chih (TCC), a movement-based relaxation practice, would acutely promote decreases of sympathetic activity in elderly persons. The sam...

This study evaluated cardiovascular responses (CVR) to an active speech task with blatantly discriminatory (BRC) versus neutral (NRC) stimuli and an anger recall task in a sample of Black men (N = 73; age 18 to 47). Diastolic blood pressure scores were higher for NRC versus BRC stimuli during anger recall (p = .05). Moreover, persons in the NRC gro...

Alcoholism and heavy drinking are associated with a number of physiological, behavioral, affective, and cognitive problems. One such problem involves dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, with alcoholics showing higher basal cortisol levels and reduced inhibitory feedback control. In addition, alcohol consumption is associ...

Reduced arterial compliance has been implicated as a risk factor for future cardiovascular events in hypertensive patients. Recently, several non-invasive techniques have been used to access arterial compliance. However, comparisons of these techniques with older individuals and African-Americans have not been done. In the present study, beat-to-be...

Recent evidence indicates that poor autonomic regulation, indexed by decreased heart period variability (HPV), is associated with decreased working memory. HPV analyses are computed on the interbeat interval time series derived from the electrocardiogram (EKG). Unfortunately, the duration of the data collection and the issue of the size of ambulato...

In the present paper we describe a model of neurovisceral integration in which a set of neural structures involved in cognitive, affective, and autonomic regulation are related to heart rate variability (HRV) and cognitive performance. We will provide pharmacological and neuroimaging data in support of the neural structures linking the central nerv...

Typically, blood pressure variability has been calculated by taking the simple mathematical standard deviations of a collection of discrete blood pressure (BP) measurements. Recently, spectral analytic techniques have been employed to examine beat-to-beat blood pressure variability and the underlying autonomic adjustments associated with the perfor...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between physical fitness, heart rate variability (HRV) and cognitive function in 37 male sailors from the Royal Norwegian Navy. All subjects participated in an 8-week training program, after which the subjects completed the initial cognitive testing (pretest). The subjects were assign...

This study investigated the relation of dispositional hostility to cardiovascular reactivity during an anger-recall task and of hostility and distraction to posttask recovery in 80 healthy women (ages 18-30). Half were randomly assigned to distraction during recovery. Hostility predicted slower systolic blood pressure and preejection period during...