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Concordance of cardiac reactivity among monozygotic and dizygotic male twins: A preliminary repot
D. Pupakostopoulos,
ed. / Psychophysiology
Socie~
ahsrracfs
211
the first control one month later; three of them had suppressed their smoking abruptly. In these cases, relevant EEG abnormalities were evident in the conventional tracings, while the recordings were borderline or normal in the subjects who had complied with the protocol requirements about withdrawal. In the 6 subjects whose withdrawal could be monitored, systematic changes were not detected in the quantitative EEG pattern (power spectral analysis), with the exception of significant modifications in the right to left ratios of the signal amplitude. A second control was possible one month later only in two of the subjects who had given up smoking suddenly. The conventional and quantitative EEG changes observed at the first control during withdrawal were still present. The latency of the late components of the evoked responses to flash was increased during withdrawal in 4 subjects and was unchanged in one case; one subject refused the procedure. The Contingent Negative Variation was not found to change systematically. The results are incomplete but some inference is possible as to the existence of a tardive withdrawal syndrome during abstinence from tobacco smoking. The appearance of EEG abnormalities has possible relevance in the EEG routine.
CONCORDANCE OF CARDIAC REACTIVITY AMONG MONOZYGOTIC AND DIZYGOTIC MALE TWINS: A PRELIMINARY REPOT J. Rick TURNER, Department
Douglas
of Psychology,
CARROLL,
Bwmingham
Krystyna
A. LAST
Department
of Genetics, Birmingham
John K. HEWITT
University, Birmingham,
Uniuersity, Birmingham,
and Jane SIMS
UK.
U.K.
The present study represents a preliminary attempt to explore the origins of individual variations in cardiac reactivity. Current interest in cardiac activity, particularly during active coping tasks, owes much to data which indicate that the offspring of hypertensive parents show greater reactivity in such contexts than the offspring of normotensive parents. Given the observed stability of individual differences in cardiac activity, as well as the acknowledged intrafamilial concordance in hypertension, a genetic component might well be involved in reactivity during active coping (Light, 1981). Twenty-five pairs of monozygotic and twenty-five pairs of dizygotic male twins participated. The twins attended in pairs, but were tested individually.
212
D. Pupakostopoulos,
ed. / Ps)chophy.uolo~~ Societ.v obstructs
The task, which seemed to satisfy the requirements of an active coping task, was a game of the ‘space invaders’ genre. Heart rate was monitored continuously both before and during task performance, and cardiac reactivity for each subject was computed as the difference between heart rate during the task and that recorded prior to task performance. Preliminary. correlational analysis indicated that while cardiac reactivity was poorly correlated for the dizygotic twins, a highly significant correlation was obtained for the monozygotic twins. We intend to test eighty twin pairs in all, forty of each variety. With this larger sample it will be possible to fit biometrical genetic models to the data. thus permitting a more precise examination of genetic contribution.
Reference Light, K.C. (1981). Cardiovascular response to effortful active coping: Implications stress in hypertension development. Psychophysiology, 18, 216-225.
THE EFFECTS OF TWO MODES LEARNING ON ERPs C.J. VERDUIN, Institute for Perception
and A.W.K.
OF STIMULUS
for the role of
PROCESSING
AND
GAILLARD
TNO, Soesterberg,
The Netherlands
S. MANTYSALO Institute
of Occupational Health, Helsinki,
Finland
ERPs of twelve subjects were obtained in a location, an oddball and in a memory comparison task. In the latter two tasks the subjects had to make a two-choice response (press a button) on the stimuli along the integral distinction of the stimuli. In the location task a two-choice response was made along the distinction of the location of the stimuli (left/right ear). The stimuli were nine spoken consonant-vowel (CV)-syllables. The subjects were tested in four separate sessions. In each task there was only one target stimulus which remained the same for the 4 sessions. Reading and a simple RT task were used as a control. It is expected that the processing of the stimuli and performance would be more automatic along the location distinction than along the integral distinction of the stimuli; and that the processing of the nontargets would be more controlled than that of the target stimulus. It is also proposed that the processing of the stimuli could become more automatic by learning.
ed. / Psychophysiology
Socie~
ahsrracfs
211
the first control one month later; three of them had suppressed their smoking abruptly. In these cases, relevant EEG abnormalities were evident in the conventional tracings, while the recordings were borderline or normal in the subjects who had complied with the protocol requirements about withdrawal. In the 6 subjects whose withdrawal could be monitored, systematic changes were not detected in the quantitative EEG pattern (power spectral analysis), with the exception of significant modifications in the right to left ratios of the signal amplitude. A second control was possible one month later only in two of the subjects who had given up smoking suddenly. The conventional and quantitative EEG changes observed at the first control during withdrawal were still present. The latency of the late components of the evoked responses to flash was increased during withdrawal in 4 subjects and was unchanged in one case; one subject refused the procedure. The Contingent Negative Variation was not found to change systematically. The results are incomplete but some inference is possible as to the existence of a tardive withdrawal syndrome during abstinence from tobacco smoking. The appearance of EEG abnormalities has possible relevance in the EEG routine.
CONCORDANCE OF CARDIAC REACTIVITY AMONG MONOZYGOTIC AND DIZYGOTIC MALE TWINS: A PRELIMINARY REPOT J. Rick TURNER, Department
Douglas
of Psychology,
CARROLL,
Bwmingham
Krystyna
A. LAST
Department
of Genetics, Birmingham
John K. HEWITT
University, Birmingham,
Uniuersity, Birmingham,
and Jane SIMS
UK.
U.K.
The present study represents a preliminary attempt to explore the origins of individual variations in cardiac reactivity. Current interest in cardiac activity, particularly during active coping tasks, owes much to data which indicate that the offspring of hypertensive parents show greater reactivity in such contexts than the offspring of normotensive parents. Given the observed stability of individual differences in cardiac activity, as well as the acknowledged intrafamilial concordance in hypertension, a genetic component might well be involved in reactivity during active coping (Light, 1981). Twenty-five pairs of monozygotic and twenty-five pairs of dizygotic male twins participated. The twins attended in pairs, but were tested individually.
212
D. Pupakostopoulos,
ed. / Ps)chophy.uolo~~ Societ.v obstructs
The task, which seemed to satisfy the requirements of an active coping task, was a game of the ‘space invaders’ genre. Heart rate was monitored continuously both before and during task performance, and cardiac reactivity for each subject was computed as the difference between heart rate during the task and that recorded prior to task performance. Preliminary. correlational analysis indicated that while cardiac reactivity was poorly correlated for the dizygotic twins, a highly significant correlation was obtained for the monozygotic twins. We intend to test eighty twin pairs in all, forty of each variety. With this larger sample it will be possible to fit biometrical genetic models to the data. thus permitting a more precise examination of genetic contribution.
Reference Light, K.C. (1981). Cardiovascular response to effortful active coping: Implications stress in hypertension development. Psychophysiology, 18, 216-225.
THE EFFECTS OF TWO MODES LEARNING ON ERPs C.J. VERDUIN, Institute for Perception
and A.W.K.
OF STIMULUS
for the role of
PROCESSING
AND
GAILLARD
TNO, Soesterberg,
The Netherlands
S. MANTYSALO Institute
of Occupational Health, Helsinki,
Finland
ERPs of twelve subjects were obtained in a location, an oddball and in a memory comparison task. In the latter two tasks the subjects had to make a two-choice response (press a button) on the stimuli along the integral distinction of the stimuli. In the location task a two-choice response was made along the distinction of the location of the stimuli (left/right ear). The stimuli were nine spoken consonant-vowel (CV)-syllables. The subjects were tested in four separate sessions. In each task there was only one target stimulus which remained the same for the 4 sessions. Reading and a simple RT task were used as a control. It is expected that the processing of the stimuli and performance would be more automatic along the location distinction than along the integral distinction of the stimuli; and that the processing of the nontargets would be more controlled than that of the target stimulus. It is also proposed that the processing of the stimuli could become more automatic by learning.