Gender-specific effects of trait anxiety on the cardiac defense response

Autor: Pilar Segarra, Alicia Fonfría, Carlos Ventura, Raúl López, Pablo Ribes, Rosario Poy, Àngels Esteller, Javier Moltó
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2016
Předmět:
Popis: This study examined the association between trait anxiety and the reactivity of the defensive motivational system, as indexed by the cardiac defense response (CDR) to an unexpected, intense noise, in a mixed-gender undergraduate sample. Gender-specific effects were observed: only women showed an association between trait anxiety and the CDR, consisting of a more intense, prompter, and durable defensive response in high-anxious women. This association was not evident during the first component of the defensive response — identified as an attentional process of stimulus rejection — but in later components reflecting attentional orienting and motivational processes of energetic mobilization for setting an active defensive response — which might suggest reduced parasympathetic dominance along with increased sympathetic dominance. These findings in an unselected sample are consistent with the proposal of a more reactive defensive motivational system as a potential vulnerability factor towards anxiety manifestations in women. This study was supported by Grant PSI2011-22559 from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain).
Databáze: OpenAIRE