Institute of Aging, Cognitive Aging and Memory Clinical Translational Research Program, University of Florida , Gainesville, FL, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL, USA.
Front Psychol. 2015 Feb 24;6:19. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00019. eCollection 2015.
Observing violent content has been hypothesized to facilitate antisocial behaviors including interpersonal violence. Testosterone is released in response to perceived challenges of social status, often followed by an increase in aggressive behaviors and physiological activation. Prior investigations evaluating the impact of observing violence on autonomic function have focused on sympathetic measures of arousal. Measurement of parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity has been neglected, although reduced PNS activity has been associated with antisocial behavior. Consistent with a hierarchical model of the autonomic nervous system (i.e., polyvagal theory), individual differences in PNS activity reflected in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were hypothesized to have an inhibitory impact on sympathetic and hormonal reactivity in subjects who were observing a violent video. Autonomic data (i.e., electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate, and RSA) were collected from forty adult males prior to and while viewing violent sports or a control video. Pre- and post-video saliva samples were assayed for cortisol and testosterone. Participants who viewed the violent video showed increased sympathetic activity compared to controls. In contrast to the sympathetic reactivity to the violent video, there were no significant RSA changes in response to the stimuli, suggesting that viewing violent sports selectively increases sympathetic activity without eliciting PNS withdrawal. However, within the group viewing the violent video, participants with lower RSA during baseline and the observation of violent videos, responded with greater increases in salivary testosterone, suggesting that high parasympathetic tone dampens testosterone reactivity. These individual differences in response to observed violence, associated with higher RSA, may account for some of the improved health, growth, and restoration outcomes across the lifespan, that this segment of the population benefits from.
观察暴力内容被假设为促进包括人际暴力在内的反社会行为。睾丸激素在感知到社会地位的挑战时释放，通常伴随着攻击行为和生理激活的增加。先前评估观察暴力对自主功能影响的研究主要集中在唤醒的交感措施上。尽管副交感神经系统（PNS）活动减少与反社会行为有关，但对 PNS 活动的测量一直被忽视。与自主神经系统的分层模型（即多棘理论）一致，呼吸窦性心律失常（RSA）反映的 PNS 活动个体差异被假设对观察暴力视频的受试者的交感和激素反应具有抑制作用。在观看暴力运动或对照视频之前和期间，从 40 名成年男性中收集自主数据（即皮肤电活动（EDA）、心率和 RSA）。在观看视频之前和之后收集唾液样本以测定皮质醇和睾丸激素。与对照组相比，观看暴力视频的参与者表现出更高的交感神经活动。与对暴力视频的交感反应相反，对刺激没有出现 RSA 的显着变化，这表明观看暴力运动选择性地增加了交感神经活动，而没有引起 PNS 撤退。然而，在观看暴力视频的组内，基线和观看暴力视频时 RSA 较低的参与者的唾液睾酮反应增加更大，这表明高副交感神经张力抑制了睾酮反应。对观察到的暴力的这种个体差异反应，与较高的 RSA 相关，可能解释了该人群在整个生命周期中受益的一些改善健康、生长和恢复的结果。
