Health, Medical and Neuropsychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Clinical Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Psychophysiology. 2017 Oct;54(10):1498-1511. doi: 10.1111/psyp.12891. Epub 2017 May 12.
Stress-related cognitive processes may occur outside of awareness, here referred to as unconscious stress, and affect one's physiological state. Evidence supporting this idea would provide necessary clarification of the relationship between psychological stress and cardiovascular (CV) health problems. We tested the hypothesis that increases in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and total peripheral resistance (TPR) and decreases in heart rate variability (HRV) would be larger when threatening stimuli are presented outside of awareness, or subliminally, compared with neutral stimuli. Additionally, it was expected that trait worry and resting HRV, as common risk factors for CV disease, would moderate the effect. We presented a subliminal semantic priming paradigm to college students that were randomly assigned to the threat (n = 56) or neutral condition (n = 60) and assessed changes from baseline of MAP, TPR, and HRV. Level of trait worry was assessed with the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. The findings indicate that CV activity changed according to the hypothesized pattern: A higher MAP and TPR and a lower HRV in the threat condition compared with the neutral condition were found with practically meaningful effect sizes. However, these findings were only statistically significant for TPR. Furthermore, changes in CV activity were not moderated by trait worry or resting HRV. This is the first study to explicitly address the role of subliminally presented threat words on health-relevant outcome measures and suggests that unconscious stress can influence peripheral vascular resistance.
压力相关的认知过程可能在意识之外发生，这里称为无意识压力，并影响一个人的生理状态。支持这一观点的证据将为心理压力与心血管（CV）健康问题之间的关系提供必要的澄清。我们检验了这样一个假设，即在无意识或潜意识呈现威胁性刺激时，与中性刺激相比，平均动脉压（MAP）和总外周阻力（TPR）增加，心率变异性（HRV）降低。此外，预期特质性担忧和静息 HRV，作为心血管疾病的常见危险因素，会调节这种影响。我们向大学生呈现了一个潜意识语义启动范式，他们被随机分配到威胁（n=56）或中性条件（n=60），并评估了从基线开始 MAP、TPR 和 HRV 的变化。特质性担忧水平采用宾夕法尼亚州担忧问卷进行评估。研究结果表明，CV 活动的变化符合假设模式：与中性条件相比，威胁条件下的 MAP 和 TPR 更高，HRV 更低，具有实际意义的效应量。然而，这些发现仅在 TPR 方面具有统计学意义。此外，特质性担忧或静息 HRV 并未调节 CV 活动的变化。这是第一项明确探讨潜意识呈现的威胁性词语对健康相关结果测量影响的研究，表明无意识压力会影响外周血管阻力。
