Psychomental stress in tetraplegic man: dissociation in autonomic variables and emotional responsiveness.

Tetraplegic patients with physiologically complete cervical spinal cord transsection are classic ablation models of sympathetic denervation. Therefore this study was conducted to investigate the hemodynamic response (blood pressure, cardiac rate) and the plasma catecholamine (adrenaline, noradrenaline) release induced by a standardized psychomental stress model (sonic confuser). Attention was focussed on subjective evaluation of stress experience in spinal man. During psychomental stress, typical pressure reaction was not observed, cardiac rate was elevated insignificantly, and catecholamine release was diminished. The subjective estimates of stress experience, however, did not differ from those of the control group. It appears that psychomental stress in sympathectomized man is not extinguished despite abolished peripheral autonomic feedback modifying the state of the central nervous system. Cognitive processes and cortical arousal seem to be the initial and important steps of emotional experience and they are independent from peripheral autonomic processes. These results lend support to the centralistic view of emotions and the importance of cognitive factors in emotional responsiveness.