No Difference in Sympathetic Responses to Auditory, Visual, and Combined Stimuli
Date
2014Author
Christensen, Erica
D’Amato, Joe
Patel, Gina
Prasad, Aisha
Pynnonen, Eric
Waier, Kelsey
Publisher
Journal of Advanced Student Sciences (JASS)
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The sympathetic nervous system, a branch of the autonomic nervous system, is
activated in response to stressful stimuli. The purpose of this experiment was to determine
whether audio or visual stimuli work in tandem to elicit a greater response, or whether they work
in an unrelated fashion. The experimenters hypothesized that auditory and visual stimuli
combined would evoke a greater sympathetic response than the summation of the responses to
auditory stimuli only and visual stimuli only. The hypothesis was tested by exposing the subjects
to an audio track, a muted movie, or both combined, each with a brief startling stimulus. The
research group recorded heart rate, GSR, and respiratory rates and calculated the percent
change between the stimulated response and the baseline values for the subject, and performed
subsequent tests between experimental populations. The results did not show a statistically
significant response between solitary or combined stimuli, due to the large variance in the
population.
Subject
sympathetic nervous system
auditory
visual
startle stimulus
synergy
respiratory rate
heart rate
GSR
audio/visual
fear response
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/80037Description
An article that appeared in JASS, issue 2014