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Psychosomatic Medicine 32:417-424 (1970)
© 1970 American Psychosomatic Society

Differentiation of Heart Rate and Systolic Blood Pressure in Man by Operant Conditioning

DAVID SHAPIRO PhD1, BERNARD TURSKY 1, and GARY E. SCHWARTZ AM1

1 Harvard University Medical School Boston, Mass.

Address for reprint requests: Dr. D. Shapiro, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 74 Fenwood Rd, Boston, Mass 02115

Human heart rate-systolic blood pressure decoupling was tested by operant conditioning procedures. Twenty normal male subjects were given feedback of their heart rate, half operantly reinforced for increasing and half for decreasing their heart rate, while systolic blood pressure was continuously monitored. Significant heart rate conditioning was obtained in a single session without concomitant effects on blood pressure. Further analyses of the best conditioners in the present study and those in a previous blood pressure conditioning study indicate the strength of operant heart rate-blood pressure decoupling and demonstrate that instrumental fractionation of closely related visceral behavior is possible in man.

Submitted on December 11, 1969
Revised on February 2, 1970




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