Salivary alpha-amylase changes promoted by sustained exposure to affective pictures

We studied the changes in salivary alpha‐amylase (sAA) and other psychophysiological indices (heart rate, skin conductance, and corrugator supercilii activity) elicited by sustained exposure to affective pictures. Thirty‐nine subjects viewed five blocks of pictures depicting mutilations, human attac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychophysiology 2012-12, Vol.49 (12), p.1601-1609
Main Authors: Sánchez-Navarro, Juan P., Maldonado, Enrique F., Martínez-Selva, José M., Enguix, Alfredo, Ortiz, Carmen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Affect - physiology
Affective valence
Anatomy & physiology
Arousal
Arousal - physiology
Body fluids
Conductance
Corrugator supercilii
Defence response
Emotions
Emotions - physiology
Facial Muscles - physiology
Female
Galvanic Skin Response - physiology
Heart rate
Heart Rate - physiology
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Psychological tests
Saliva
Salivary alpha-amylase
Salivary alpha-Amylases - metabolism
Skin conductance
Skin conductance response
Sports
Young Adult
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Summary:We studied the changes in salivary alpha‐amylase (sAA) and other psychophysiological indices (heart rate, skin conductance, and corrugator supercilii activity) elicited by sustained exposure to affective pictures. Thirty‐nine subjects viewed five blocks of pictures depicting mutilations, human attack, neutral scenes, sport/adventure, and erotica. Each block comprised 12 pictures of the same content. Saliva samples were collected before and after each block of pictures. The results showed that mutilation pictures promoted the greatest increase in sAA activity and output, as well as greater corrugator supercilii activity than pleasant pictures. Skin conductance response did not differ among high arousal picture contents. Changes in sAA varied with the affective valence but not with the arousal ratings of the pictures. Our results point to sAA as an index directly related to the unpleasantness elicited by sustained exposure to affective stimuli.
ISSN:0048-5772
1469-8986
1540-5958
DOI:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2012.01475.x