Visceral perception, anhedonia, and emotion

Few investigators have attempted to examine empirically the relationship between perception of autonomic arousal and emotional state. According to Jamesian theory, individuals who are more aware of their visceral activity should demonstrate greater affective response to emotion-laden stimuli than in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biological psychology 1996-01, Vol.42 (1), p.131-145
Main Authors: Ferguson, Melissa L., Katkin, Edward S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Affective Symptoms - physiopathology
Affective Symptoms - psychology
Anhedonia
Arousal - physiology
Autonomic Nervous System - physiopathology
Awareness - physiology
Emotion
Emotions - physiology
Facial Expression
Feedback - physiology
Heart Rate - physiology
Heartbeat detection
Humans
Male
Perception - physiology
Personality Inventory
Sensory Receptor Cells - physiopathology
Viscera - innervation
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Summary:Few investigators have attempted to examine empirically the relationship between perception of autonomic arousal and emotional state. According to Jamesian theory, individuals who are more aware of their visceral activity should demonstrate greater affective response to emotion-laden stimuli than individuals who are not viscerally perceptive. Therefore, certain groups of ‘unemotional’ subjects, such as anhedonics, may report fewer or less intense emotional experiences due to an attenuation or lack of autonomic feedback. Results from studies by Katkin ( Psychophysiology, 22, (1985) 125–137) suggest that there is a relationship between induced sympathetic arousal, the perception of that arousal, and the self-report of emotional experience. The present study sought to expand upon these findings by comparing visceral perception (i.e. heartbeat detection) performance and a multi-component assessment of emotion in normal and anhedonic subjects. No correlation was found between anhedonia and visceral perception; however, anhedonics were significantly different from normals across several measures of heart rate, self-report, and facial expressions in response to emotion-eliciting slides, with anhedonics consistently showing emotional hypo-responsiveness. Additionally, subjects who were able to perceive their own heartbeats were found to be more facially expressive than poor perceivers.
ISSN:0301-0511
1873-6246
DOI:10.1016/0301-0511(95)05151-1