TY - JOUR
T1 - Sensation seeking and startle modulation by physically threatening images
AU - Lissek, Shmuel
AU - Powers, Alice Schade
PY - 2003/5
Y1 - 2003/5
N2 - The potential moderating effect of sensation seeking on anxious reactivity to threatening experiences was assessed using the affective modulation of startle-blink paradigm. Startle blinks, as measured by electromyographic (EMG) activity in response to loud (100 dB) white-noise stimuli, were elicited during the presentation of positive, neutral, and threatening visual images. Unlike participants low in sensation seeking who showed blink potentiation during threatening versus neutral images, participants high in sensation seeking showed equal magnitudes of startle to neutral and threatening images. The results suggest that individuals high compared with low on sensation seeking are less anxiously reactive to physically threatening visual stimuli. No attenuation in startle magnitude was elicited by positive images among low or high sensation seekers suggesting that the positive images employed in the current study were not arousing enough to activate the appetitive arousal system.
AB - The potential moderating effect of sensation seeking on anxious reactivity to threatening experiences was assessed using the affective modulation of startle-blink paradigm. Startle blinks, as measured by electromyographic (EMG) activity in response to loud (100 dB) white-noise stimuli, were elicited during the presentation of positive, neutral, and threatening visual images. Unlike participants low in sensation seeking who showed blink potentiation during threatening versus neutral images, participants high in sensation seeking showed equal magnitudes of startle to neutral and threatening images. The results suggest that individuals high compared with low on sensation seeking are less anxiously reactive to physically threatening visual stimuli. No attenuation in startle magnitude was elicited by positive images among low or high sensation seekers suggesting that the positive images employed in the current study were not arousing enough to activate the appetitive arousal system.
KW - Affective modulation of startle
KW - Anxious reactivity
KW - Psychophysiology
KW - Resilience
KW - Sensation seeking
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U2 - 10.1016/S0301-0511(03)00053-X
DO - 10.1016/S0301-0511(03)00053-X
M3 - Article
C2 - 12738407
AN - SCOPUS:0037623318
SN - 0301-0511
VL - 63
SP - 179
EP - 197
JO - Biological Psychology
JF - Biological Psychology
IS - 2
ER -