Cross-modal effects of anticipatory bogus heart rate feedback in a negative emotional context

The goal of the present investigation was to examine the effect of altering the perceptions of one's own physiological arousal on the elicitation of emotional behavior as defined by galvanic skin response, the nonspecific galvanic skin response, and verbal report measures of discomfort and unpleasantness. After an initial three-minute rest period, 48 subjects were exposed to 10 successive slides of people who died violently and continuous auditory tones. Results showed that the groups simultaneously exposed to the noxious slides and tones labeled as bogus heart rate feedback responded to the slides with increased electrodermal activity as compared to subjects exposed to the identical auditory feedback labeled as extraneous noise. An increase in bogus heart rate tended to elicit the most pronounced electrodermal responses. As expected, bogus heart rate conditions resulted in greater self reports of discomfort and slide unpleasantness as compared to the noise conditions. These findings were explained as a function of a cyclic cognitive-visceral link.