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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

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Published on: May 4, 2011
Age-related changes of phasic heart rate responses to affective pictures
Anne-Marie Aupée1, Peter Jönsson
1Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. annemarie.aupee@clinique-memoire.com
Abstract:
This study examined age differences in phasic heart rate in response to neutral, negative and positive pictures. Heart rate changes and subjective ratings were analyzed in 22 middle-aged (40-55 years) and 30 older (56-78 years) participants. The effects of valence on the HR pattern across time were similar to that obtained by Bradley and co-workers. Conversely to previous studies, we did not report any age-related reduction in cardiac reactivity. Instead, when viewing positive pictures, the triphasic wave form appeared in the group of older adults, but for younger participants, it was replaced by a sustained deceleration. These results were interpreted in the light of the socioemotional selectivity theory.
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