Absence of behavioral differences in young normotensive adults as a function of parental history of hypertension

It has been previously demonstrated that mildly hypertensive subjects show deficits in their performance on various sensory-perceptual, cognitive, and psychomotor tests relative to matched normotensive control subjects, and that these behavioral deficits are reversible following treatment with antihypertensive medication. To examine whether these deficits are an outcome of elevated blood pressure, rather than preceding the hypertensive state, normotensive offspring of hypertensives and normotensives were administered a test battery. Results showed that with minor exceptions, offspring of hypertensives and offspring of normotensives performed similarly on the tests. These results suggest that the behavioral deficits seen in hypertensives arise subsequent to the onset of elevated blood pressure.