Specificity of phasic heart rate responses to visual attention in essential hypertensives

A preliminary report is given concerning phasic heart rate responses in hypertensive individuals. There is some evidence, that the expected accelerative drive appears under visual attention conditions. That is demonstrated in two typical reactions of a hypertensive and a normotensive subject and in a marked higher acceleration at several points of the response curves for the hypertensive group. Z-scores of heart periods are discussed as the appropriate measurement of phasic HR-changes from rest to stimulus conditions.