PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF COMBINATIONS OF PAINFUL AND COGNITIVE STIMULI

Sympathetic activity (SA) was reduced when a cognitive task was imposed during an ongoing response to cold pressor. However, this reduction effect was not obtained when CP was imposed 40‐sec after the onset of a cognitive task. Rather the response level appeared to be about that which would have been obtained from cold pressor alone. These results suggest that the reduction found in the former situation is not the result of distraction due to cognitive activity per se, as we had previously proposed, but it is the initial SA resulting from presentation of the cognitive task that causes the interaction. This suggests that the competition occurs at a level below that of cognition. Copyright © 1969, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved