The objectives of this project are to investigate relationships among differences in personality, sensory thresholds, motor responding, and autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity in normal humans. Bilateral skin conductance and heart rate have been recorded in sessions in which constant and variable intensity tones and lights are presented, in which auditory and two-flash thresholds (TFT) determined by methods which permit signal detection analyses and in which simple reaction time is measured. Several standardized personality tests were also given. These include scales of sensation-seeking, extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, field dependence and anxiety. In addition comprehensive measures of lateral dominance have been given. A procedure for manipulating ANS arousal experimentally with minimal distracting effects--a change in posture from supine to standing- -is being used to study such problems as the effects of base levels on responsivity, the effects of arousal on performance, and the effects of personality variables on this relationship. This project allows testing of several theoretical models of the relationships of ANS activity, sensory sensitivity, and personality, some of which have implications for the etiology of psychopathology. Tests of the relationships between laterality in skin conductance variables and behavioral laterality will also be done to see if inferences about lateralized brain function can be made from such variables.
