Skip to main content
Log in

Negative priming is diminished under high blood pressure in healthy subjects

  • Psychiatry and Preclinical Psychiatric Studies - Short communication
  • Published:
Journal of Neural Transmission Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The ability to ignore distracting objects is a core mechanism in selective attention and has been analyzed particularly with respect to its clinical implications (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, or unhealthy life-style). Here, we investigated the correlation between an established experimental task to measure distractor-processing and participants’ blood pressure. We used the negative priming (NP) task in which participants show worse performance to target stimuli that were distractors in the previous trial. Notably, our participants were all healthy, young subjects but nevertheless we observed a correlation between blood pressure levels and NP effects, the higher the blood pressure the less NP was shown by participants. Our results suggest that processes modulated by higher blood pressure diminish the ability to successful ignore distracting objects not only at hypertension levels.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

References

  • D’Angelo MC, Thomson DR, Tipper SP, Milliken B (2016) Negative priming 1985 to 2015: a measure of inhibition, the emergence of alternative accounts, and the multiple process challenge. Q J Exp Psychol 69:1890–1909

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fillmore MT, Dixon MJ, Schweizer TA (2000) Alcohol affects processing of ignored stimuli in a negative priming paradigm. J Stud Alcohol Drugs 61:571–578

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fox E (1995) Negative priming from ignored distractors in visual selection: a review. Psychon Bull Rev 2:145–173

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Friedman NP, Miyake A (2004) The relations among inhibition and interference control functions: a latent-variable analysis. J Exp Psychol Gen 133:101–135

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frings C (2006) Relevant distractors do not cause negative priming. Psychon Bull Rev 13:322–327

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frings C, Wentura D, Holtz M (2007) Dysphorics cannot ignore unpleasant information. Cogn Emot 21:1525–1534

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frings C, Schneider KK, Fox E (2015) The negative priming paradigm: an update and implications for selective attention. Psychon Bull Rev 22:1577–1597

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fujii K, Sadoshima S, Okada Y, Yao H, Kuwabara Y, Ichiya Y, Fujishima M (1990) Cerebral blood flow and metabolism in normotensive and hypertensive patients with transient neurologic deficits. Stroke 21:283–290

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fujishima M, Ibayashi S, Fujii K, Mori S (1995) Cerebral blood flow and brain function in hypertension. Hypertens Res 18:111–117

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gianaros PJ, Derbtshire SW, May JC, Siegle GJ, Gamalo MA, Jennings JR (2005) Anterior cingulate activity correlates with blood pressure during stress. Psychophysiology 42:627–635

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • May CP, Kane MJ, Hasher L (1995) Determinants of negative priming. Psychol Bull 118:35–54

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neill WT (2007) Mechanisms of transfer-inappropriate processing. In: Gorfein DS, MacLeod CM (eds) Inhibition in cognition. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp 63–78

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Neill WT, Valdes LA (1996) Facilitatory and inhibitory aspects of attention. In: Kramer AF, Coles MGH, Logan GD (eds) Converging operations in the study of visual selective attention. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp 77–106

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pramme L, Larra MF, Schächinger H, Frings C (2016) Cardiac cycle time effects on selection efficiency in vision. Psychophysiology 53:1702–1711

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scullin MK, Le DT, Shelton JT (2017) Healthy heart, healthy brain: hypertension affects cognitive functioning in older age. Transl Issues Psychol Sci 3:328–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skosnik PD, Chatterton RT, Swisher T, Park S (2000) Modulation of attentional inhibition by norepinephrine and cortisol after psychological stress. Int J Psychophysiol 36:59–68

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tipper SP (1985) The negative priming effect: inhibitory priming by ignored objects. Q J Exp Psychol 37:571–590

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tipper SP (2001) Does negative priming reflect inhibitory mechanisms? A review and integration of conflicting view. Q J Exp Psychol 54:321–343

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Waldstein SR (2003) The relation of hypertension to cognitive function. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 12:9–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waldstein SR, Manuck SB, Ryan CM, Muldoon MF (1991) Neuropsychological correlates of hypertension: review and methodologic considerations. Psychol Bull 110:451–468

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf PA, Beiser A, Elias MF, Au R, Vasan RS, Seshadri S (2007) Relation of obesity to cognitive function: importance of central obesity and synergistic influence of concomitant hypertension. The Framingham Heart Study. Curr Alzheimer Res 4:111–116

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian Frings.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Frings, C., Domes, G. Negative priming is diminished under high blood pressure in healthy subjects. J Neural Transm 126, 1111–1114 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-019-02032-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-019-02032-w

Keywords

Navigation