Abstract
One of the most striking characteristics of autonomic physiology is the degree to which individuals differ from each other in both resting levels and response magnitude. These differences show stability over time (Lacey and Lacey, 1962), and the patterns described by measurement in multiple systems may provide a kind of physiological fingerprint of the individual (Sargent and Weinman, 1966). Furthermore, certain individuals may show exaggerated or markedly reduced responses in one or another autonomic subsystem which can result in disability, and even in death. One cannot confront such individuals, either as an investigator or a physician, without wondering how they acquired such a characteristic. The usual explanations in terms of aberrant emotional responses and their physiological concomitants have failed to be adequately supported by the evidence, and would fail to answer the question even if a consistent relationship could be demonstrated (Hofer, 1974). Alternately, supposing these individual differences to be due simply to genetic determinants ignores the vast body of evidence of developmental biology that even for structural ontogeny, the individual organism (phenotype) is the product of a continuing interaction between the genetic potential (genotype) and its own highly specific environment.
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Hofer, M.A. (1974). The Role of Early Experience in the Development of Autonomic Regulation. In: Limbic and Autonomic Nervous Systems Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-4407-0_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-4407-0_6
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