Emotional dampening in hypertension: Impaired recognition of implicit emotional content in auditory and cross-modal stimuli

  • Meenakshi Shukla ,
  • Rakesh Pandey
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  • Department of Psychology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
rpan_in@yahoo.com

Received date: 28 Jan 2023

Accepted date: 04 Sep 2023

Published date: 20 Jan 2024

Copyright

2023 2023 The Authors. PsyCh Journal published by Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Abstract

Research shows a reduced responsivity to implicit as well as explicit facial emotion recognition (emotional dampening) in prehypertensives and hypertensives. This study explored auditory and audiovisual emotion recognition in prehypertensives and hypertensives. Participants (N = 175) who were normotensives, prehypertensives, and hypertensives (n = 57, 58, and 60, respectively) completed an auditory implicit task (matching auditory target with auditory distractors) and two cross-modal implicit tasks (matching visual target with auditory distractors, and vice-versa), and an auditory explicit task (labelling emotions in audio-clips). Findings showed an aberrant speed–accuracy trade-off, where prehypertensives focused more on accuracy at the cost of speed while hypertensives showed the opposite. Discriminant function analysis revealed that blood pressure (BP)-associated emotional dampening is a highly specific but moderately sensitive correlate of hypertension. Our study highlights that prehypertensives and hypertensives demonstrate emotional dampening in implicit (but not explicit) auditory emotion recognition and a greater deficit for auditory than visual recognition of implicit emotions. Findings show emotional dampening as an observable correlate of elevated BP and hypertension.

Cite this article

Meenakshi Shukla , Rakesh Pandey . Emotional dampening in hypertension: Impaired recognition of implicit emotional content in auditory and cross-modal stimuli[J]. Psych Journal, 2024 , 13(1) : 124 -138 . DOI: 10.1002/pchj.704

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