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RONALD H. BOYLE, MD; ROSCOE A. DYKMAN, PhD; PEGGY T. ACKERMAN, MA

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1965;12(3):314-323.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Introduction

A NUMBER OF investigators in studying continuous recordings of autonomic functioning of humans at rest have reported short-lived bursts of sympathetic-like activity.^{2,3,5,9,11,12,15-20} These atypical fluctuations, appearing as periodic and aperiodic deviations from the mean trend of the record, are denoted spontaneous autonomic activity or background activity (BA). Johnson⁹ defines this activity as "fluctuations of autonomic response in the apparent absence of external stimulation" (p 415).

Spontaneous autonomic activity has been shown to be a reliable characteristic of the individual over time and across different experimental conditions. There is little or no correlation between BA and absolute levels of physiological functioning, and BA in one system is, in general, not predictive of BA in another.

The autonomic functions most extensively studied are heart rate (HR) and skin resistance ( SR). Lacey and Lacey¹¹ devised an arbitrary method of quantifying BA in these two systems, later . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
LITTLE ROCK, ARK

University of Arkansas Medical Center. Rotating Intern, St. Francis Hospital, Wichita, Kan. (Dr. Boyle) and Professor of Psychology (Dr. Dykman), Research Associate (Mrs. Ackerman), Department of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas Medical Center.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication Sept 9, 1964.

Additional records can be found in the honors program dissertation (1964) of Dr. Boyle, on file in the library of the University of Arkansas Medical Center.

Reprint requests to Little Rock, Ark 72201 (Dr. Dykman).

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