INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES IN CARDIAC AND EMG ACTIVITY AFTER SMOKING

Smoking has well-known effects on heart rate and muscle activity. The influence of individual difference factors such as gender and personal ity characteristics, however, are not as well-known. This study examin ed the effects of smoking on heart rate and muscle activity and tested for differential changes due to gender and personality characteristic s that are related to arousal experience and preference. Heart rate an d forearm muscle activity were measured from 25 male and 25 female smo kers while they performed a continuous motor performance task under th ree smoking conditions: deprived for at least 4 h, sham smoking for 5 min and smoking one of their own cigarettes for 5 min. Subjects were a ssigned to groups based on the Paratelic Dominance Scale, a measure of preference for arousal seeking (paratelic dominant) vs arousal avoida nce (telic dominant). Smoking increased heart rate more for paratelic than for telic dominant subjects; there were no gender-related differe nces. EMG activity was higher when telic compared to paratelic dominan t subjects were deprived from smoking and smoking decreased EMG activi ty more for telic than for paratelic dominant subjects. No differences were found for extraverts vs introverts, (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Lt d. All rights reserved.