G. Lensvelt-mulders et J. Hettema, Genetic analysis of autonomic reactivity to psychologically stressful situations, BIOL PSYCH, 58(1), 2001, pp. 25-40
We present the results of a behavioural genetics study on response profiles
of autonomic measures (heart rate, blood pressure, and galvanic skin level
), under ecologically valid, stressful conditions. Where response profiles
of different physiological variables are the object of study, and when dail
y life stressors are taken into account (Turner and Hewitt, Annals of Behav
ioral Medicine, 14 (1992) 12-20), autonomic responsiveness to psychological
stressors is thought to be an inherited trait. The participants were 100 f
emale twin pairs, 57 monozygotic and 43 dizygotic twin pairs. Participants
watched eight films with a stressful social content while autonomic measure
s were continuously recorded. Results show that the heritability coefficien
ts of response profiles of autonomic measures are almost twice as high as t
hat of single variables. The results further show that genes exert their in
fluence on physiological behaviour not only directly, but also indirectly,
by influencing the idiosyncratic relation between a person and his environm
ent. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.