| Abstract: | The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to attempt to replicate a previous study in which subjects were trained to produce bi-directional changes in diastolic BP as great as 10% to 15% of baseline, and 2) to determine whether the same subjects could acquire such a BP response under conditions of induced muscle tension. A 2x3 design was used in which 24 subjects were randomly assigned to one of two training procedures (feedback vs no feedback), and one of three muscular tension conditions. Acquisition took place over 14 sessions; 7 were used to train UP and 7 were used to condition DOWN responses. Results showed that during UP training, subjects learned to raise their BP in the absence of induced tension, but not when tension was present. However, the same subjects learned to lower their BP with and without induced tension, although their performance under the tension condition was only marginally reliable. |
