Figures & data
Figure 1 Emotional experience during a fear challenge determines physiological response. (A) The affect grid questionnaire color coded to indicate the four quadrants in which participants could describe their experience during the fear challenge: high arousal and low pleasantness corresponds to the negatively aroused quadrant (N = 9); high arousal and high pleasantness corresponds to the positively aroused quadrant (N = 33); low arousal and high pleasantness corresponds to the positively calm quadrant (N = 7); none of the participants rated themselves in the low arousal low pleasantness quadrant. (B) Salivary α-amylase responses (post-challenge minus pre-challenge levels) for participants in each quadrant (color-coded to match the corresponding quadrant in A, above). Negatively aroused participants showed a pronounced a-amylase response to the fear challenge (indicative of sympathetic nervous system activity).
