Figure 2 | Scientific Reports

Figure 2

From: Vagal control of the heart decreases during increasing imminence of interoceptive threat in patients with panic disorder and agoraphobia

Figure 2

Vagal tone (A) and sympathetic activation (B; means and standard errors) during 10 mins of acute threat exposure and averaged across the whole threat exposure (embedded figure) relative to a safe condition in n = 186 patients with no avoidance behavior during the task as a function of heart rate reactivity groups with increasing heart rate responses indicating increasing threat imminence. For comparison the responses during the first minute of exposure were also presented for n = 46 patients showing active avoidance but a minimum exposure duration of 60 s. (A) Heart rate variability in logarithmic RMSSD scores, root mean square of successive differences. (B) Range corrected skin conductance levels (SCL) in 212 patients with available data.

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