Physiological and behavioural indices of hostility: an extension of the capacity model to include exposure to affective stress and right lateralized motor stress.

Right hemisphere functional cerebral systems have reliably been associated with sympathetic nervous system arousal and the perception of negative affective events. The goal of the current research was to provide additional support for the capacity model of hostility by examining changes attributable to functional cerebral systems within the right hemisphere using a dual concurrent task paradigm. To incorporate exposure to negative affective and right-lateralized motor stress using this approach, high and low hostile individuals completed a series of grip-strength tasks before and after hearing a recording of angry infant vocalizations.