Central beta-adrenoceptors mediate phasic and sustained components of hemodynamic responses to acute behavioral stress.

Startle elicits a pattern of cardiovascular responses that is consistent within individual rats but varies between rats. We examined the hypothesis that central beta-adrenoceptors mediate differences in the hemodynamic responses to stress. Conscious rats exposed to cold water (1 cm deep, 1 min) had an initial phasic (startle) response (first 5 s) that varied considerably between rats.