Autonomic reactivity in blood-injection-injury and snake phobia.

Objective: This research aimed to study the salivary flow and other autonomic reactions -heart rate (HR) and skin conductance response (SCR)- in blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia and snake phobia participants, under the assumption that exposure to blood-related pictures in BII phobia will provoke an increase in parasympathetic activity that, in turn, will lead to a greater saliva production than other affective contents.

Methods: We selected 18 BII phobia and 14 snake phobia participants along with 22 non-phobia individuals. All participants were exposed to 3 blocks of pictures (12 pictures per block) depicting either mutilations, snakes or neutral, household objects.

Preattentive processing of feared stimuli in blood-injection-injury fearful subjects.

This research aimed to study the defence responses of blood-injection-injury (BII) fearful subjects elicited by the preattentive processing of their feared objects and by an abrupt acoustic stimulus. We selected 21 BII fearful subjects and 25 non-fearful controls from an initial sample of 128 women, according to their scores on the Fear Survey Scale (damage subscale) and the Mutilation Questionnaire. Subjects were exposed to a burst of white noise to promote a defence response, and to 48 pictures, depicting mutilations, as well as other affective contents, displayed through a backward masking procedure.