Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T06:23:35.611Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Drugs and Personality

XI. The effects of stimulant and depressant drugs upon auditory flutter fusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

H. J. Eysenck
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, University of London
J. A. Easterbrook
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, University of London

Extract

Several workers have demonstrated a relationship between anxiety and critical flicker frequency (CFF); among these are Krugman (1947), Goldstone (1955) and Friedl (1954). Unfortunately the trait of anxiety is not unidimensional, being a compound of neuroticism and introversion, so that these data might indicate a lower threshold of CFF for neurotics, or for introverts, or for both. The second of these interpretations has been tentatively adopted (Eysenck, 1957), in spite of some questionnaire evidence to the effect that thresholds are lower for extraverts (Washburn et al., 1930; Madlung, 1935; Simonson and Brozek, 1952). The main reason for not considering this additional evidence too convincing lies in the curious nature of the measures used to determine extraversion-introversion; these seem to compound introversion and neuroticism, as pointed out elsewhere (Eysenck, 1960). However, when we take into account the rather strong evidence regarding drug effects (Simonson and Brozek, 1952; Landis, 1954), which tends to show that stimulant drugs raise the threshold, while depressant drugs lower it, as well as the fact that brain injury tends to lower the threshold (Enzer et al., 1944; Halstead, 1947; Landis, 1949; Werner and Thuma, 1942), then the case against this tentative hypothesis becomes rather strong. It may be that the attempt to relate CFF to only one dimension of personality was mistaken, and that CFF is related to both neuroticism and extraversion, in the sense that low thresholds characterize the more neurotic and the more extraverted person. This hypothesis would certainly account for all the available facts better than the original hypothesis.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1960 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Davis, S. W., “Auditory and visual flicker-fusion as measures of fatigue”, Amer, J. Psychol., 1955, 67, 654657.Google Scholar
Enzer, M., Simonson, E., and Blankstein, G. G., “The appearance of flicker at high flash frequency in patients with brain pathology and in normal subjects”, J. clin. Med., 1944, 29, 6373.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J., The Structure of Human Personality, 1960. 2nd ed. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Idem , Experiments in Personality, 1960. 2 vols. London: Routledge ' Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Idem and Easterbrook, J. A., “Drugs and personality: VI. The effects of stimulant and depressant drugs upon body sway (static ataxia)”, J. Menu Sci., 1960, 106, 831.Google Scholar
Friedl, F. G., “Anxiety and cortical alpha in normal subjects”, Stud. Psychol. Psychiat., Cath. Univ. Amer., 1954, 9, No. 2.Google Scholar
Goldstone, G., “Flicker fusion measurements and anxiety level”, J. exp. Psychol., 1955, 49, 200202.Google Scholar
Halstead, W. C., Brain and Intelligence, 1947. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Idem , “Critical fusion frequency and prefrontal lobes in man”, Amer. Psychologist, 1947, 2, 337.Google Scholar
Krugman, H. E., “Flicker fusion frequency as a function of anxiety reaction: an exploratory study”, Psychosom. Med., 1947, 9, 269272.Google Scholar
Landis, C., Selective Partial Ablations of the Frontal Cortex (Ed.: Meltter, F. A.), 1949. New York: p. 492496.Google Scholar
Idem , “Determination of the critical flicker fusion threshold”, Physiol. Rev., 1954, 34, 259286.Google Scholar
Madlung, K., “Über den Einfluss der typologischen Veranlagung auf die Flimmergrenzen”, Unters. Psychol. Phil. Päd., 1935, 10, 7076.Google Scholar
Ogelvie, J. C., “Effect of auditory flicker on the visual critical flicker frequency”, Canad. J. Psychol., 1956, 10, 6168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simonson, E., and Brozek, J., “Flicker fusion frequency. Background and applications”, Physiol. Rev., 1952, 32, 349378.Google Scholar
Washburn, M. F., Hughes, G., Stewart, C., and Sligh, G., “Reaction time, flicker, and affective sensitivity as tests of extraversion and introversion”, Amer. J. Psychol., 1930, 42, 412413.Google Scholar
Werner, H., and Thuma, B. D., “Critical flicker frequency in children with brain injury”, Amer. J. Psychol, 1942, 55, 394399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.