Effects of feedback and reinforcement on the control of human systolic blood pressure.

An automatic procedure providing information about human systolic blood pressure at each successive heartbeat under routine laboratory conditions is described. Twenty normal male subjects were given feedback of their own systolic pressure, half operantly reinforced for increasing and half reinforced for decreasing their pressure. Significant differences in pressure were obtained in a single session. The apparatus and results suggest a possible approach to the treatment of essential hypertension.