1 THE AUTONOMIC PHYSIOLOGY OF TERROR MANAGEMENT ...

way of this buffer, predicts self-regulatory abilities. In different words, it seems that vagal
tone, first and foremost, decreases primary appraisals of threat. Through this inhibition,
this lessening of initial perceived threat, vagal tone likely also affects secondary threat
appraisals and so predicts increased ability to cope with threats.
In sum, is seems likely that vagal tone indexes the extent of people’s primary
buffer from threat responding. As reviewed, this perspective comes from a number of
sources. First, work by Levy and colleagues suggests that vagal and sympathetic forces
interact at the heart such that vagal tone limits or buffers sympathetic influence. Second,
a substantial body of research supports this claim by showing links between vagal tone
and various threat responses, sympathetic and amygdala related responses, and
psychological traits and states that are characterized by feeling of self-threat, such as
anxiety, depression, aggression, and cognitive inflexibility. Third, this vagal tone as
threat-buffer hypothesis is generally consistent with the theorizing about the
psychological meaning of vagal tone—that it indexes self-regulatory abilities and
emotion and attention flexibility. However, it provides a framework with which to view
these constructs in relation to vagal tone—that they are related to vagal tone not directly,
but by means of their relation to feelings of threat and vulnerability to threat. Thus,
though there exists other accounts for the psychological meaning of vagal tone, the
hypothesis that vagal tone indexes people’s buffer from the potential for threat experience
seems viable and therefore in need of further assessment.
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