Salivation: the significance of imagery in its voluntary control

Abstract

In a series of experiments, with over 100 subjects ranging in age from 14 to 43, issues in the control of salivation were examined. Using the sublingual cotton swab technique it was shown that salivation can be controlled by practitioners and non‐practitioners of transcendental meditation. Sex differences were unimportant; the use of specific imagery relating to food and anxiety aided control, and there was a highly significant relationship between the degree of self‐reported imagery vividness and the ability to increase and decrease salivation. Results were discussed in terms of the Pavlovian notion of signalling systems, and the suggestion was made that self‐generated imagery could be important for the control, and in the conditioning, of other autonomic effectors. Copyrigh