Effects of Stimuli on Cardiovascular Reactivity Occurring at Regular Intervals During Mental Stress
Abstract
Studies examining the direct effects of stimuli needed to perform mental stress tasks such as instructor commands at regular intervals during the mental task are limited to date. Because of the comprehensive effects of different stimuli, we studied the effect of short instructor commands occurring at regular intervals on the behavior of the cardiovascular system during two different types of tasks. Continuous beat-to-beat heart rate and blood pressure, respiration, thoracic impedance, skin conductance, and peripheral temperature were measured in 20 healthy females during a cancellation test of attention (stimuli interval of 20 s) and during mental arithmetic tasks (stimuli interval of 120 s). The transient effects of the stimuli on measures in the time domain as well as the effects of stimulus intervals on measures in the frequency domain (using spectral analysis) were examined. Instructor commands caused increases in several cardiovascular variables and in skin conductance. SBP (systolic blood pressure) and DBP (diastolic blood pressure) showed a significant stimulus response only during the mental arithmetic tasks. An effect of instructor commands at regular intervals was seen in the spectral analysis at 0.05 Hz (cancellation test of attention) and 1/120 Hz (mental arithmetic), according to the stimulus intervals of 20 s and 120 s used in these tasks. The findings suggest that even simple instructor commands given during high mental task load had a strong impact and can considerably influence measures of cardiovascular reactivity. The effects of paced stimuli should be considered when interpreting cardiovascular responses to task conditions with constant stimulus intervals.
References
(1981). Power spectrum analysis of heart rate fluctuation – A quantitative probe of beat to beat cardiovascular control. Science, 213, 220–222.
(1996). Illusions, arithmetic, and the bidirectional modulation of vagal control of the heart. Biological Psychology, 44, 1–17.
(1995). Mental effort during active and passive coping: A dual-task analysis. Psychophysiology, 32, 242–248.
(2000). Affective reactions to acoustic stimuli. Psychophysiology, 37, 204–215.
(1989). The intensity of motivation. Annual Review of Psychology, 40, 109–131.
(2001). Do existing measures of Poincare plot geometry reflect nonlinear features of heart rate variability? Ieee Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 48, 1342–1347.
(1962). Aufmerksamkeits-Belastungs-Test (Test d2) [
The d2 test of attention ]. Göttingen: Hogrefe.(1992). Sympathetic activity is influenced by task-difficulty and stress perception during mental challenge in humans. Journal of Physiology – London, 454, 373–387.
(2001). Affective reactions to briefly presented pictures. Psychophysiology, 38, 474–478.
(2004). Oscillations of heart rate and respiration synchronize during poetry recitation. American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 287, H579–H587.
(2001). Konzentrations-Leistungs-Test – Revidierte Fassung (KLT-R) [
Concenctration test – revised version ]. Göttingen: Hogrefe.(2009). Relationships between features of autonomic cardiovascular control and cognitive performance. Biological Psychology, 81, 110–117.
(2002). Reward influence on the heart: Cardiovascular response as a function of incentive value at five levels of task demand. Motivation and Emotion, 26, 139–152.
(2000). Mental stress-induced increase in blood pressure is not related to baroreflex sensitivity in middle-aged healthy men. Hypertension, 35, 887–891.
(2006). Noninvasive beat-to-beat cardiac output monitoring by an improved method of transthoracic bioimpedance measurement. Computers in Biology and Medicine, 36, 1185–1203.
(2001). The joint impact of mood state and task difficulty on cardiovascular and electrodermal reactivity in active coping. Psychophysiology, 38, 548–556.
(2006). Cardiovascular reactivity during performance under social observation: The moderating role of task difficulty. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 62, 185–192.
(1999). Sympathovagal balance: How should we measure it? American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 276, H1273–H1280.
(2009). Individual stability of orthostatic tolerance response. Acta Physiologica Hungarica, 96, 157–166.
(2008). LBNP: Past protocols and technical considerations for experimental design. Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine, 79, 459–471.
(1979). Distinguishing among orienting, defense and startle reflexes. In , The orienting reflex in humans (pp. 137–167). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
(1966). Heart-rate change as a component of the orienting response. Psychological Bulletin, 65, 305–320.
(2007). Effects of social anxiety and evaluative threat on cardiovascular responses to active performance situations. Biological Psychology, 74, 67–74.
(2009). Presyncopal cardiac contractility and autonomic activity in young healthy males. Physiological Research, 58, 817–826.
(1998). A software package for noninvasive, real-time beat-to-beat monitoring of stroke volume, blood pressure, total peripheral resistance and for assessment of autonomic function. Computers in Biology and Medicine, 28, 121–142.
(2004). Effects of task difficulty and invested mental effort on peripheral vasoconstriction. Psychophysiology, 41, 789–798.
(1994). Use of skin conductance changes during mental stress testing as an index of autonomic arousal in cardiovascular research. American Heart Journal, 128, 1170–1177.
(1988). The blood-pressure seeking properties of the central nervous-system. Journal of Hypertension, 6, 177–185.
(1996). Electrodermal lability and hypertension. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 23, 129–136.
(1993). Looking at pictures: Affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions. Psychophysiology, 30, 261–273.
(2009). Effects of rhythmical muscle tension at 0.1 Hz on cardiovascular resonance and the baroreflex. Biological Psychology, 81, 24–30.
(2003). Heart rate variability biofeedback increases baroreflex gain and peak expiratory flow. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 796–805.
(2009). On the relationship between interoceptive awareness and the attentional processing of visual stimuli. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 72, 154–159.
(2006). Myocardial contractility and cardiac filling measured by impedance cardiography in patients with nitroglycerine-induced vasovagal syncope. Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology, 29, 1–8.
(2001). Multivariate workload evaluation combining physiological and subjective measures. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 40, 233–238.
(1981). Cardiovascular psychophysiology. New York: Plenum.
(2001). Assessment of phasic work stress using autonomic indices. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 40, 211–220.
(2009). Trait and state positive affect and cardiovascular recovery from experimental academic stress. Biological Psychology. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2009.11.008
(1995). Spectral analysis of blood pressure and heart rate variability in evaluating cardiovascular regulation – A critical appraisal. Hypertension, 25, 1276–1286.
(2005). Differentiation between protective reflexes: Cardiac defense and startle. Psychophysiology, 42, 732–739.
(2008). Task difficulty effects on cardiac activity. Psychophysiology, 45, 869–875.
(1994). End tidal PCO2 as an index of psychophysiological activity during VDT data entry work and relaxation. Ergonomics, 37, 245–254.
(1989). Cardiovascular reactivity and interpersonal influence: Active coping in a social context. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 209–218.
(1990). Interpersonal influence as active coping: Effects of task difficulty on cardiovascular reactivity. Psychophysiology, 27, 429–437.
. (1996). Heart rate variability: Standards of measurement, physiological interpretation, and clinical use. Circulation, 93, 1043–1065.
(1999). Assertiveness predicts threat and challenge reactions to potential stress among women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 1008–1021.
(1999). Effects of stimulus intensity, rise time, and duration on autonomic and behavioral responding: Implication for the differentiation of orienting, startle, and defense responses. Psychophysiology, 36, 453–463.
(2004). Introducing a baroreflex model for studying cardiovascular effects of mental workload. Psychophysiology, 41, 961–981.
(2008). Heart rate variability response to alcohol, placebo, and emotional picture cue challenges: Effects of 0.1-Hz stimulation. Psychophysiology, 45, 847–858.
(1996). Physiological indices of workload in a simulated flight task. Biological Psychology, 42, 323–342.
(1996). Relations among memory performance, mental workload and cardiovascular responses. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 23, 181–198.
(1996). Brehm’s theory of motivation as a model of effort and cardiovascular response. In , The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behavior (pp. 424–453). New York: Guilford.
(1995). Cardiovascular effects of experimentally induced efficacy (ability) appraisals at low and high levels of avoidant task demand. Psychophysiology, 32, 172–176.
