The Stroop test induced a significantly greater increase in both the sympathetic vascular index (LF-SAP) and the cardio-sympathetic index (0V%) compared to the mental arithmetic test (p<0.001).
Cross-Sectional (n=20)
No
Do different mental stressors (Stroop test vs mental arithmetic) elicit different cardiovascular sympathetic arousal responses in healthy young adults?
Different cognitive stressors elicit distinct patterns of cardiovascular sympathetic arousal, highlighting the complex central-peripheral interactions in stress responses.
valor p: p=<0.001
The altered regulation of autonomic response to mental stress can result in increased cardiovascular risk. The laboratory tests used to simulate the autonomic responses to real-life stressors do not necessarily induce generalized sympathetic activation; therefore, the assessment of regulatory outputs to different effector organs could be important. We aimed to study the cardiovascular sympathetic arousal in response to different mental stressors (Stroop test, mental arithmetic test) in 20 healthy students. The conceivable sympathetic vascular index--spectral power of low frequency band of systolic arterial pressure variability (LF-SAP) and novel potential cardio-sympathetic index--symbolic dynamics heart rate variability index 0V% were evaluated. The heart and vessels responded differently to mental stress--while Stroop test induced increase of both 0V% and LF-SAP indices suggesting complex sympathetic arousal, mental arithmetic test evoked only 0V% increase compared to baseline (p<0.01, p<0.001, p<0.01, respectively). Significantly greater reactivity of LF-SAP, 0V%, heart rate (HR) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were found in response to Stroop test compared to mental arithmetic test potentially indicating the effect of different central processing (0V%, LF-SAP: p<0.001; HR, MAP: p<0.01). The different effectors' sympathetic responses to cognitive stressors could provide novel important information regarding potential pathomechanisms of stress-related diseases.
Mestanik et al. (Mon,) conducted a cross-sectional in Healthy (n=20). Stroop test and mental arithmetic test vs. Baseline and between-test comparison was evaluated on Reactivity of sympathetic vascular index (LF-SAP) and cardio-sympathetic index (0V%) (p=<0.001). The Stroop test induced a significantly greater increase in both the sympathetic vascular index (LF-SAP) and the cardio-sympathetic index (0V%) compared to the mental arithmetic test (p<0.001).