Key result
Lower subjective task interest strongly correlates with a higher cardiac sympathetic index.
Why the study?
The physiological effects of psychiatric occupational therapy tasks on the autonomic nervous system have not been adequately explored quantitatively to help devise more individualized therapies.
Does performing an interesting task compared to an uninteresting task affect the autonomic nervous system in healthy individuals?
Cross-Sectional (n=22)
No
Does performing an interesting task compared to an uninteresting task affect the autonomic nervous system in healthy individuals?
Effect estimate: ρ = -0.584
p-value: p=0.004
Task interest may contribute to suppressing sympathetic dominance and reducing mental and physiological loads during occupational therapy tasks.
Task interest may suppress sympathetic activity during occupational tasks; leaves open whether tailoring tasks by interest improves autonomic outcomes in schizophrenia or depression.
Although prior studies have indicated the relationships among decreased parasympathetic activity, schizophrenia, and depression, the physiological effects of psychiatric occupational therapy tasks have not been adequately explored. Therefore, it is necessary to quantitatively examine the physiological changes in the autonomic nervous system when performing such tasks to devise more individualized therapies. Accordingly, we examined the influence of task interest and its relationship with psychological characteristics. The participants included in this study were 22 healthy individuals. They completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and the Social Phobia Scale. Participants selected the most and least interesting bookmarks from a set of 19 different color options, and indicated their degree of interest on a visual analog scale. An electrocardiogram was used during each task to record participants' cardiac sympathetic index (CSI) and cardiac vagal index (CVI) as they performed two tasks (interesting and uninteresting). The correlations between the degree of interest and CSI/CVI, and between the scores of the questionnaires and CSI/CVI were examined. There was a negative correlation between the degree of interest and CSI during the uninteresting task. Task interest may have contributed to suppressing sympathetic dominance and reducing mental and physiological loads, even if the tasks differed only color-wise. Physiological effects emerged from participants' degree of task interest. Further identification of objective and therapeutic mechanisms may lead to wider applications of activities in different areas.
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Nishida et al. (2022) conducted a cross-sectional in Healthy individuals (n=22). Task interest vs. Uninteresting task was evaluated on Correlation between degree of interest and cardiac sympathetic index (CSI) during tasks (ρ = -0.584, p=0.004). Lower subjective interest during an uninteresting task was significantly correlated with higher cardiac sympathetic index (ρ = -0.584, p = 0.004), suggesting task interest suppresses sympathetic dominance.
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