Psychophysiological and physiological characteristics of individuals with different response profiles to hyperventilation stress

Hyperventilation refleсts the functioning of adaptive mechanisms during intense physical exertion, as well as under the influence of various stressful factors on the body and also is associated with disorders of central regulation of respiration. Artificial hyperventilation (hyperventilation test) makes it possible to identify individual features of the central and peripheral adaptive mechanisms of the human body and identify their most significant markers. Research methodology: The study was conducted on 63 practically healthy subjects aged (31 ± 2.48) years; 31 of them were men and 32 were women. The study assessed a complex of psychophysiological (level of aggression, personal and situational anxiety, level of pretensions) and physiological (endogeunous evoked potentials, heart rate variability, CO2 and O2 content in exhaled air) indicators in a state of relative physiological rest and hyperventilation test conditions. The data obtained has been processed using multidimensional statistics, including cluster, correlation, and logit regression analysis. The results of the research: In general, healthy individuals who differ in the types of reactions to hyperventilation have a certain pattern of psychophysiological characteristics and their interrelationships. During a standardized hyperventilation load, it is possible to distinguish a group with moderate dynamics of indicators and a “highly reactive” group. The group with moderate level of CO2 change is characterized by high psychomotor reaction speed, higher activation of associative areas of the brain during preparation for activity and lower activation of sympathetic autonomic regulation. In this subgroup we describe weaker coupling between physiological mechanisms. Highly reactive group exhibits opposite characteristics. Physiological characteristics of contingent negative variation potential and heart rate variability are included in a logistic regression model to classify groups with different CO2 dynamics during hyperventilation test. Conclusions: Groups of apparently healthy individuals with different types of response to hyperventilation load exhibit a specific profile of psychophysiological interrelationships, which reflects the features of the systemic organization of functions.