Sato Nozomi, Miyake Shinji
Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Science & Engineering, Kinki University, 3-4-1 Kowakae, Higashi-Osaka, Osaka 577-8502, Japan.
J Physiol Anthropol Appl Human Sci. 2004 Nov;23(6):215-23. doi: 10.2114/jpa.23.215.
The purpose of the present study was to determine the fluctuation in cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress during the menstrual cycle by comparing heart rate variability (HRV), and other physiological and psychological data in females with those in males. Cardiovascular reactivity to two mental tasks was measured in 14 females during the follicular and luteal phase of menstruation over two menstrual cycles. The same tasks were subsequently given to a matched pair of males (N=14), at the same intervals as their corresponding females. Heart rate, blood pressure and HRV were used as indices of cardiovascular reactivity. Subjective mental workload was measured at the end of each task. Power spectral analysis of HRV showed that the high frequency (HF) component in HRV decreased more during the luteal phase than the follicular phase. The low frequency (LF) component in HRV and the LF/HF ratio in the luteal phase were significantly higher than that in the follicular phase. The LF component and the LF/HF ratio were significantly lower in females than in males; conversely, the HF component was significantly higher in females than in males. Neither significant effects of menstrual cycle, gender and mental stress nor any significant interactions were found for mental workload. These findings indicate that sympathetic nervous activity in the luteal phase is significantly greater than in the follicular phase whereas parasympathetic nervous activity is predominant in the follicular phase. The results also suggest that predominance of sympathetic nervous activity in males compared with a dominant parasympathetic nervous activity in females.
本研究的目的是通过比较女性和男性的心率变异性（HRV）以及其他生理和心理数据，来确定月经周期中心血管对精神压力反应的波动情况。在两个月经周期的卵泡期和黄体期，对14名女性进行了两项精神任务的心血管反应测量。随后，在相同的时间间隔内，给14名与之匹配的男性进行相同的任务。心率、血压和HRV被用作心血管反应的指标。在每项任务结束时测量主观精神负荷。HRV的功率谱分析表明，黄体期HRV中的高频（HF）成分比卵泡期下降得更多。黄体期HRV中的低频（LF）成分和LF/HF比值显著高于卵泡期。女性的LF成分和LF/HF比值显著低于男性；相反，女性的HF成分显著高于男性。对于精神负荷，未发现月经周期、性别和精神压力的显著影响，也未发现任何显著的交互作用。这些发现表明，黄体期的交感神经活动明显大于卵泡期，而副交感神经活动在卵泡期占主导地位。结果还表明，男性交感神经活动占优势，而女性副交感神经活动占主导。
