Hamer Mark, Boutcher Yati N, Park Young, Boutcher Stephen H
Psychobiology Group, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London, UK.
Biol Psychol. 2006 Aug;73(2):186-9. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2006.03.003. Epub 2006 May 15.
Skeletal muscle blood flow responses to stress have implications for psychobiological disease pathways. An important assumption underlying psychophysiological studies relating stress reactivity with disease risk is that individuals are characterized by stable response profiles that can be reliably assessed using acute psychophysiological stress testing. We examined the reproducibility of forearm vasodilatation, blood pressure, and cardiac responses to a 2 min Stroop mental challenge over two repeated stress sessions that were on average 3.6 months apart. Participants were 21 healthy men and women (aged 21.8+/-3.7 years). Vasodilatation, blood pressure and heart rate responses displayed no habituation between sessions, although there was significantly greater cardiac parasympathetic involvement during the second testing session. Significant test-retest correlations between the sessions were observed for both forearm blood flow and heart rate reactivity. These findings demonstrate skeletal muscle vasodilatation responses to repeated stress are robust, so may be a useful psychophysiological indicator in studies of stress reactivity and disease risk.
骨骼肌对压力的血流反应对心理生物学疾病途径具有重要意义。心理生理学研究中将应激反应性与疾病风险联系起来的一个重要假设是，个体具有稳定的反应特征，可通过急性心理生理应激测试进行可靠评估。我们在平均间隔3.6个月的两次重复应激测试中，研究了前臂血管舒张、血压和心脏对2分钟 Stroop 心理挑战的反应的可重复性。参与者为21名健康男性和女性（年龄21.8±3.7岁）。两次测试之间血管舒张、血压和心率反应未显示出适应性，尽管在第二次测试期间心脏副交感神经参与度明显更高。两次测试之间在前臂血流量和心率反应性方面均观察到显著的重测相关性。这些发现表明，骨骼肌对重复应激的血管舒张反应是稳定的，因此可能是应激反应性和疾病风险研究中一个有用的心理生理指标。
