Department Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan, 2, 1050 Brussel, Belgium.
Physiol Behav. 2010 Sep 1;101(2):218-23. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2010.04.037. Epub 2010 May 6.
To recreate stress in laboratory conditions, the nature of the elicited physiological reactions to the presentation of mental tasks has been extensively studied. However, whether this experimental response is equivalent to real-life stress reactivity is still under debate. We investigated cardio-respiratory reactivity to a sequential protocol of different mental tasks of varying difficulties, some of them involving emotional material, and repeated the measures in a baseline and in a real-life stress situation. R-R interval (RRI), breathing frequency and volumes, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were computed. Baseline results showed a superior sensitivity of respiratory parameters to mental task load over RRI and RSA, no effect of task difficulty or emotional material, and a habituation response of all parameters along the protocol. Stress results showed a dual effect: first, a decreased RRI and RSA in rest values, and second, a decreased reactivity in RRI in response to mental tasks. These findings are discussed through the interaction of activation, considered to be a tonic variable, and arousal, as a phasic response.
为了在实验室条件下重现压力，人们广泛研究了在呈现心理任务时所引起的生理反应的性质。然而，这种实验反应是否等同于现实生活中的应激反应仍存在争议。我们研究了心血管-呼吸反应对不同难度的连续心理任务序列的反应，其中一些任务涉及情绪材料，并在基线和现实生活应激情况下重复了这些测量。计算了 R-R 间期（RRI）、呼吸频率和容量以及呼吸窦性心律失常（RSA）。基线结果表明，呼吸参数对心理任务负荷的敏感性优于 RRI 和 RSA，任务难度或情绪材料没有影响，并且所有参数在整个方案中都呈现出习惯化反应。应激结果显示出双重效应：首先，休息时 RRI 和 RSA 降低，其次，RRI 对心理任务的反应性降低。这些发现通过激活的相互作用来讨论，激活被认为是一种紧张变量，而唤醒则是一种阶段性反应。
