Cerebral and neural regulation of cardiovascular activity during mental stress

Abstract

BackgroundMental arithmetic has been verified inducing cerebral and cardiovascular responses. However, the mechanism and sequential responses are still ambiguous. This study aims to reveal the mechanism of cardiovascular and autonomic responses and the related scalp positions that regulate the autonomic nerves system (ANS) during MA task.Methods34 healthy male subjects aged between 19 and 27 years old (mean age 23.6 ± 2.3 years) were recruited in. Electrocardiogram, impedance cardiography, beat-to-beat blood pressure and electroencephalography were measured simultaneously and continuously during the experiments. And the analysis of time–frequency, approximate entropy and Pearson correlation coefficient were adopted. For statistical comparison, paired t test is utilized in the study.ResultsThe results showed that mental arithmetic task increased heart rate (from 72.35 ± 1.88 to 80.38 ± 2.34), blood pressure (systolic blood pressure: from 112.09 ± 3.23 to 126.79 ± 3.44; diastolic blood pressure: from 74.15 ± 1.93 to 81.20 ± 1.97), and cardiac output (from 8.71 ± 0.30 to 9.68 ± 0.35), and the mental arithmetic induced physiological responses could be divided into two stages, the first stage (10–110 s) and late stage (150–250 s). The high frequency power component (HF) of HRV decreased during MA, but the normalized low frequency power component (nLF) and LF/HF ratio of HRV increased only at the late stage. Moreover, during first stage, the correlations between approximate entropy of electroencephalography at Fp2, Fz, F4, F7 and the corresponding time–frequency results of HF were significant. During the late stage, the correlations between approximate entropy of electroencephalography at Fp2, Fz, C3, C4 and the corresponding nLF was significant.ConclusionsOur results demonstrated that (1) mental stress induces time-dependent ANS activity and cardiovascular response. (2) Parasympathetic activity is lower during mental arithmetic task, but sympathetic nerve is activated only during late stage of mental arithmetic task. (3) Brain influences the cardiac activity through prefrontal and temporal cortex with the activation of ANS during mental arithmetic.

Dynamics of HRV Parameters During Cognitive Task Performance and Degree of the Light Flash Rhythm Assimilation

“…Так, у испытуемых выделенных групп наблюдалась разная динамика изменений показателей hF и lF/hF. Если у лиц с меньшей выраженностью навязывания ритма были зарегистрированы значимые изменения этих показателей, то у испытуемых с высокой степенью навязы- [14,15]. Соотношение высокочастотного и низкочастотного компонентов (lF/hF) чаще всего рассматривают как отражение ваго-симпатического баланса.…”

Analysis of the Relationship between Road Accidents and Psychophysical State of Drivers through Wearable Devices

“…In particular, in this second stage, the LF/HF ratio was considered, being able to provide information on the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic activity of the autonomic nervous system. High values of this ratio are linked to stressful situations involving greater activity of the sympathetic system, while low values are related to relaxed conditions, with a predominance of parasympathetic activity [15,[17][18][19].…”

“…Trying to assess the psychophysical state of a person as objectively as possible, methods evolved from simple questionnaires to a direct evaluation of parameters, allowed by new and smarter technological possibilities. In the analyses performed within this study, the physiological signals taken into consideration, according to the literature review, were heartbeat (in particular, heart rate variability (HRV) and some of its components), skin conductivity (galvanic skin response (GSR)), and respiratory rate (RR) [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. These parameters and their functionality are described together with the method.…”

Preface: Computational and experimental methods for biological research: cardiovascular diseases and beyond

“…Some recent developments in computational and experimental methods for biological research beyond cardiovascular system were also included in the issue [29–36]. They included studies for bones [29, 31], mental stress [30], eyes [32–34], and tumour growth [35]. Effects of swimming training on carotid arterial stiffness and hemodynamics in young overweight adults were investigated [36].…”