Effects of Pre-cooling and Per-cooling on Neural, Physiological, and Functional Responses in Active Young Girls

Abstract

Background: Stressful environments, especially air temperature, have significant effects on human physiological responses to physical activity. Objectives: The current study aimed to determine the effects of pre-cooling and per-cooling on neural, physiological, and functional responses in active young girls. Methods: Twelve active girls (age 24.6 ± 1.4, weight 55.46 ± 8.18, height 165.1 ± 5.91) were tested in three separate sessions with intervals of three days between each session. All subjects performed the Balke test in three groups either without an ice vest (control and pre-cooling) or with an ice vest (per-cooling) in each session, randomly. Pre-cooling was applied with an ice vest for 30 min just before the test, while per-cooling was used with an ice vest from the beginning of the test to exhaustion. A Buerer FT-70 digital thermometer, polar-FT60 heart rate monitoring, Microlife blood pressure monitoring, and ELISA technique were used to measure core body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, dopamine, cortisol, and lactate dehydrogenase, respectively. Two-way repeated-measures ANOVA was applied to analyze the data with a confidence interval of 95%. Results: The heart rate and core body temperature significantly decreased at the end of the test in the pre-cooling and per-cooling groups (P < 0.05). There was an improved performance with an increase in Tmax in the per-cooling group compared to the control group (P < 0.05) although this difference was not significant in the pre-cooling group compared to the control group (P > 0.05). Dopamine, cortisol, and lactate dehydrogenize increased in the groups in comparison with the pretest (P < 0.05) even though these differences were not significant in the comparison between the groups (P > 0.05). Conclusion: The findings suggest that pre-cooling and per-cooling could be used as a beneficial method to improve performance due to not only a decrease in core body temperature and heart rate but also an increase in the level of dopamine and cortisol. Moreover, per-cooling was more effective than pre-cooling to increase performance.