TY - JOUR
T1 - Cardiovascular and neuroendocrine adjustment to public speaking and mental arithmetic stressors
AU - Al'Absi, Mustafa
AU - Bongard, Stephan
AU - Buchanan, Tony
AU - Pincomb, Gwendolyn A.
AU - Licinio, Julio
AU - Lovallo, William R.
PY - 1997/5
Y1 - 1997/5
N2 - In this study, we evaluated cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and psychological adjustment to repeated presentations of a public speaking and a mental arithmetic task. Brief versions of mental arithmetic tasks have been used widely in previous reactivity studies, and growing attention to more socially salient tasks has led to the increased use of public speaking tasks. However, psychophysiological adjustment during extended and repeated exposure to these tasks has not been delineated. In the present study, 52 healthy men worked on three 8-min presentations of public speaking and of mental arithmetic in a repeated measure design. Both tasks produced substantial cardiovascular, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and cortisol responses; public speaking produced greater changes. Repeated presentations of public speaking produced a stable pattern of cardiac activation, whereas repetitions of the mental arithmetic initially produced large cardiac responses that changed to a more vascular tonus across task periods. Both tasks increased negative moods. However, correlations between the endocrine, cardiovascular, and negative moods were significant only during the public speaking stressor. The public speaking task is a socially relevant experimental protocol for studying reactivity in the laboratory setting and elicits relatively high, stable, and homogeneous responses.
AB - In this study, we evaluated cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and psychological adjustment to repeated presentations of a public speaking and a mental arithmetic task. Brief versions of mental arithmetic tasks have been used widely in previous reactivity studies, and growing attention to more socially salient tasks has led to the increased use of public speaking tasks. However, psychophysiological adjustment during extended and repeated exposure to these tasks has not been delineated. In the present study, 52 healthy men worked on three 8-min presentations of public speaking and of mental arithmetic in a repeated measure design. Both tasks produced substantial cardiovascular, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and cortisol responses; public speaking produced greater changes. Repeated presentations of public speaking produced a stable pattern of cardiac activation, whereas repetitions of the mental arithmetic initially produced large cardiac responses that changed to a more vascular tonus across task periods. Both tasks increased negative moods. However, correlations between the endocrine, cardiovascular, and negative moods were significant only during the public speaking stressor. The public speaking task is a socially relevant experimental protocol for studying reactivity in the laboratory setting and elicits relatively high, stable, and homogeneous responses.
KW - ACTH
KW - Blood pressure
KW - Cortisol
KW - Hemodynamic adjustment
KW - Interpersonal stress
KW - Public speaking
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U2 - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1997.tb02397.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1997.tb02397.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 9175441
AN - SCOPUS:0030911675
SN - 0048-5772
VL - 34
SP - 266
EP - 275
JO - Psychophysiology
JF - Psychophysiology
IS - 3
ER -