Acute Emotional and Psychophysiological Effects of Aerobic Exercise

An experiment was conducted to examine the acute emotional and psychophysiological effects of a single bout of aerobic exercise. Forty active and 40 inactive college students were randomly assigned to an aerobic exercise or a waiting-period control condition. Self-report measures of mood and cardiovascular response measures to challenging cognitive tasks were collected before and after the 20-min exercise/control period to examine any exercise-induced changes. The results indicated that mood was significantly altered by the exercise activity, with reductions in tension and anxiety specifically evident. Exercise was not found to have any effects on cardiovascular reactivity. A test of aerobic fitness confirmed fitness differences between active and inactive participants, but no mood or reactivity effects related to activity status were obtained. These results suggest that both active and inactive individuals experience acute reductions in anxiety following single bouts of exercise, even in the absence of changes in cardiovascular reactivity. Implications for the continued investigation of the acute effects of exercise are discussed.     

The Inhibition of Cardiovascular Responses to Mental Stress Following Aerobic Exercise

The effects of exercise on subsequent psychophysiological responses to mental stress were assessed in a study of 30 normotensive male volunteers. Participants were randomly allocated to three experimental conditions--20-min exercise at 100 Watts (high exercise), 20-min exercise at 25 Watts (low exercise), or 20-min no exercise (control). After a recovery period of 20 min, all subjects performed a mental arithmetic task for four 5-min trials. Blood pressure and heart rate were monitored continuously using a Finapres, and respiration and electrodermal activity were also recorded. Baroreceptor reflex control of heart rate was assessed using power spectrum analysis. Exercise produced consistent increases in systolic blood pressure, heart rate, and subjective tension, together with reductions in systemic resistance and baroreflex sensitivity. The systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate reactions to mental arithmetic were significantly blunted in the high exercise compared with control conditions, with the low exercise group showing an intermediate pattern. Subjective responses to mental stress were unaffected by prior exercise. The pattern of hemodynamic response was not a result of changes in baroreflex sensitivity. The mechanisms underlying this result are discussed in relation to the discrepancies between subjective and physiological responses to mental stress, and the implications for the use of exercise in stress management.     

Aerobic Fitness Affects Cardiovascular and Catecholamine Responses to Stressors

Subjects of varying degrees of aerobic fitness were subjected to four laboratory stressors in a test of the hypothesis that aerobic fitness is associated with decreased responsiveness to stressors other than exercise. Blood pressure, heart rate, norepinephrine, epinephrine, and psychological responses to a film of industrial accidents (passive psychological stressor), the Stroop word color task (active psychological stressor), the cold pressor test (passive physical stressor), and running to exhaustion on a treadmill (active physical stressor) were measured. Baseline systolic blood pressure and relative diastolic responses to the film, Stroop task, and exercise were smaller in fit subjects over 40 than in less fit subjects of the same age group. Heart rates were lower in fit subjects at most times, except during and after maximal exercise. Norepinephrine was lower after 9 min of exercise in fit subjects, but was much higher at exhaustion, after these subjects had accomplished more work. Norepinephrine levels fell rapidly and were not different among groups 3 and 10 min after exercise. There was no preferential generalization of the “fitness effect” to the active psychological task.     

Effects of Exercise, Bedrest and Napping on Performance Decrement During 40 Hours

Young male Naval volunteers were denied normal noclurnal sleep and maintained on a 60-min lreatment-160-min testing schedule during 40 consecutive hrs. Ten subjects bicycled, 20 subjects controlled EEG activity during bedrest, and 10 subjects napped. Eight measures of addition, auditory vigilance, mood, and oral temperature were obtained. The Bedrest group showed significant impairment on all eight measures, and thus, gave no support to lite forced-rest theory of sleep function. The Exercise group was worse than the Nap and Bedrest groups for all measures. In spite of fragmented, reduced sleep (about 3.7 hrs per 24 hrs), the Nap group had no impairment on six of the measures. The results suggest that exercise increases the impairment due to sleep loss, and naps reduce or remove this impairment. Bedrest is not a substitute for sleep.     

Cardiovascular Reactivity in Type A and B Males to Mental Arithmetic and Aerobic Exercise at an Equivalent Oxygen Uptake

Cardiovascular hyperreactivity (i.e., response in excess of metabolic requirements) to psychological stress has been implicated in the development of coronary heart disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate cardiovascular hyperreactivity to psychological stress in Type A and B subjects. Fifteen Type A and 15 Type B young men performed mental arithmetic and cycle ergometry tasks. Linear regressions were calculated for each dependent variable during exercise with oxygen uptake serving as the independent variable. All cardiovascular variables were significantly correlated (p less than .0001) with oxygen uptake during exercise. The regression equations obtained during exercise were then used to predict the value of each cardiovascular variable at the oxygen uptake level obtained during mental arithmetic for each person. Repeated measures ANOVA compared responses observed during arithmetic with responses predicted from exercise at an equivalent oxygen uptake in Type A and B subjects. Heart rate, total peripheral resistance, and mean arterial pressure were significantly greater (p less than .0001) and stroke volume was significantly lower (p less than .0002) during arithmetic than during exercise, while Heather index, cardiac output, and arteriovenous oxygen difference did not differ significantly. No significant differences were found between Type A and B males. Results demonstrated that cardiovascular hyperreactivity was equally robust across Type A and B subjects.     

Acute and Chronic Effects of Aerobic and Resistance Exercise on Ambulatory Blood Pressure

Hypertension is a ubiquitous and serious disease. Regular exercise has been recommended as a strategy for the prevention and treatment of hypertension because of its effects in reducing clinical blood pressure; however, ambulatory blood pressure is a better predictor of target-organ damage than clinical blood pressure, and therefore studying the effects of exercise on ambulatory blood pressure is important as well. Moreover, different kinds of exercise might produce distinct effects that might differ between normotensive and hypertensive subjects.The aim of this study was to review the current literature on the acute and chronic effects of aerobic and resistance exercise on ambulatory blood pressure in normotensive and hypertensive subjects. It has been conclusively shown that a single episode of aerobic exercise reduces ambulatory blood pressure in hypertensive patients. Similarly, regular aerobic training also decreases ambulatory blood pressure in hypertensive individuals. In contrast, data on the effects of resistance exercise is both scarce and controversial. Nevertheless, studies suggest that resistance exercise might acutely decrease ambulatory blood pressure after exercise, and that this effect seems to be greater after low-intensity exercise and in patients receiving anti-hypertensive drugs. On the other hand, only two studies investigating resistance training in hypertensive patients have been conducted, and neither has demonstrated any hypotensive effect. Thus, based on current knowledge, aerobic training should be recommended to decrease ambulatory blood pressure in hypertensive individuals, while resistance exercise could be prescribed as a complementary strategy.     

Cardiovascular Feedback During Dynamic Exercise

The effects of verbal instructions, interbeat interval feedback, and feedback of the product of interbeat interval and pulse transit time in enabling subjects to decrease cardiovascular activity during exercise were studied in 36 healthy volunteers cycling a modified bicycle ergometer. During the 4 training sessions subjects given product feedback showed smaller decreases in interbeat interval and pulse transit time during exercise than did subjects receiving only verbal instructions. Subjects receiving interbeat interval feedback fell between the other two conditions. On the fifth session, during which feedback was not provided, no differences were found among the three conditions. The use of feedback of the product of interbeat interval and pulse transit time to control the sympathetic input to the heart and in the treatment of angina pectoris is discussed.     

Aerobic Fitness and the Cardiovascular Response to Stress

The observation that aerobically fit persons react to physical load with a smaller sympathetic response than do less fit subjects suggests that their response to psychological stress might also be reduced. The evidence for this, however, is far from consistent. It was argued that this inconsistency might be due to the incomplete measurement of the response system involved. In the present experiment two groups, which differed strongly in maximal aerobic power, were compared with respect to their cardiovascular response to a laboratory stressor. In addition to the traditional heart rate and blood pressure measurements, pre-ejection period, cardiac output, and peripheral resistance were assessed. Since only the part of the stress response that is not accounted for by metabolic needs might have pathological significance, the so-called "additional" responses were also measured. Fitness was shown to be associated with smaller sympathetic effects on both heart and vessels. The decrement in pre-ejection period and the heart rate response were smaller in the high fit group. The total peripheral resistance and diastolic blood pressure responses pointed to a much stronger vascular reactivity in the low fit group. Unexpectedly cardiac output did not increase during stress. The strong heart rate response in the low fit group was compensated by a reduction in stroke volume, which probably originated in an increased peripheral resistance. The largest discrepancy between the effects of sympathetic activation during stress and exercise occurred in the vessels, as demonstrated by the large "additional" response in total peripheral resistance during stress. The data point to the often neglected role of vascular processes in experiments of this kind. Furthermore, it seems necessary to take the effect of fitness into account when comparing subjects with respect to their cardiovascular stress response.     

Effect of Noise Distraction during Mental Arithmetic on Phasic Cardiovascular Activity

The present study investigated the effects of four experimental variations of mental arithmetic on subjective stress, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate. The four conditions were: 1) mental arithmetic only, 2) mental arithmetic with steady 90dB(A) white noise distraction, 3) mental arithmetic with steady real-life noise distraction averaging 90dB(A), and 4) mental arithmetic with varying real-life noise distraction averaging 90dB(A). Subjects were 63 healthy young adults of both genders. The statistical analyses evaluated gender and conditions as independent variables and initial response magnitude as well as within-task adaptation of blood pressure and heart rate. Observed differences for the various experimental conditions were remarkably few: 1) more systolic blood pressure adaptation was found during steady real-life noise distraction than in other conditions; 2) there was a trend toward diastolic blood pressure adaptation for all conditions except the variable real-life noise; and 3) enhanced heart rate responses were displayed during varying real-life noise distraction relative to the other conditions. Overall, the findings are held to indicate that blood pressure and heart rate initial reactivity and adaptation are unaffected by noise distraction with the exception of an exaggerated heart rate response in conditions of high stimulus variability.     

Cardiovascular Responses to Stress: II. Relationships to Aerobic Exercise Patterns

A sample of 174 men aged 18–22 years were divided into thirds based on self-reported levels of weekly aerobic exercise. Heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and pre-ejection period responses of these low, moderate, and high exercise groups were compared during a pretask rest and a later acclimated rest, a bicycle exercise task, a purported shock-avoidance reaction time task, and the cold pressor test. The low exercise subjects showed higher heart rates and marginally higher diastolic blood pressures than the high exercise subjects at rest. The low exercise subjects also showed greater myocardial responses to the mild exercise task and the reaction time task than the high exercise subjects, as reflected by group differences in heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and pre ejection period measures after covariance adjustment for baseline differences. Group differences observed in response to the cold pressor test were smaller and generally nonsignificant. These results were interpreted as evidence that aerobic exercise training may decrease beta-adrenergic myocardial responses to physical and behavioral challenges.     

自我概念,生活事件与心理健康

目的：本研究试图检验大学生自我概念与心理健康之间的关系，以及生活事件对大学生自我概念的影响，以探讨改善大学生心理健康状况的途径；方法：采用田纳西自我概念量表，大学生生活事件调查表及ＳＣＬ－９０对１９０名大学生被试进行测试，结果：总体自我概念及其各个特定方面，包括生理自我，道德／伦理自我，心理自我，家庭自我和社会自我，均与个体心理健康状况有显著关联，自我概念较积极的被试其心理健康状况良好；社会适应不     

Mental task demands and cardiovascular response patterns

Though it is well known that solving mental tasks elicits tonic increases in cardiovascular activity, a good theory explaining the specificity of this effect is lacking. It is also unclear why different kinds of mental tasks elicit different response patterns. The aim of the experiment was to compare cardiovascular response patterns during three tasks matched for their duration (8 min) and probability of success (.5): a simple RT task and two numeral tasks. One of them (a RUN task) involved program running (performing basic arithmetical operations), the other (an EDIT task) required searching for a problem solution. Seven cardiovascular variables, measured by a Portapres monitor, were analyzed. The analysis showed, among other findings, that the tonic increase in blood pressure and heart rate was greater during the RUN task than during the RT task. On the other hand, the EDIT task and the RT task produced almost identical response patterns.     

Cardiovascular Responses to Mental Arithmetic and Handgrip During Different Conditions of Postural Change

Twenty healthy male subjects, aged 18–29 yrs, were studied during three sequences of four different postural trials-sitting, sitting to standing, standing, and standing to sitting. The first sequence was a baseline, without other stimulation. In the remaining two, subjects performed a mental arithmetic task and an isometric handgrip task during each trial (counterbalanced). Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and skin conductance were recorded during the trials. The physiological responses to the two tasks were shown to vary as a function of the specific postural trial. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure were generally more sensitive to these effects than heart rate or skin conductance. The two tasks facilitated increases in blood pressure during the sitting to standing trials, especially during the standing phase. The increases in blood pressure were comparable to those reported previously for voluntary control and biofeedback procedures. Mental and physical strategies are effective in increasing blood pressure during postural change and may be useful in the management of orthostatic hypotension.     

Effects of Prolonged Sleep Deprivation, With and Without Chronic Physical Exercise, on Mood and Performance

The effects of physical exercise and sleep deprivation on mood and cognitive performance were studied in 12 healthy young male volunteers deprived of sleep on two occasions. During the first 60-hr period without sleep, half of the subjects walked on a treadmill at 25–30% of their maximum aerobic capacity (Exercise condition) for 1 out of every 3 hrs while the remaining 6 subjects remained physically inactive (No Exercise condition) during that same hour. Eight weeks later the same 12 subjects underwent an identical sleep-deprivation protocol except that those who were previously inactive exercised, while those who previously exercised remained inactive. Throughout the sleep deprivation periods, subjects in both conditions completed subjective assessments of fatigue, sleepiness and mood every 3 hrs, performed an auditory vigilance task every 6 hrs, and completed a cognitive test battery every 12 hrs. The results revealed clear decrements in mood and performance as a function of sleep loss. However, with the exception of somewhat more long reaction times in the Exercise condition, exercise neither increased nor decreased the impairment induced by sleep deprivation.     

大学生情绪智力、生活事件对心理健康的影响研究

目的考察情绪智力在大学生生活事件——心理健康关系中的作用。方法利用自编大学生情绪智力问卷以及青少年生活事件问卷和症状自评量表（SCL-90）对377名大学生问卷施测,利用多元线性回归奸数据进行分析。结果①帮助他人调节情绪、利用情绪解决问题和调控自己的情绪对心理健康有主效应;②情绪知觉与帮助他人调节情绪在生活事件——心理健康中缓冲效应显著,中等程度的情绪知觉和较高的帮助他人调节情绪可以缓冲生活事件对心理健康的不良影响。结论大学生情绪智力既可直接影响心理健康,也可以缓冲生活事件对心理健康的影响。     

不同家庭环境师范生的心理健康、学业成就研究

目的 探讨不同家庭环境对师范生的心理健康、学业成就的影响.方法 随机抽取300名师范生填写症状自评量表、社会支持评定量表及一般情况调查表.结果 来自农村的经济条件较差家庭的师范生存在人际关系敏感,学习成绩、参加社交活动情况与家庭经济状况无关,但与社会支持有关.结论 不同家庭环境师范生的心理健康状况存在差异,应加强心理卫生工作.     

老年心脑血管病人抑郁状态调查及心理护理效果评价

目的:探讨老年心脑血管病抑郁状态及适宜的心理护理措施.方法:对本院住院的450例心脑血管病人(心理护理组300例,对照组150例)在住院3天内、出院时及出院后3个月用抑郁自评量表(SDS)进行测评.结果: 450例老年心脑血管病患者入院时的抑郁发生率67.33%,其中轻度抑郁者167例,占37.12%,中度抑郁者84例,占18.67%,重度抑郁者52例,占11.56%.心理护理组出院时及出院后3个月总体抑郁状态均有降低.结论:有针对性地对老年心脑血管病人实施心理护理,可提高治疗效果,改善患者的生活质量.     

身体锻炼与心理健康

Scientific physical exercises have good effect on mental health , and has unique treating function to the patients with anxiety, depression and schizophrenia . The types of physical exercises , intensity, duration and density during pysical exercises have influence on its result.