Autonomic, hormonal, and subjective responses to a modified version of the TSSTa pilot study

  1. Espín López, Laura 123
  2. Salvador, Alicia 2
  3. Gómez-Amor, Jesús 23
  1. 1 Murcia Institute of Biomedical Research
  2. 2 Universitat de València
    info

    Universitat de València

    Valencia, España

    ROR https://ror.org/043nxc105

  3. 3 Universidad de Murcia
    info

    Universidad de Murcia

    Murcia, España

    ROR https://ror.org/03p3aeb86

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Journal:
Anales de psicología

ISSN: 0212-9728,  1695-2294

Year of publication: 2021

Issue Title: Cerebro y conducta: un enfoque neurocientífico/psicofisiológico

Volume: 37

Issue: 3

Pages: 424-431

Type: Article

DOI: 10.6018/ANALESPS.382451 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDIGITUM editor

More publications in: Anales de psicología

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Abstract

The aim of this research was to study hormonal, autonomic and affective responses to a modified version of the stressor TSST in a sample of young university students composed for thirty-eight subjects (11 men and twenty seven women, 11 in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, 16 women in the follicular phase). The hormonal response was evaluated with levels of cortisol. Heart rate and Electrodermal Activity were recorded during all the experimental session and trait-state anxiety was evaluated before and after the task. The speech phase elicited the highest heart rate, frequency of non-specific response and skin conductance level, showing significant differences mainly with the habituation phase. However, the salivary cortisol response was not significant with respect to stressor. In relation with sex differences, regardless of the stressor, menshowed higher frequency of non-specific response, greater skin conductance level than women and  higher cortisol levels in comparison with women in the luteal phase. State-anxiety was similar pre-/post task and did not reveal any difference associated to sex or menstrual cycle phase. Our results suggest that the HPA axis not response to sitting TSST and provided evidence that TSST elicits different pattern of psychophysiological response depending on some protocol variations.

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Funding information

This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PSI2016-78763-P). The authors wish to thank Ms. Cindy DePoy for the revision of the English text. Note. Funding bay Spanish Ministerio de Econom?a y Competitividad (PSI2016-78763-P).

Funders

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