Effect of chronic psychoemotional stress on subpopulation spectrum of T-lymphocytes in immunocompetent organs in male mice

Subpopulation spectrum of T lymphocytes (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD25+, and CD3(+)25+) in thymus, spleen and inguinal lymphatic nodes have been studied in male mice after 20 days of psychoemotional stress produced by social defeats in daily agonistic confrontations. A reduction of total number of cells, of absolute numbers of all researched subpopulations of lymphocytes and % CD3+ cells in thymus of submissive mice was shown in comparison with intact animals. Reduction of total number of splenocytes and absolute numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes has been observed in a spleen of submissive mice. Besides, % CD3+, CD25+, CD4+ and CD25+ cells were increased in these animals in comparison with intact mice. The absolute number of cells with CD8 phenotype was increased in inguinal lymphatic nodes. The data obtained suggest that the chronic psychoemotional stress is accompanied by serious changes of the cellular link of immunity. The effect of chronic emotional social stress on mutual interaction of the central and peripheral links of immunity has been discussed.     

Disorders of Autonomic Control under Conditions of Long-Term Psychoemotional Stress: a Risk Factor and a Predictor of Unfavorable Clinical Course of Cerebral Insult

We describe the results of an analysis of the morbidity, clinical course, and mortality resulting from cerebral insult developing under conditions of acute (Spitak earthquake) and long-term (long-lasting energy crisis, military actions, social deprivation, etc.) psychoemotional stresses acting upon a large human population (on the territory of the entire country, Armenia). It is concluded that autonomic disorders related to acute psychoemotional stress play the role of a risk factor responsible for an increase in the frequency of nonfatal disorders of cerebral circulation. At the same time, the respective disorders induced by long-term stress should be considered a predictor of an unfavorable (sometimes fatal) clinical course of cerebral insult. Hypotheses on the influence of changes in fundamental neurophysiological mechanisms of the autonomic nervous system, which result from the effects of psychoemotional stress, on the clinical result of cerebrovascular diseases and, in particular, of cerebral insult are discussed.     

Human stress phase estimation method

Human stress reaction phases have been studied in psychoemotional stress. Objective criteria for stress reaction phases associated with distinctive changes in heart rhythm variability and cognitive function have been revealed using Stroop-test computerized variant.     

Effects of olfactory stimuli on students with different tones of the autonomic nervous system

The effect of olfactory stimuli was determined on students (men and women) with different tones of the autonomic nervous system under moderate psychoemotional stress conditions (before an academic test). It was found that the direction of changes in the heart rate variability values of students after olfactory stimulation is determined by the initial tone of the autonomic nervous system. The conclusion was made that olfactory stimuli may be used for correcting psychoemotional stress in students more efficiently if the tone of the autonomic nervous system is taken into consideration.     

Changes in Psychological and Physiological Parameters in Girls during the Individual Annual Cycle

Female students (N = 538) of the medical academy and the pedagogical college were psychophysiologically examined in different periods of the individual annual cycle (IAC), which lasts from one birthday to the next, with color, individual minute, and mental arithmetic tests. In addition, heart rhythm variation (HRV), anxiety, number of iris nerve rings, creativity, extroversion/introversion, and salivary cortisol were established, and integral stress reactivity (SR) and psychoemotional stress (PES) indices were calculated. It was found that the lowest anxiety, uneasiness, cortisol, diastolic arterial pressure during the mental arithmetic test, total deviation from the autogenous norm (Luscher's test), SR, and PES were observed in the first trimester (IAC months I–III). On the contrary, the fourth trimester (IAC months X–XII) was characterized by a decrease in extroversion and HRV and an increase in cortisol, anxiety, uneasiness, stress reactivity, and PES. Along with this, the fourth trimester differed from the other IAC periods in that students had the greatest total creativity score, which was considered as a compensatory phenomenon.     

Effect of voluntary EEG α power increase training on heart rate variability

The following objectives were set out to study the effect of EEG α power increase training on the heart rate variability (HRV) as an index of the autonomic regulation of cognitive functions: (1) to establish the interrelation between a voluntary increase in the α power in the individual upper α band and the HRV and related characteristics of cognitive and emotional spheres; (2) to determine the nature of the relationship between the α-activity indices and HRV depending on the resting α-frequency EEG pattern; and (3) to study how the individual α-frequency EEG pattern is reflected in the HRV changes as a result of biofeedback training. Psychometric indices of cognitive performance and the characteristics of EEG α activity and HRV were recorded in 27 healthy men 18–34 years of age before, during, and after ten training sessions of a voluntary increase in α power in the individual upper α band with the eyes closed. To determine the biofeedback effect in the α power increase training, the data of two groups were compared: the experimental, with a real biofeedback (14 subjects), and the control, with a sham biofeedback (13 subjects). The follow-up effect of the training was assessed one month after its end. The results showed that α biofeedback training increased the resting α frequency, improved cognitive performance, reduced psychoemotional stress, and increased HRV only in the subjects with a low baseline α frequency. In the subjects with a high baseline resting α frequency, the α biofeedback training had no effect on the resting α power and cognitive performance but reduced the HRV (judging by the pNN ₅₀ parameter). The positive correlation between the α peak frequency and HRV in subjects with initially low α frequency and the negative correlation in the subjects with a high baseline α frequency explains the opposite biofeedback effects on HRV in subjects with low and high α frequency. From the theoretical standpoint, the results of this study contribute to understanding the mechanisms of heart-brain neurovisceral relationships and their effect on the cognitive performance. From the applied standpoint, they suggest that EEG biofeedback can be used for improving autonomic regulation in healthy subjects and the development of individual approaches to the development of the biofeedback technology, which can be used both in clinical practice for treatment and rehabilitation of psychosomatic syndromes and in educational training.     

Emotional Stress in Students during Examinations

The psychoemotional reactions of students caused by examinations were studied on the basis of a modern theory of emotions by means of a complex of modern psychophysiological methods. To study the role of probabilistic forecasting of results in the development of the psychoemotional state, each student was asked to predict his or her mark. Groups were formed based on the difference between the expectations and the actual mark. In general, examination-induced emotional stress in students was characterized by a complex of psychophysiological and autonomic changes depending on the probabilistic estimation of the mark, preparedness for the examination, and the result. The theoretic aspect of the study was related to the development of the concept of emotion genesis. The practical aspect included educational process optimization in order to improve the psychoemotional status of students.     

Changes in the Heart Rate Parameters under the Influence of Academic School Activities in Adolescents with Mental Retardation

Examination of seventh-grade schoolchildren revealed that changes in the heart rate parameters observed during a day or a week in mentally retarded (MR) adolescents have some specific features as compared with values in healthy children of the same age. Appreciable variations of power in all frequency bands and a pronounced decrease in the low-frequency spectrum power at the end of the day were characteristic of MR schoolchildren. In the middle of the week, the tone of the sympathetic nervous system dropped, while adaptive changes in the level of psychoemotional tension were not observed. In healthy adolescents, the heart rate parameters were stable throughout a school day or week, whereas psychoemotional tension rose in the middle of the week. These results provide a basis for modification of the learning regimen in correctional schools. Heart rate analysis may be used for assessing the efficiency of the academic process in children with learning problems.     

Sleep stages after psychoemotional exposure: individuality-dependent changes

Sleep stages were studied in healthy subjects with the aid of a battery of tests involving questionnaires, psycho-tests, motor tests, polysomnography, and cardiomonitoring. An induced psychoemotional tension was shown to change the 1st sleep stage, to decrease percentage of the 2nd stage of the slow-wave sleep, to redistribute the delta-sleep, and to suppress the REM sleep mechanism. The cerebro-visceral function of increasing the heart rate and its variability in night sleep was also affected. Patterns of the sleep structure changes depended on personality characteristics of the subjects. Thereupon, individual programs should be used in studies of psychoemotional stress effects upon the sleep pattern.     

Integrated evaluation of the influence of a northern environment on human metabolism and physiological and psychoemotional states

A socially uniform group of apparently healthy people aged 30–59 years who live in cities of the European North (62°N) was examined. During the course of a year, blood metabolites, parameters of functioning of the cardiovascular system, the psychoemotional state, and actual nutrition were studied monthly. An optimal state of metabolism and physiological systems was found in May and December, whereas, during the winter-spring and autumn-winter periods, the maintenance of energy homeostasis was subjected to stress. Analysis of the data obtained helped to evaluate the key aspects in the adaptation of the body to seasonal changes in environmental factors: the role of anaerobic and aerobic oxidative processes in the maintenance of temperature homeostasis and the relationship between metabolic changes and cardiovascular system functioning and the psychoemotional state.     

Effectiveness of emWave Biofeedback in Improving Heart Rate Variability Reactivity to and Recovery from Stress

The current study examined the efficacy of heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback using emWave, a publicly available biofeedback device, to determine whether training affected physiological tone and stress responses. Twenty-seven individuals aged 18–30 years were randomized to a treatment or no-treatment control group. Treatment participants underwent 4–8 sessions of emWave intervention, and all participants attended pre-treatment and post-treatment assessment sessions during which acute stressors were administered. Physiological data were collected at rest, during stress, and following stress. emWave treatment did not confer changes in tonic measures of HRV or in HRV recovery following stress. However, treatment participants exhibited higher parasympathetic responses (i.e., pNN50) during stress presentations at the post-treatment session than their control counterparts. No treatment effects were evident on self-reported measures of stress, psychological symptoms, or affect. Overall, results from the current study suggest that the emWave may confer some limited treatment effects by increasing HRV during exposure to stress. Additional development and testing of the emWave treatment protocol is necessary before it can be recommended for regular use in clinical settings, including the determination of what physiological changes are clinically meaningful during HRV biofeedback training.     

Assessment of Heart Autonomic Control on the Basis of Spectral Analysis of Heart Rate Variability

An orthostatic test with frequency-controlled breathing (with a respiration period of 10 s) or spontaneous breathing was used to analyze frequency estimates of the heart rate variability (HRV) in the low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) ranges in young men and women. It was demonstrated that the spectral components of HRV bear no signs of sex differentiation, suggesting a uniform structural organization of the system of autonomic nervous control of the heart (SANCH) in humans. The LF component of the HRV spectrum is a marker of the functional state of the SANCH; it should be studied under conditions of controlled breathing at a frequency of 0.1 Hz. The HF and LF components of the HRV characterize the state of the SANCH at a given moment and do not reflect directly its adaptation reserve. The HF component of the HRV is interesting as a parameter that may be used for estimating the changes in the adaptation reserve of heart autonomic control. It is preferable to analyze this component in the absence of external disturbances in the LF range of the spectrum.     

Nociceptive system response to repetitive painful stimuli during chronic psychoemotional stress in humans

Repeated nocigenic stimuli applied to the skin evoked a hyperalgesia in healthy subjects while in patients with neurasthenia which is a natural model of a chronic psychoemotional stress, they evoked a hyperalgesia accompanied by sensitization. The differences in the nociceptive system responses show particularities in reactivity (plasticity) of a wide dynamic range of the spinal neurons under chronic psychoemotional stress that is due to disorders in supraspinal descending modulation system of plasticity in the spinal nociceptive neurons.     

Peculiarities of behavior of offspring of rats-ambidexters surviving vital stress

Psychogenic trauma inflicted to mothers (Wistar rats) during pregnancy is more tragic for establishment of psychoemotional functions in offspring than in the rat pups whose mothers survived prior to pregnancy the stress connected with threat of life. The “antenatal stress” causes in the one-month-old offspring the depression-like behavior, while the stress one month prior to impregnation—the increased anxiety. Disturbances of the integral behavior in the test “open field” can be caused both by the acute psychogenic trauma of mothers and by its delayed consequences. The sharp impoverishment of behavior and the more pronounced psychoemotional disturbances are realized in female individuals regardless of the terms of action. In the male offspring the vital stress during their mothers’ pregnancy produces the rougher behavioral disturbances, than stress prior to impregnation.     

Compensatory Reserves of the Human Body and Population Health under Conditions of Exposure to Chronic Anthropogenic Factors and Prolonged Psychoemotional Stress

Long-term exposure to adverse factors of various origin and intensity is expected to cause a significant decrease in the compensatory reserves and adaptive capacity of the human body. These changes deteriorate the population health status in general. A quantitative method of evaluation of the decrease in the compensatory reserves and adaptive capacity, as well as the resistance to chronic exposure to extreme factors of various origin and intensity, was developed. This method is based on the concept of stress and programmable nonspecific physiological reactions of the human body put forward by H. Selye. Model analytical curves of the time-related decrease in the volume of compensatory reserves and the increase in the probability of development of adaptive disorders and failure of the adaptation process were calculated for the cases of long-term exposure to various stressors (the factors were applied individually or in combination). This method allowed the levels of population health risk induced by various factors to be compared to each other. This is of particular importance under conditions of the existing trend toward an increase in the intensity of anthropogenic stress factors against the background of long-term psychoemotional stress. Statistical data on changes in the rates of morbidity and mortality and the life expectancy of Russian people for the period 1960–2000 were analyzed. The levels of risk of the negative impact on population health induced by various stress factors (radiation, chemical environmental pollution, and long-term psychoemotional stress) were compared to each other.     

Effect of chronic stress during prepubertal period of life on development of inherited arterial hypertension

The immediate and long-lasting effects of environmental stress during prepubertal life on arterial blood pressure (AP) were studied in rats with inherited stress-induced arterial hypertension (ISIAH) and normotensive Wistar rats. Two models of chronic stress (the 21st-32nd postnatal days) were used: repeated handling and unpredictable stress of daily exposures to a variety of mild physical or psychoemotional stressors. Chronic prepubertal stress did not affect the basal or stress-induced AP levels in young or adult Wistar rats. In ISIAH rats, chronic stress during the early phase of hypertension development did not accelerate its formation and did not augment its manifestation in adults. Moreover, the basal AP was decreased in young and adult ISIAH rats exposed to prepubertal stress as compared to the age-matched controls. AP elevation under acute stress conditions was lower in young ISIAH rats exposed to unpredictable stress. No long-lasting effect of prepubertal stress on acute stress-induced AP elevation in adults was found. The conclusion was drawn that moderate physical and psychoemotional training at prehypertensive stage can positively affect the development of inherited arterial hypertension.     

The assessment of stress phase objective criteria in humans

The stress reactions phases have been studied in humans in psychoemotional strain. The stress reactions phases objective criteria associated with certain cardiac rhythm variability alterations and cognitive function have been revealed. The study was performed using computerized Stroop-test.     

Interaction of psychoemotional state and activity of the immune system

As shown, there are direct and reverse functional connections between nervous and immune systems. Different shifts in psychoemotional reactivity induced by chronic stress or mental depression are accompanied with immunological disturbance, and on the contrary, disorders of immune state may be source of changes in mental functions. The pineal hormone melatonin, anxiolytic and antidepressant drugs simultaneously influences on the cerebral structures and immune system. These effects may be important part of specific psychopharmacological activity of the drugs.     

Changes in parameters of tachography and heart rate variability in students differing in the level of psychoemotional stress and type of temperament during an academic test week

Female students were examined to evaluate the effect of a test week on the parameters of tachography and heart rate variability depending on their initial psychoemotional stress level and type of temperament. A test week was shown to be a rather weak stressor, which virtually did not affect the psychological status of the students. However, their autonomic status clearly changed during the test week. This was caused by activation of the sympathetic autonomic system and was observed in both the students with a favorable psychoemotional state and choleric and sanguine subjects.     

Influence of examination stress and psychoemotional characteristics on the blood pressure and heart rate regulation in female students

During the semester and immediately before an examination, changes in the heart rate variability, blood pressure, and state anxiety induced by examination stress, as well as the dependence of these changes on the probabilistic prediction and actual examination mark, were investigated. Before an examination, most students exhibited an increase in state anxiety, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate; the last of these is connected with an increase in the LF/HF ratio. The behavior of the cardiovascular system of the students (who were females) under psychoemotional stress varied considerably depending on how well they were prepared for the examination and on the subjective prediction of success. The importance of the type of heart rate regulation during the semester for the progress of examination stress was established.