Differential beta- and alpha-adrenergic activation during psychological stress

The responsivity of several cardiovascular indices to a computerized mental arithmetic stress and a cold presser stress were investigated in 22 healthy adult subjects. The major findings were that the largely beta-adrenergically driven T-wave amplitude, pre-ejection period, R-wave to pulse interval, and left ventricular ejection time values responded only to mental arithmetic; a significant decrease in cardiac output and increase in peripheral resistance were elicited during the cold presser test; inter-beat-interval and subjective stress ratings responded significantly to both stresses compared to baseline levels, but more intensely to mental arithmetic than the cold presser test; blood pressure, stroke volume and the maximum of the first derivative of the raw impedance signal responded unspecifically to both stresses. These findings support the idea that cardiovascular responses to psychological challenge depend on the level of cognitive processing required for the task. In addition, the superfluity of multiple variable measurements to study cardiovascular reactivity in such situations is discussed.