Authors:
Masahiro Inazawa
;
Yuki Ban
;
Naoki Tateyama
and
Shin’ichi Warisawa
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Frontier Science, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
Keyword(s):
Chronic Stress, Sympathetic Activity, Corticotropin-releasing Hormone, Cortisol.
Abstract:
Intermittent exposure to stressors disrupts the negative feedback mechanism of cortisol toward corticotropin-releasing hormones. In this study, this condition is referred to as chronic stress. Chronic stress causes a variety of recurring, long-term, incurable illnesses, such as major depression. Therefore, it is important to understand chronic stress on a daily basis. We propose a chronic stress estimation method using sympathetic sedation time measurements as a non-invasive, short-time, and highly accurate method. This method determines the degree of chronic stress according to the length of time until the sympathetic activity subsides after stressor loading. To verify the feasibility of the proposed method, we conducted an experiment comparing the sympathetic sedation times among a healthy group, middle group, and chronic stress group classified by the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology. We calculated sympathetic sedation time from the trend of change in RRV at calm after
stressor loading due to a two-back task. As a result of the experiment, which consisted of nine participants, the sympathetic sedation time in the chronic stress group was longer than in the healthy and middle groups, supporting the feasibility of this method.
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