Newer issues on the topics of stress and of exercise physiology

The background concerns the present-day psychobiological construct on stress and its models. Psychoneuroendocrine mechanisms, cellular and molecular alterations, oxidative and immune reactions and stress system disorder, related to physical, psychosocial and emotional stress became hot research areas. Other important directions regard occupational stress, objective and subjective assessment methods and stress prevention and management. For the physiology of exercise the investigation of central and peripheral limiting factors of human physical performances and the involvement of neuroscience to exercise studies are of main interest. A commentary of the stress concept in terms of testability (Popper) and of a paradigm (Kuhn) follows. The contributions of the Cluj laboratory to the neuroendocrine control in stress, exercise and work, leading to some practical outcomes, and the connections between psychoanalysis and the stress construct are discussed.