Energy resource depletion, task difficulty, and cardiovascular response to a mental arithmetic challenge

This study examined further cardiovascular effects of energy resource depletion. Participants performed initially an easy counting task (Task A easy) or a hard counting task (Task A difficult) for 5 min. Shortly thereafter, they were provided the chance to earn a modest incentive by attaining a low performance standard (Task B easy) or a high performance standard (Task B difficult) on a mental arithmetic task. As expected, the Task A difficulty factor combined with the Task B difficulty factor to determine blood pressure responses during the second performance period. Whereas Task A easy participants evinced relatively stronger responses when Task B was difficult than when Task B was easy, Task A difficult participants evinced relatively stronger responses when Task B was easy than when Task B was difficult. These cardiovascular results partially replicate cardiovascular results from a prior depletion study using a cognitive, as opposed to a motor, challenge. They also extend the cardiovascular results from the prior study by demonstrating that the cardiovascular influence of energy depletion depends on the difficulty of the challenge with which people are confronted.