Hormonal responses to physical and cognitive stress in a school setting
Henning Budde1, Sascha Pietrassyk-Kendziorra1, Sebastian Bohm1
1Department of Training and Movement Sciences, Institute of Sport Science, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Abstract:
Little is known about the influence of physical and cognitive stress on the concentration of steroid hormones (SHs) in a school setting. Forty high school students from the 9th grade were randomly assigned to two intervention groups: physical and cognitive stress. Saliva collection took place before (pre-test) and after (post-test) 12 min of high intensity exercise in a defined heart rate (HR) interval (70-85% HR (max); n=19) and cognitive testing (Letter Digit Span and d2-test, n=21), respectively. Saliva was analyzed for testosterone (T) and cortisol (C). Results indicated a significant increase of T and C due to a physical but not cognitive stressor. Thus, only the physical stressor was capable of activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis.
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