Stress Responses and Recovery in Student Athletes: Heart Rate Variability and Skin Conductance Patterns Across
Aylin Zekioğlu1, Serdar Tok1, Mert İşbilir2
1Faculty of Sports Sciences, Manisa Celal Bayar University, Halil Erdoğan Cd., Ahmet Bedevi Mah., 45040 Manisa, Turkey.
Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland)
|June 26, 2026
Summary
Student-athletes showed increased sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity during cognitive stress, challenging the idea of simple vagal withdrawal. This highlights complex autonomic responses in athletes under mental load.
Area of Science:
- Psychophysiology
- Autonomic Nervous System Research
- Sports Science
Background:
- Cognitive stressors can impact autonomic nervous system (ANS) function.
- Understanding ANS responses in student-athletes is crucial for managing performance and well-being.
- Previous research often assumes vagal withdrawal during stress, but this may not apply to all populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses in student-athletes under cognitive stress.
- To examine heart rate variability (HRV) and skin conductance level (SCL) during sequential cognitive tasks.
- To determine if cognitive stress elicits vagal withdrawal or a more complex ANS activation pattern.
Main Methods:
- Pilot study involving 52 university student-athletes.
- Repeated-measures design measuring HRV and SCL during baseline, cognitive stressors (Stroop test, mental math), and recovery.
- Statistical analysis using repeated-measures ANOVA to assess changes in physiological markers.
Main Results:
- Significantly elevated skin conductance level (SCL) during stress and recovery, indicating sustained sympathetic activation.
- Increased heart rate (HR) during cognitive stress, confirming heightened autonomic activation.
- Unexpectedly, vagally mediated HRV indices (RMSSD, HF power) increased during stress, suggesting adaptive parasympathetic modulation.
Conclusions:
- Autonomic responses to cognitive stress in athletes may involve simultaneous sympathetic and parasympathetic activation, not just vagal withdrawal.
- Findings suggest a more nuanced model of psychophysiological stress response in athletic populations.
- Combined assessment of HRV and SCL is important for understanding stress responses in athletes.
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