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Cardiovascular and endocrine reactivity in older females: Intertask consistency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2002

LOUISE C. HAWKLEY ,
MARY H. BURLESON ,
KIRSTEN M. POEHLMANN ,
GARY G. BERNTSON ,
WILLIAM B. MALARKEY  and
JOHN T. CACIOPPO
LOUISE C. HAWKLEY
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus
MARY H. BURLESON
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tucson
KIRSTEN M. POEHLMANN
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston
GARY G. BERNTSON
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus
WILLIAM B. MALARKEY
Affiliation:
Departments of Internal Medicine and Immunology, The Ohio State University, Columbus
JOHN T. CACIOPPO
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago
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Abstract

Age-related structural and functional changes in the cardiovascular, sympathoadrenomedullary (SAM), and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) systems may affect the ability to reliably identify individual differences in response to stress. Heart rate, preejection period, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, respiratory rate, norepinephrine, epinephrine, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and cortisol were assessed in 64 healthy older women (mean = 67 years) in response to a mental arithmetic and public-speaking task. All cardiovascular and endocrine measures changed significantly during the tasks. All measures were consistent across the two tasks (rss = .50 to .97). Moreover, a majority of women in this sample exhibited cross-task consistency in the relative activation of the autonomic, SAM, and HPA systems (i.e., response profiles). Further research is recommended to examine the significance of consistent individual differences in response profile.

Keywords

Cardiovascular reactivityEndocrine reactivityIntertask consistencyOlder womenResponse profiles
Type
Research Article
Information
Psychophysiology , Volume 38 , Issue 6 , November 2001 , pp. 863 - 872
Copyright
© 2001 Society for Psychophysiological Research

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