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.