The Impact of a Continuous Performance Task on the Stress Response

Stress Clinical Trial

Official title: The Impact of a Continuous Performance Task on the Stress Response

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the impact of taking a continuous performance attention test on the physiological stress response in college students. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Does taking an attention test cause participants to have increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and sweat?

• Does taking an attention test cause participants to have a decrease in heart rate variability?

• Are there relationships between participants' levels of anxiety, perceived stress, and mindfulness to their physiological changes?

Participants will

• Answer questionnaires about anxiety, stress, and mindfulness

• Have baseline measurements taken for blood pressure, sweat, and heart rate variability

• Take the PEBL Continuous Performance Task (a 14 minute attention test) while having the measurements listed above taken again

Clinical Trial Description

The PEBL Continuous Performance Task is an example of a mental stressor which requires vigilance and effort. We hypothesize that a sympathetic nervous system response will be evident in comparing physiological parameters during the attention task versus the preceding resting baseline period. Exploratory analyses will assess relationships between psychological measures of anxiety, stress, and mindfulness with this physiological response and the number of errors on the attention test. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Stress

• NCT number: NCT06098352
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: University of Redlands
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 17, 2013
• Completion date: September 25, 2013