Cognitive and emotional loading during increases in task difficulty leads to activation of various parts of the autonomic nervous system and can be accompanied by an increase in problem-solving efficiency and may contribute to destabilization of emotional status and decreases in productivity. An increase in cognitive loading in conditions of high motivation of subjects constitutes a stress factor and is expressed in various reactions of the sympathetic and parasympathetic compartments in response to loading. The aim of the present work was to study the features of various autonomic reactions to gradually increasing task difficulty, which included recording pupil area and the number of blinks, as well as the frequency of respiratory movements, measures of heart rate variability, and galvanic skin responses. Ten healthy volunteers took part in the study. The experimental paradigm included six levels of task difficulty requiring the active participation of working memory and attention. Increases in task difficulty from the first level to the sixth led to a gradual increase in pupil area and the number of blinks, which we suggest corresponds to an increase in sympathetic nervous system activation. Linear changes in the autonomic parameters of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, as well as the electrical activity of the skin, were observed only up to the third level of difficulty. Further increases in difficulty led to opposite changes in these indicators and were accompanied by decreases in problem-solving efficiency. A more marked change in the galvanic skin response during problem-solving correlated with a decrease in mood after the study, indirectly indicating a higher level of emotional stress.
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Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel’nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 72, No. 4, pp. 504–519, July–August, 2022.
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Portnova, G.V., Liaukovich, K.M., Vasilieva, L.N. et al. Autonomic and Behavioral Indicators on Increased Cognitive Loading in Healthy Volunteers. Neurosci Behav Physi 53, 92–102 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-023-01394-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-023-01394-9