Habituation of salivary cortisol and cardiovascular reactivity to a repeated real-life and virtual reality Trier Social Stress Test

Autor(en)

Oswald D. Kothgassner, Andreas Goreis, Lisa M. Glenk, Johanna Xenia Kafka, Bettina Pfeffer, Leon Beutl, Ilse Kryspin-Exner, Helmut Hlavacs, Rupert Palme, Anna Felnhofer

Abstrakt

BACKGROUND: Although the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) constitutes a valid paradigm for social stress induction, less is known about the effects of a virtual reality (VR) TSST on short- and long-term hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and sympathetic-adreno-medullar (SAM) axis responses. Hence, this study set out to evaluate reactivity and habituation of self-reported stress and HPA and SAM reactivity in a real TSST and VR-TSST when compared to a placebo TSST.

METHOD: Sixty-eight healthy young adults (50% female) were randomly assigned to either a real TSST, a VR-TSST, or a placebo TSST, all of which were conducted three times (one day and one week post initial exposure). Social presence, self-reported stress, salivary cortisol, heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV) were analyzed using ANOVAs and multilevel models.

FINDINGS: On the first exposure, both the real and VR-TSST showed significantly stronger cortisol and cardiovascular responses than the placebo. On the second visit, the cortisol response was still significantly high-and the HRV response low-for the real and VR-TSST. The third visit resulted in HR, HRV, and cortisol responses comparable to the placebo group. Furthermore, the real TSST induced more self-reported stress than the placebo on all three visits, the VR-TSST only on the first two visits. Social presence was stable across conditions and had no association with stress markers.

CONCLUSION: These findings imply that the replicability of stress exposures at shorter intervals seems problematic for the traditional TSST, and for the VR-TSST.

Organisation(en)

Forschungsplattform The Stress of Life - Processes and Mechanisms underlying Everyday Life Stress, Institut für Klinische und Gesundheitspsychologie, Forschungs-, Lehr- und Praxisambulanz, Institut für Soziologie, Forschungsgruppe Entertainment Computing, Institut für Lehrer*innenbildung

Externe Organisation(en)

Medizinische Universität Wien, Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien

Journal

Physiology & Behavior

Band

242

Anzahl der Seiten

9

ISSN

0031-9384

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2021.113618

Publikationsdatum

12-2021

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

501010 Klinische Psychologie

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Behavioral Neuroscience

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/habituation-of-salivary-cortisol-and-cardiovascular-reactivity-to-a-repeated-reallife-and-virtual-reality-trier-social-stress-test(24a5cda1-43a5-44ba-b212-549b901c3187).html