2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Controllability of acute stress and immune and endocrine fluctuation
| Project/Area Number |
12610095
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
実験系心理学
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Nagoya University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
OHIRA Hideki Graduate school of environmental study, Nagoya University, Associate Professor, 大学院・環境学研究科, 助教授 (90221837)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2000 – 2001
|
| Keywords | stress / immunity / secretory immunoglobulin A / psychoneuro immunology |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
It has been known that acute or transient stress can influence functions of immunity. This phenomenon has been thought as a defense response. On the other hand, psychological theories of stress have argued that impact of stressor should be larger when the stressor is uncontrollable. The present study examined the effects of controllability in acute stress in two experiments in which human subjects conducted two types of stress task and were measured their immune and endocrine parameters.
1. In 2000, an experiment using an avoidance learning task of aversive noise was conducted. In the uncontrollable group, typical phenomenon of learned helplessness was observed. Salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) increased after the task, and more importantly increase of s-IgA was more prominent in the uncontrollable group than in the controllable group.
2. In 2001, an experiment using mental arithmetic task was conducted. Again, s-IgA increased as a result of j the stress task, and additionally, the degree of increase was larger in the uncontrollable subjects than in the controllable ones.
It is notable that the subjects in both experiments were not able to rate their controllability precisely. That is, peripheral immune function might be unconsciously regulated by central nervous system that can automatically perceive and process controllability of current situations. The underlying mechanisms should be addressed more in detail in future research.
|
Research Products
(10 results)
