UDC

[612.176.4+612.43]:613.95+373.3

DOI

10.37482/2687-1491-Z087

Authors

Alim N. Sharapov* ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6862-8115
Oksana N. Adamovskaya* ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0197-3379
Svetlana B. Dogadkina* ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7387-9998
Irina V. Ermakova* ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7430-4849
Galina V. Kmitʼ* ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3749-9891
Larisa V. Rubleva* ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0363-2375
*Institute of Developmental Physiology, Russian Academy of Education (Moscow, Russian Federation)
Corresponding author: Irina Ermakova, address: ul. Krasnogorskaya 33, Lyubertsy, 140009, Moskovskaya obl., Russian Federation; e-mail: ermek61@mail.ru

Abstract

Adaptation of children’s body to cognitive activity is an important issue for developmental physiology. The purpose of this study was to assess the nature of short-term adaptation of the cardiovascular and endocrine systems of primary school children to cognitive load when performing a test on a laptop. Materials and methods. Using spectral and temporal analysis of heart rate variability, electrocardiography, bipolar rheoencephalography, tonometry, and enzyme immunoassay to determine cortisol concentrations in saliva, we examined 32 primary school children (10–11 years old) performing a cognitive task (Anfimov’s tables) on a laptop. The cardiovascular system parameters were assessed before and during the test, the saliva was collected before and after the cognitive load. Results. In primary school children, the process of short-term adaptation of the cardiovascular and autonomic nervous systems to cognitive load was going favourably, without straining the regulation mechanisms, and was accompanied by an increase in sympathetic influences and heart rate, a decrease in the RR interval, and an increase in the tone of medium and small vessels in the occipital regions of the brain without changes in the indicators characterizing blood flow intensity. Two types of reaction of the endocrine system to cognitive load were revealed: 1) an increase in cortisol concentration in the saliva, observed in 40 % of children; 2) a decrease in the level of cortisol, characteristic of the majority of the examined schoolchildren. The obtained results showed that short-term adaptation of heart rate and haemodynamic parameters to cognitive load in primary school children is a problem-free process. A distinctive feature of children of this age is the manifestation of a proactive response of the endocrine system to the effects of environmental factors, which manifested itself in an increase in the level of the stress hormone cortisol before cognitive load.

Keywords

primary school children, adaptation to cognitive load, cardiovascular system, heart rate variability, autonomic nervous system, cortisol, cerebral circulation

References

1. Krivolapchuk I.A., Mysh’yakov V.V., Gerasimova A.A., Krivolapchuk I.I., Kesel’ S.A., Savushkina E.V. Umstvennaya rabotosposobnost’ uchashchikhsya nachal’noy shkoly pri raznoy organizatsii rezhima fizicheskoy aktivnosti [Mental Working Capability of Primary School Pupils at Different Management of Physical Activity Regime]. Sibirskiy pedagogicheskiy zhurnal, 2019, no. 6, pp. 140–153. DOI: 10.15293/1813-4718.1906.13
2. Kuchma V.R., Tkachuk E.A., Tarmaeva I.Yu. Psikhofiziologicheskoe sostoyanie detey v usloviyakh informatizatsii ikh zhiznedeyatel’nosti i intensifikatsii obrazovaniya [Psychophysiological State of Children in Conditions of Informatization of Their Life Activity and Intensification of Education]. Gigiena i sanitariya, 2016, vol. 95, no. 12, pp. 1183–1188. DOI: 10.18821/0016-9900-2016-95-12-1183-1188
3. Sidorenko I.A. Povyshenie umstvennoy rabotosposobnosti u shkol’nikov srednego vozrasta (11–13 let) sredstvami khatkha-yogi [Middle-Aged Schoolchildren’s (11–13 Years) Mental Performance Improvement by Hatha Yoga Means]. Nauchno-sportivnyy vestnik Urala i Sibiri, 2020, no. 1, pp. 42–46.
4. Chelyshkova T.V., Grechishkina S.S., Abbasova L.A. Dinamika umstvennoy rabotosposobnosti mladshikh shkol’nikov [Dynamics of Mental Workability of Younger Schoolchildren]. Shakhanov A.V. (ed.). Materialy Mezhdunarodnoy nauchnoy konferentsii “Biosfera i chelovek” [Proc. Int. Sci. Conf. “Biosphere and Man”]. Maykop, 2019, pp. 416–417. Available at: https://201824.selcdn.ru/elit-110/index.html (accessed: 10 November 2020).
5. Sokotun S.A., Podkovkin V.G. Osobennosti izmeneniy fiziologicheskikh i biokhimicheskikh pokazateley shkol’nikov raznogo pola pri rabote za komp’yuterom [Features of Changes of Physiological and Biochemical Parameters of Schoolboys and Schoolgirls at Work Behind the Computer]. Izvestiya Samarskogo nauchnogo tsentra RAN, 2009, vol. 11, no. 1-4, pp. 773–775.
6. Sharapov A.N., Bezobrazova V.N., Zinenko E.S., Kmit’ G.V. Short-Term Adaptation of Five- to Seven-Year-Old Children to Mental Load. Hum. Physiol., 2010, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 312–318.
7. Dogadkina S.B., Ermakova I.V., Kmit’ G.V., Rubleva L.V. Vliyanie umstvennoy nagruzki, vypolnyaemoy na planshete i noutbuke na serdechno-sosudistuyu i endokrinnuyu sistemy detey 9 let [Influence of Mental Load During Using a Tablet or a Computer on the Cardiovascular and Endocrine Systems in 9-Year-Old Children]. Novye issledovaniya, 2019, no. 2, pp. 5–22.
8. Cassidy-Bushrow A.E., Johnson D.A., Peters R.M., Burmeister C., Joseph C.L. Time Spent on the Internet and Adolescent Blood Pressure. J. Sch. Nurs., 2015, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 374–384. DOI: 10.1177/1059840514556772
9. Celka P., Charlton P.H., Farukh B., Chowienczyk P., Alastruey J. Influence of Mental Stress on the Pulse Wave Features of Photoplethysmograms. Healthc. Technol. Lett., 2019, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 7–12. DOI: 10.1049/htl.2019.0001
10. Trico D., Fanfani A., Varocchi F., Bernini G. Endocrine and Haemodynamic Stress Responses to an Arithmetic Cognitive Challenge. Neuro Endocrinol. Lett., 2017, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 182–186.
11. van den Berg M.E., Rijnbeek P.R., Niemeijer M.N., Hofman A., van Herpen G., Bots M.L., Hillege H., Swenne C.A., Eijgelsheim M., Stricker B.H., Kors J.A. Normal Values of Corrected Heart-Rate Variability in 10-Second Electrocardiograms for All Ages. Front. Physiol., 2018, vol. 9. Art. no. 424. DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2018.00424
12. Baevskiy R.M., Berseneva A.P. Otsenka adaptatsionnykh vozmozhnostey organizma i risk razvitiya zabolevaniy [Assessment of the Body’s Adaptive Abilities and the Risk of Developing Diseases]. Moscow, 1997. 236 p.
13. Adamovskaya O.N., Ermakova I.V., Selverova N.B. Features of Autonomic and Hormonal Reactivity During Mental Activity in Children and Teenagers. Hum. Physiol., 2018, vol. 44, no. 5, pp. 503–509. DOI: 10.1134/S036211971805002X
14. Castaldo R., Xu W., Melillo P., Pecchia L., Santamaria L., James C. Detection of Mental Stress Due to Oral Academic Examination via Ultra-Short-Term HRV Analysis. Annu. Int. Conf. IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc., 2016, vol. 2016, pp. 3805–3808. DOI: 10.1109/embc.2016.7591557
15. Dimitriev D., Saperova E.V., Dimitriev A., Karpenko Y. Recurrence Quantification Analysis of Heart Rate During Mental Arithmetic Stress in Young Females. Front. Physiol., 2020, vol. 11. Art. no. 40. DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2020.00040
16. Jalilian H., Zamanian Z., Gorjizadeh O., Riaei S., Monazzam M.R., Abdoli-Eramaki M. Autonomic Nervous System Responses to Whole-Body Vibration and Mental Workload: A Pilot Study. Int. J. Occup. Environ. Med., 2019, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 174–184. DOI: 10.15171/ijoem.2019.1688
17. Rudd K.L., Yates T.M. The Implications of Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Regulatory Coordination for Understanding Child Adjustment. Dev. Psychobiol., 2018, vol. 60, no. 8, pp. 1023–1036. DOI: 10.1002/dev.21784
18. Gordan R., Gwathmey J.K., Xie L.-H. Autonomic and Endocrine Control of Cardiovascular Function. World J. Cardiol., 2015, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 204–214. DOI: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i4.204
19. Dimolareva M., Gee N.R., Pfeffer K., Maréchal L., Pennington K., Meints K. Measuring Cortisol in the Classroom with School-Aged Children – a Systematic Review and Recommendations. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 2018, vol. 15, no. 5. Art. no. 1025. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph15051025
20. Kapsdorfer D., Hlavacova N., Vondrova D., Argalasova L., Sevcikova L., Jezova D. Neuroendocrine Response to School Load in Prepubertal Children: Focus on Trait Anxiety. Cell. Mol. Neurobiol., 2018, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 155–162. DOI: 10.1007/s10571-017-0544-7
21. Gunnar M.R., Wewerka S., Frenn K., Long J.D., Griggs C. Developmental Changes in Hypothalamus–Pituitary–Adrenal Activity over the Transition to Adolescence: Normative Changes and Associations with Puberty. Dev. Psychopathol., 2009, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 69–85. DOI: 10.1017/s0954579409000054
22. Vlad R., Pop A.M., Olah P., Monea M. The Evaluation of Dental Anxiety in Primary School Children: A Cross-Sectional Study from Romania. Children (Basel), 2020, vol. 7, no. 10. Art. no. 158. DOI: 10.3390/children7100158