The Effect of Sympathetic Nervous System Stimulation on Skeletal Muscle Reflex Response Time
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Date
2018Author
Batley, Anna
Cerda, Rebeca
Dyke, William
Ho, Celena
Moeller, Abigail
Publisher
Journal of Advanced Student Sciences (JASS)
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The sympathetic response, also known as fight or flight, is a physiological response that
occurs due to a perceived threat to survival. It can physiologically be observed through an
increase in heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen availability, and other
mechanisms. In this experiment, we investigate if the fight or flight response induced by an
auditory stimuli will quicken reaction time. Thirty participants completed a series of three mazes.
A surprise auditory stimuli was played during the third maze to induce a fight or flight response.
Throughout the completion of all of the mazes, the respiratory rate and heart rate were measured.
After the completion of each maze, participants were asked to complete the Reaction Time Test,
which measured response time. It was hypothesized that inducing a fight or flight response,
which increases available oxygen and mobilization of energy stores for muscle contraction,
would enable muscles to act more quickly resulting in a decreased skeletal muscle response time.
A paired t-test with a 95% confidence interval was used to compare all three mazes where a
significance criterion of p<0.05 was significant compared to the baseline measurement. Maze 1
to maze 2, maze 1 to maze 3, and maze 2 to maze 3 had p>0.05 indicative that the data did not
have a significant difference. Overall, the reaction times were not shown to decrease despite an
increase in respiration rate and heart rate among some participants indicative that there was a
physiological change in response to the auditory stimuli. However, the physiological changes
were not sufficient to cause a decrease in reaction times. Due to the lack of significance in
reaction times, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. Despite the lack of statistical significance,
the data can be used to better understand the activation of the sympathetic nervous system,
specifically the activation in respect to an auditory stimuli.
Subject
Sympathetic Nervous System
Heart Rate
Sound
Reaction Time
Auditory Stimulus
Respiration Rate
Skeletal Muscle
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/81971Description
An article that appeared in JASS, issue 2018