Effects of Mental Stress on ECG
Abstract
This Undergraduate Fellows program focused on establishing a link between mental stress and changes in the heart’s electrical activity. Electrocardiograms were taken before and after a stressful event (a lab quiz). Examining those ECG records by FFT analysis revealed trends that can be used to quantify test anxieties. A major energy increase in the 1st harmonic was evident in students who had completed the lab quiz. In addition, subjects who excelled on the quiz experienced an upward shift of the 2nd and 3rd frequency peaks. Subjects who did well experienced no frequency shifts. Those who performed not as well experienced a downward shift in their 2nd and 3rd frequency peaks. Since a large part of how much the subject ‘unwound' after the quiz was determined by how well he did on the quiz, the various frequency shifts represented the different levels of anxiety change the subject experienced.
Description
Program year: 1986/1987Digitized from print original stored in HDR
Citation
Zee, Bernard (1987). Effects of Mental Stress on ECG. University Undergraduate Fellow. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /CAPSTONE -ZeeB _1987.