Exercise Induced Sympathetic Nervous System Activation and its Influence on Memory and Comprehension

Abstract

In this study, the relationship between sympathetic nervous system activity induced by stress and its effect on memory and comprehension were investigated. The three variables: heart rate, blood pressure, and electrodermal activity were measured in order to investigate the sympathetic nervous system response of 50 participants from the University of WisconsinMadison Anatomy & Physiology 435 class. These 50 participants were divided into two groups, one having to bike for a period of eight minutes and one being sedentary. Both groups were required to watch a five-minute Khan Academy video on Macroeconomics during their eight minutes of participation. Then, the groups were compared on their performance of a questionnaire that would test their overall memory and comprehension of the material presented in the video. Overall, the biking and sedentary groups did not show any significant difference in performance on the questionnaire with a p-value = 1. Therefore, this study did not find that sympathetic nervous system activity induced by physical stress had a meaningful influence on memory and comprehension.