title: Nervous Facilitation in Cardiodynamic Response of Exercising Athletes to Superimposed Mental Tasks: Implications in Depressive Disorder.
abstract: Motor commands to perform exercise tasks may also induce activation of cardiovascular centres to supply the energy needs of the contracting muscles. Mental stressors per se may also influence cardiovascular homeostasis. We investigated the cardiovascular response of trained runners simultaneously engaged in mental and physical tasks to establish if aerobically trained subjects could develop, differently from untrained ones, nervous facilitation in the brain cardiovascular centre. Methods : Cardiovascular responses of 8 male middle-distance runners (MDR), simultaneously engaged in mental (colour-word interference test) and physical (cycle ergometer exercise) tasks, were compared with those of 8 untrained subjects. Heart rate, cardiac (CI) and stroke indexes were assessed by impedance cardiography while arterial blood pressures were assessed with a brachial sphygmomanometer. Results : Only in MDR simultaneous engagement in mental and physical tasks induced a significant CI increase which was higher (p<0.05) than that obtained on summing CI values from each task separately performed. Conclusion : Aerobic training, when performed together with a mental effort, induced a CI oversupply which allowed a redundant oxygen delivery to satisfy a sudden fuel demand from exercising muscles by utilizing aerobic sources of ATP, thus shifting the anaerobic threshold towards a higher work load. From data of this study it may also be indirectly stated that, in patients with major depressive disorder, the promotion of regular low-intensity exercise together with mental engagement could ameliorate the perceived physical quality of life, thus reducing their heart risk associated with physical stress.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sports Physiology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tocco
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sports Physiology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Crisafulli
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sports Physiology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Milia
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sports Physiology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marongiu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sports Physiology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mura
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sports Physiology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Roberto
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sports Physiology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Todde
authors.affiliation: 2C Technologies Inc., Academic Spinoff, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Concu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sports Physiology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Melis
authors.affiliation: Obesity Units, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Fernanda
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Velluzzi
authors.affiliation: Obesity Units, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Loviselli
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sports Physiology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy ; 2C Technologies Inc., Academic Spinoff, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Concu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sports Physiology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Melis
keywords: Cardiodynamic response; major depressive disorder; nervous facilitation; nervous motor command