Autonomic Changes During an Adaptive Cognitive Task
- 1Institute of Health Studies, DSW Ideis University, 53-611 Wroclaw, Poland
- 2Department of Fundamentals of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy, Wroclaw University of Health and Sport Sciences, 51-612 Wroclaw, Poland
- 3Department of Biological Principles of Physical Activity, Wroclaw University of Health and Sport Sciences, 51-612 Wroclaw, Poland
Abstract
Background/Objectives: This study examined between-participant associations of task-minus-baseline heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SC) changes with performance during the adaptive Determination Test (DT), in which performance influences subsequent task demand. Methods: This exploratory secondary analysis included 48 young adults. Accuracy was the study-defined proportion correct/(correct + incorrect + omitted), calculated from exported counts. Ten Pearson correlations formed the primary analytical family. Complementary fractional-logit and linear models included the corresponding baseline physiological value and the exported stimulus count (DT_Stimuli). Tonic skin conductance level and skin conductance response (SCR) frequency and amplitude were also examined. Benjamini–Hochberg (BH) adjustment was applied separately to the defined analytical families. Results: Mean HR increased by 19.99 bpm and mean SC by 4.65 µS. The HR–accuracy Pearson estimate was r = 0.338 (95% CI 0.060 to 0.568; p = 0.019; BH q = 0.187), compared with Spearman ρ = 0.192. In the model including baseline HR and DT_Stimuli, the average marginal association was 1.42 percentage points per 10 bpm (95% bootstrap CI 0.13 to 2.65; p = 0.033; BH q = 0.306). Neither the primary correlation family nor the 15 complementary model tests met q < 0.05. Direct comparisons did not establish different HR and SC correlations. Conclusions: HR and SC increased during adaptive DT performance. A possible HR–accuracy association depended on analytical specification. Adjustment for aggregate stimulus count did not identify the direction of the performance–demand–physiology relationship. These findings support prospective testing with time-resolved task exposure.
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BibTeX
@article{lachowicz2026autonomic,
title = {{Autonomic Changes During an Adaptive Cognitive Task}},
author = {Maciej Lachowicz and Iwona Wilk and Igor Hrehorowicz and Szymon Bałamucki and Michał Lisowski and Grzegorz Żurek and Waldemar Andrzejewski},
journal = {Journal of Clinical Medicine},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/jcm15208068},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/15/20/8068},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Autonomic Changes During an Adaptive Cognitive Task
AU - Maciej Lachowicz
AU - Iwona Wilk
AU - Igor Hrehorowicz
AU - Szymon Bałamucki
AU - Michał Lisowski
AU - Grzegorz Żurek
AU - Waldemar Andrzejewski
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Journal of Clinical Medicine
DO - 10.3390/jcm15208068
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/15/20/8068
AB - Background/Objectives: This study examined between-participant associations of task-minus-baseline heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SC) changes with performance during the adaptive Determination Test (DT), in which performance influences subsequent task demand. Methods: This exploratory secondary analysis included 48 young adults. Accuracy was the study-defined proportion correct/(correct + incorrect + omitted), calculated from exported counts. Ten Pearson correlations formed the primary analytical family. Complementary fractional-logit and linear models included the corresponding baseline physiological value and the exported stimulus count (DT_Stimuli). Tonic skin conductance level and skin conductance response (SCR) frequency and amplitude were also examined. Benjamini–Hochberg (BH) adjustment was applied separately to the defined analytical families. Results: Mean HR increased by 19.99 bpm and mean SC by 4.65 µS. The HR–accuracy Pearson estimate was r = 0.338 (95% CI 0.060 to 0.568; p = 0.019; BH q = 0.187), compared with Spearman ρ = 0.192. In the model including baseline HR and DT_Stimuli, the average marginal association was 1.42 percentage points per 10 bpm (95% bootstrap CI 0.13 to 2.65; p = 0.033; BH q = 0.306). Neither the primary correlation family nor the 15 complementary model tests met q < 0.05. Direct comparisons did not establish different HR and SC correlations. Conclusions: HR and SC increased during adaptive DT performance. A possible HR–accuracy association depended on analytical specification. Adjustment for aggregate stimulus count did not identify the direction of the performance–demand–physiology relationship. These findings support prospective testing with time-resolved task exposure.
SN - 2077-0383
ER -