Recovery patterns in the physiological responses of the autonomic nervous system induced by mental workload

It is widely understood that mental stress produces various physiological changes. Though the relationship between mental stress and physiological feedback has been extensively reported, few reports have tried to clarify the relationships between physiological responses and the intensity level or type of stress. In this study, we investigated autonomic nervous system activities to find a physiological index based on which we can evaluate the intensity of mental stress. As a result, we found that some physiological indexes acquire certain characteristics during the recovery process, and we consider that these indexes might be related to the intensity of mental stress.