Quantitative assessment of physiological stress effects correlated with mood states

The purpose of this research was to determine if there was an effective way to quantitatively assess the physiological effects of various forms of stress during mental performance and to correlate these assessments with different psychological mood states. Tasks were either performed under time constraint (Tc) or a non-time constraint (NTc) conditions. We evaluated the relationship between heartbeat rate variability and subjective stress evaluations. RR-Interval (RRI) spectrum analysis and Profile of Mood States (POMS) were used in the analyses. We found that the middle frequency region (MFn) of the heart was significantly affected during stress stimulation suggesting that it could be a useful tool in assessing mental stress.