Changes in Blood Pressure Reactivity and 24-Hour Blood Pressure Profile Occurring at Puberty

Abstract

To evaluate blood pressure reactivity in children and its changes in adolescents, the acute pressor response to a video-game stress test and the noninvasive ambulatory blood pressure monitoring were evaluated in 62 healthy children divided into three age groups. Basal blood pressure values were measured according to the NIH Task Force. With baseline measures and body mass index controlled for, analysis of covariance showed that the video game provoked significant and incremental cardiovascular reactivity across the games in adolescents when compared with the two other groups of children. The same group of children showed also a significantly higher systolic ambulatory pressure during the daytime, whereas no significant difference was observed by basal BP measurement. In conclusion an increased reactivity to external stimuli was observed in adolescents, and this pattern was strictly associated with a higher daily blood pressure.

α4βδ GABAA receptors and tonic inhibitory current during adolescence: effects on mood and synaptic plasticity

“…In humans, anxiety responses to performance stress (mental arithmetic, mirror tracing) and social stress are increased at puberty (Susman et al, 1988; Modesti et al, 1994; Sumter et al, 2010), with a greater prevalence in girls (Garber et al, 2002; Leen-Feldner et al, 2007; Ordaz and Luna, 2012). Anxiety disorders are also most likely to emerge at puberty (Hayward et al, 1992; Costello et al, 2003; Kessler et al, 2005).…”

“…In many cases, the rapid upward trajectory of learning achievement during early development is slowed during the pubertal period (Gur et al, 2012), especially for spatial learning, when gender differences, favoring boys, generally first appear (Kanit et al, 2000; Ardila et al, 2011; Gur et al, 2012). The adolescent period is also known to be a time when emotional changes occur, including mood swings (Buchanan et al, 1992) and increased responses to stress (Susman et al, 1988; Modesti et al, 1994; Lui et al, 2012) as well as the time when anxiety disorders first emerge (Reardon et al, 2009) which, in some cases, continue into adulthood. This review will describe the known changes in populations of extrasynaptic GABA A receptors (GABARs) which occur at puberty and discuss the relevance of these changes in producing behavioral outcomes which limit learning and alter mood during adolescence.…”

Physiological stress response to video-game playing: the contribution of built-in music

“…Besides effects on the neurological system, many other studies have reported arousal and physiological reactions in video game playing, Reported effects include increases in breath duration in children (Denot-Ledunois et al, 1998) and increases in cardiovascular reactivity, blood pressure (most often systolic blood pressure), and oxygen consumption in children or adolescents (Modesti et al, 1994), as well as in adults of all ages (Segal and Dietz, 1991;Mounier-Vehier et al, 1995), especially in those with a family history of hypertension (Ditto and Miller, 1989;Cook et al, 2001) and in those with Type A personality (i.e., competitive individuals; Griffiths and Dancaster, 1995). Cardiovascular reactivity to video games in young men has also been taken as a reliable predictor of the future occurrence of hypertension (Markovitz et al, 1998).…”

“…Additionally, the finding of dopamine release during video game playing (which involved learning to navigate a tank for a monetary incentive) suggests that, as in the case of animals, this neurotransmitter may play a role in the anticipatory or appetitive phase of motivated behavior in humans (Koepp et al, 1998). Based on these findings, video games have often been used in studies as a stressor to measure cardiovascular reactivity (e.g., Modesti et al, 1994;Cook et al, 2001). Yet, secretion of the stress-related hormone per se, namely cortisol, has rarely been measured.…”

“…From this perspective, studies that have examined cortisol secretion can hardly be compared with the ones that have examined other measures, which have used other types of games (e.g., Ms Packman, Atari breakout, or other, unspecified games). In addition, on the whole, in all of the studies reviewed but one that specified that bsoundQ during video game was present and brather loudQ (Modesti et al, 1994), the presence or absence of music and sound has been completely overlooked. Yet there are bases to postulate that music in action video games might be an important stressor.…”