Effect of Emotional Exposure on State Anxiety After Exercise
Purpose: Despite the well-known anxiolytic effect of acute exercise, it is unknown if anxiety reductions after acute exercise conditions survive in the face of a subsequently experienced arousing emotional exposure. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of moderate-intensity cycle ergometer exercise to a seated rest control condition on state anxiety symptoms after exposure to a variety of highly arousing pleasant and unpleasant stimuli.
Methods: Thirty-seven healthy and normally physically active young adults completed two conditions on separate days: 1) 30 min of seated rest and 2) 30 min of moderate-intensity cycle ergometer exercise (RPE = 13; "somewhat hard"). After each condition, participants viewed 90 arousing pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System for 30 min. State anxiety was measured before and 15 min after each condition, and again after exposure to the affective pictures.
Results: State anxiety significantly decreased from baseline to after the exercise and seated rest conditions (P = 0.003). After the emotional picture-viewing period, state anxiety significantly increased to baseline values after the seated rest condition (P = 0.001) but remained reduced after the exercise condition.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that the anxiolytic effects of acute exercise may be resistant to the potentially detrimental effects on mood after exposure to arousing emotional stimuli.
The effect of a single session of exercise to improve mood and reduce subjective symptoms of anxiety in healthy nonanxious adults has been well established.
The efficacy of quiet rest conditions to improve mood suggests there may be a common anxiety-reducing factor present during exercise and rest conditions, such as a time out from stressors or other worries. Other studies have modified the exercise and rest conditions through manipulations of body temperature or caffeine ingestion and have shown that the anxiolytic effects of exercise survive these manipulations, whereas quiet rest conditions do not. This suggests a specific yet undefined effect of acute exercise, not evoked during quiet rest, which promotes durability of its anxiolytic effect. Although adaptations to repeated bouts of exercise stress have been purported to provide protection against other nonexercise stressors (i.e., the cross-stressor adaptation hypothesis, these effects have been shown to be quite heterogeneous and dependent on the type of laboratory stressor used, among other factors. This literature has focused on the effects of exercise training or cross-sectional differences in fitness, not acute exercise, in response to laboratory stress tasks (e.g., mental arithmetic, cold-water immersion, and Stroop color-word conflict task) that lack face validity for the types of emotional stressors encountered in daily life. A key unanswered question is whether acute exercise confers short-term protection, after its cessation, against typically experienced psychological stressors or emotional provocation.
As described by Lang and Bradley, emotions can be defined as "action dispositions." As such, the physiological and neural systems that govern emotional responsiveness overlap considerably with the physiological and neural systems that govern muscular activation and motor behavior. Exposure to a variety of affective picture stimuli has been shown to evoke changes in autonomic nervous system activation, including sympathetic activation and cardiac-vagal withdrawal, which also occur during acute exercise. Furthermore, Smith et al. have reported that reactivity during repeated exposure to emotional stimuli is sensitive to self-reported state anxiety. This suggests that anxiety-reducing treatments, such as acute exercise or quiet rest, may modify the cumulative effects of exposure to emotionally arousing stimuli.
Very little is known, however, regarding whether acute exercise provides subsequent protection against the potentially stressful effects related to exposure to arousing emotional stimuli. Smith et al. reported that acute exercise did not alter emotional reactivity during the viewing of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures. In that study, state anxiety was assessed after the exercise and rest conditions before exposure to the emotional pictures, but not after picture viewing. Thus, it is not clear if state anxiety after exercise remains reduced when exposed to arousing emotional stimuli. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of moderate-intensity exercise to a seated rest control condition on state anxiety symptoms after exposure to a variety of highly arousing pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. It was hypothesized that state anxiety would be reduced after both exercise and seated rest. Because acute exercise actively engages the physiological systems involved in emotional responsiveness, it was further hypothesized that anxiety reductions would persist after exposure to emotional stimuli for the exercise but not the seated rest condition.
Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
Purpose: Despite the well-known anxiolytic effect of acute exercise, it is unknown if anxiety reductions after acute exercise conditions survive in the face of a subsequently experienced arousing emotional exposure. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of moderate-intensity cycle ergometer exercise to a seated rest control condition on state anxiety symptoms after exposure to a variety of highly arousing pleasant and unpleasant stimuli.
Methods: Thirty-seven healthy and normally physically active young adults completed two conditions on separate days: 1) 30 min of seated rest and 2) 30 min of moderate-intensity cycle ergometer exercise (RPE = 13; "somewhat hard"). After each condition, participants viewed 90 arousing pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System for 30 min. State anxiety was measured before and 15 min after each condition, and again after exposure to the affective pictures.
Results: State anxiety significantly decreased from baseline to after the exercise and seated rest conditions (P = 0.003). After the emotional picture-viewing period, state anxiety significantly increased to baseline values after the seated rest condition (P = 0.001) but remained reduced after the exercise condition.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that the anxiolytic effects of acute exercise may be resistant to the potentially detrimental effects on mood after exposure to arousing emotional stimuli.
Introduction
The effect of a single session of exercise to improve mood and reduce subjective symptoms of anxiety in healthy nonanxious adults has been well established.
The efficacy of quiet rest conditions to improve mood suggests there may be a common anxiety-reducing factor present during exercise and rest conditions, such as a time out from stressors or other worries. Other studies have modified the exercise and rest conditions through manipulations of body temperature or caffeine ingestion and have shown that the anxiolytic effects of exercise survive these manipulations, whereas quiet rest conditions do not. This suggests a specific yet undefined effect of acute exercise, not evoked during quiet rest, which promotes durability of its anxiolytic effect. Although adaptations to repeated bouts of exercise stress have been purported to provide protection against other nonexercise stressors (i.e., the cross-stressor adaptation hypothesis, these effects have been shown to be quite heterogeneous and dependent on the type of laboratory stressor used, among other factors. This literature has focused on the effects of exercise training or cross-sectional differences in fitness, not acute exercise, in response to laboratory stress tasks (e.g., mental arithmetic, cold-water immersion, and Stroop color-word conflict task) that lack face validity for the types of emotional stressors encountered in daily life. A key unanswered question is whether acute exercise confers short-term protection, after its cessation, against typically experienced psychological stressors or emotional provocation.
As described by Lang and Bradley, emotions can be defined as "action dispositions." As such, the physiological and neural systems that govern emotional responsiveness overlap considerably with the physiological and neural systems that govern muscular activation and motor behavior. Exposure to a variety of affective picture stimuli has been shown to evoke changes in autonomic nervous system activation, including sympathetic activation and cardiac-vagal withdrawal, which also occur during acute exercise. Furthermore, Smith et al. have reported that reactivity during repeated exposure to emotional stimuli is sensitive to self-reported state anxiety. This suggests that anxiety-reducing treatments, such as acute exercise or quiet rest, may modify the cumulative effects of exposure to emotionally arousing stimuli.
Very little is known, however, regarding whether acute exercise provides subsequent protection against the potentially stressful effects related to exposure to arousing emotional stimuli. Smith et al. reported that acute exercise did not alter emotional reactivity during the viewing of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures. In that study, state anxiety was assessed after the exercise and rest conditions before exposure to the emotional pictures, but not after picture viewing. Thus, it is not clear if state anxiety after exercise remains reduced when exposed to arousing emotional stimuli. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of moderate-intensity exercise to a seated rest control condition on state anxiety symptoms after exposure to a variety of highly arousing pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. It was hypothesized that state anxiety would be reduced after both exercise and seated rest. Because acute exercise actively engages the physiological systems involved in emotional responsiveness, it was further hypothesized that anxiety reductions would persist after exposure to emotional stimuli for the exercise but not the seated rest condition.
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