Assessment of human psychophysiological responses to intense exercise: a survey of Greco-Roman wrestlers and unqualified competitors

Abstract

The concepts of stimulus-response specificity and individual response stereotypy confirm the importance of viewing psychophysiological stimuli as a reflection of numerous interacting organ systems (e.g., motor, cardiovascular and skeletal-muscular systems). The objective of this paper is to capture recent, detailed insights into the psychophysiological states experienced by athletes and highlight the present knowledge of reflective heart rate responses to orthostatic load which is of crucial importance to our understanding of human normal muscle function. It is proved that in the dynamics of adaptation to intense exercise there is an improvement in a human’s visual perceptual processing capacity. Simultaneously, there is evidence that the information processing speed increases while adapting to intense exercise and results in the tension of heart rate regulatory mechanisms. The research has shown that athletes with different cognitive processing abilities need different time for certain mental operations. From an information-processing perspective, motor behaviors consist of encoding relevant environmental cues through the utilization of attentional strategies, processing the information through an ongoing interaction between working memory and long-term memory, making an action-related decision; consequently athletes’ with low cognitive processing abilities might reduce their performance. Thus, athletes need to engage in correct training programs which include sports specific exercises in order to achieve and maximize their sporting excellence.