Changes in EEG Rhythms and Heart Rate Variability in Response to Cold, Depending on the Parameters of Voluntary Attention in Young People

The aim of the work was to determine the relationship of individual typological reactions of bioelectric activity of the brain, variability of the cardiac heart (HRV) when exposed to cold with the parameters of voluntary attention. EEG, HRV and body temperature were recorded in the heat, with short-term air cooling (-200C, 10 minutes) and after being in the cold. The evaluation of indicators of voluntary attention was performed using the Toulouse-Pieron test and included parameters such as speed, accuracy of the test and the number of errors. The results of the study revealed three variants of the formation of adaptive reactions in response to cold. The obtained results suggest that the best indicators of voluntary attention and the effectiveness of adaptive response to cold were observed with optimal interaction of the central and autonomic nervous systems. The correlation between the low speed of the test and the high accuracy and the tension of the regulatory systems of the body in response to cold with the predominance of the activity of the sympathetic nervous system and the high activity of the hypothalamic-diencephalic structures of the brain was found. The average speed of completing test tasks with a large number of errors reveals a relationship with insufficient resource mobilization in adapting to cold with a predominance of activity of the parasympathetic nervous system and an increase in the activity of subcortical structures of the brain. Thus, in the conditions of the North, individual variants of adaptive reactions in response to cold have been identified, associated with various neurophysiological mechanisms of mobilization of functional systems and indicators of the level of voluntary attention.

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