Parasympathetic Activity and Inhibitory Control as Predictors of Health Behaviors

Abstract

Inhibitory control is an executive function associated with the ability to stop a prepotent response. Social stress has been shown to diminish both parasympathetic nervous system activity and an individual&rsquo;s inhibitory control. Parasympathetic nervous system activity has been thought to underlie inhibitory control. With social stress and risky health behaviors being issues among college students,&nbsp; we examined parasympathetic reactivity and inhibitory control as predictors of risky health behaviors among college students. Using the stop-signal task to measure pre- to post-stress inhibitory control, 99 undergraduate students underwent the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G). Results indicated no relationship between parasympathetic activity and inhibitory control performance. Additionally, neither parasympathetic activity nor inhibitory control performance predicted risky self-reported health behaviors. This study suggests that the parasympathetic activity and inhibitory control correlation found in previous studies may not be sufficient to explain engagement in risky health behaviors. </p