Peculiarities of the relationship between social intelligence and cardiorhythm variability parameters of first year students during cognitive load

Abstract

It is known that the mechanisms of cardioregulation provided by the frontal cortex are also involved in the regulation of social interaction, the success of which is related to social intelligence (SI). At the same time, there are no data on the relationship between cardiohemodynamic indicators of students and the level of social intelligence, as well as insufficient data on the features of cardio-regulation at rest and under cognitive load in students with certain features of SI. In this regard, the purpose of this study was to investigate the variability of cardiorhythm variability in students and describe their relationship with the level of development of social intelligence and its components. Social intelligence was studied using the Guilford Social Intelligence test (E.S. Mikhailova (Aleshina)). Specific features of cardio-regulation were studied by the "OMEGA-M" hardware-software complex in two stages: at rest and when performing a cognitive task (while performing the test "counting in mind"). The results showed that the highest values of heart rate (108,7±12,9 bpm), as well as tension index (TI = 277,5±265,9 units) (according to Baevsky R.M.) are observed in the students, who also have the highest level of social intelligence. At the same time, students with a low level of social intelligence did not have the situation of cognitive strain causing strain of adaptive mechanisms (TI=69.8±70.5 c.u.). An analysis of the relationship between the parameters studied showed that the level of social intelligence is associated with integral measures of cardiorhythm (TI = 0.424, at a significance level of p≤0.05, Pearson correlation coefficient), and measures of spectral power density of cardiorhythm frequencies (VLF = -0.373, at a significance level of p≤0.05, Pearson correlation coefficient). The results obtained indicate that the low level of social intelligence, contributes to the tension of adaptive mechanisms, as students experience psycho-emotional stress associated with low levels of arbitrariness in situations relating to the ability to understand, accept and solve emerging situations in interpersonal interaction. At the same time it is revealed that in response to cognitive load depending on the level of social intelligence there is an activation of both parasympathetic and sympathetic type of response of cardiohemodynamic indicators, the most optimal of which is parasympathetic.