Abstract
Currently, the measurement of psychoneuroimmunology in exercise psychology is receiving considerable attention. This study aimed to preliminarily examine the influence of acute aerobic exercise on salivary cortisol secretion. In this study, ten participants (mean age=24.50 ± 2.68 years; M=5/F=5) were recruited to participate in an experiment carried out under two separate conditions of counter-balanced design: (1) a cycling condition of moderate intensity using a cycle ergometer for twenty minutes and (2) a control condition, which consisted of book reading for twenty minutes. Written informed consent was obtained from all the participants. Salivary cortisol was measured before and after each experimental condition and its density was analyzed by radioimmunoassay (RIA). This study involved 2 (condition: exercise/control) × 2 (time: pre/post) repeated measure designs. Repeated analysis of variance (ANOVA) did not show that main effect for condition, main effect for time, and condition × time interaction. In conclusion, this study might establish that acute aerobic exercise did not change salivary cortisol density.
