Abstract
Time series changes of the salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) response to acute laboratory stress tasks were investigated. Participants (N=29) performed three tasks at weekly intervals; mental arithmetic (active stress coping), cold pressor (passive stress coping), and watching a neutral video (control). Five saliva samples were obtained during the baseline,the task, and the recovery period in each condition. Results indicated that during the first half of the mental arithmetic task s-IgA secretion rate decreased significantly and increased significantly immediately after the task in comparison to the control condition. Conversely, in cold pressor condition, the s-IgA secretion rate decreased significantly immediately after the task, in comparison to the control condition. These results suggest that the timing of saliva sampling influences the observed s-IgA values during active and passive coping stress tasks.
