Study of the Stress of thesis defense meeting on cognitive functions and salivary cortisol changes in medical student

Abstract

The overall purpose of this study was to determine the effects of (real) dissertation defense stress on cognitive function and the rate of salivary cortisol changes in students. In this study, for the first time, stress conditions were not simulated and subjects were sampled under real stress conditions. Method and material: In this project, 18 male and female medical students were selected as subjects at different stages, and after obtaining informed written consent, one night before the dissertation defense session, saliva samples and cognitive tests were taken by the software. Wisconsin card cognitive tests, simple stroop, reaction time, Wechsler numerical memory, Beck anxiety questionnaire and ELISA were used to measure salivary cortisol. All of these tests were performed again on a typical stress-free day after the dissertation defense session. Results: The results showed that defense session stress greatly increased salivary cortisol, Beck test anxiety symptoms, and decreased cognitive abilities such as memory.