The circadian rhythm of heart rate is well known. The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of the relation between heart rate and oxygen uptake during a graded exercise testing with and without previous exercise. Eight healthy male students, aged 18 to 21 years, performed the graded sub-maximal exercise two times using a treadmill, after walking on a treadmill at a speed of 60 m/min for a total of 4 hours (2 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon) and without previous prolonged walking. The apparent resting heart rate after one hour of walking in the afternoon (82.3±9.1 beats mm) was higher than in the morning (71.3±5.8 beats/min), and this phenomenon was observed continuously exercise heart rate at the end of 2 hours of walking (afternoon : 96.4±5.4, morning: 87.2±7.3 beats min) . On the other hand, the oxygen uptake during exercise did not alter at the end of walking (afternoon: 622±85, morning: 600±133 ml/min) . This walking intensity ranged from 17.1 to 26.6, with a mean of 20.5 percent of maximal oxygen uptake. The pre-exercise resting heart rate before the exercise testing altered from -4.8 to 13.1 beats/min with and without the presence of walking. The observed individual regression line between heart rate and oxygen uptake from the testing shifted along with the altered resting heart rate. Therefore, the calculated individual new regression lines with and without walking between net heart rate, excluding pre-exercise rest, and oxygen uptake were approximate to a constant line. It was concluded that the exercise energy expenditure could be calculated accurately (-2 to 7 % of errors) using net heart rate, as compared with overestimations of the actual energy cost using the higher resting heart rate.

OBJECTIVE: Norepinephrine is an important chemical messenger that is involved in mood and stress in humans, and is reabsorbed by the norepinephrine transporter (NET). According to Cloninger's theory, the noradrenergic system mediates the personality trait of reward dependence. Thus far, although association studies on NET gene polymorphisms and Cloninger's personality traits have been reported, they yielded inconsistent results. Therefore, in the present study we investigated whether or not the 1287G/A, -182T/C and -3081A/T polymorphisms of the NET gene (SLC6A2) are associated with reward dependence-related traits, as assessed by the five-factor model. METHODS: After written informed consent was obtained from participants, the three NET gene polymorphisms were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), and personality was assessed by the Neuroticism Extraversion Openness-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) in 270 Japanese university students. RESULTS: A significant relation was found between the -3081A/T functional promoter polymorphism and NEO-FFI scores: those with the T allele exhibited a lower extraversion (E) score than those without the T allele (Mann-Whitney U-test: z=-3.861, p<0.001). However, there was no correlation between the other NET gene polymorphisms and E score, and no association with other dimensions and these three polymorphisms. CONCLUSION: We conclude that the -3081A/T functional polymorphism in the NET gene may affect the extraversion of reward dependence-related traits, as measured by NEO-FFI. However, we used only the shortened version of NEO-PI-R in this study. Further investigations are necessary using the full version of self-rating personality questionnaires.
Alleles ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Extraversion (Psychology) ; Humans ; Informed Consent ; Norepinephrine ; Norepinephrine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reward

OBJECTIVE: The autism susceptibility candidate 2 (AUTS2) gene has been implicated in multiple neurological disorders. Several recent studies have revealed that the polymorphism rs6943555 in the AUTS2 gene is broadly associated with human mental function and behavior. Therefore, in the present study we investigated whether the polymorphism rs6943555 is associated with human personality traits in Japanese university students. In addition, our previous study reported that the AUTS2 rs6943555-rs9886351 haplotype is associated with alcohol dependence. As a preliminary analysis, we also examined whether the AUTS2 haplotypes are related to personality traits. METHODS: After written informed consent had been obtained from the participants, two AUTS2 polymorphisms were analyzed, and personality was assessed using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) in 190 university students. In addition, in order to exclude the influence of the results for students with mental health problems, we gave the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) to all subjects. RESULTS: In all the subjects, there was a main effect of the polymorphism rs6943555 genotype on reward dependence (p=0.038) and cooperativeness (p=0.031), although the significance was lost on Bonferroni correction. Similarly, on analysis that excluded the subjects with PHQ-9 scores≥10, no significant association with any TCI dimension score among the rs6943555 genotypes was seen. There was no effect of the rs6943555-rs9886351 haplotypes on the TCI dimension scores. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the polymorphism AUTS2 rs6943555 is not associated with personality traits. Further large-scale studies with more subjects using other self-report questionnaires are needed.
Alcoholism ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Autistic Disorder ; Genotype ; Haplotypes ; Humans ; Informed Consent ; Mental Health ; Nervous System Diseases ; Reward ; Temperament