In a new study, led by Susan K. Wood, Associate Professor at the USC School of Medicine, her team showed for the first time, a protective role for exercise (pre-clinical experiments) over vagal tone and biomarkers of cardiac stress in females exposed to psychosocial stress. First author Brittany Pate, PhD suggests these findings demonstrate that exercise may act as a preventative against stress-induced vagal dysfunction, underscoring the need for future studies examining the interaction between exercise and stress resilience in female populations. Read more about this study in the journal Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic & Clinical.

Pate BS, Smiley CE, Harrington EN, et al. Voluntary wheel running as a promising strategy to promote autonomic resilience to social stress in females: Vagal tone lies at the heart of the matter. Auton Neurosci. 2024