Egg Roulette Experiment

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One of the most common sensations in all humans is that of stress. This may be induced by everything from more serious life-or-death situations, to more mundane concern over deadlines or relationships. The body has a somewhat graded response to these events depending on their severity, but its response, regardless of severity, is rooted in the same neuroendocrine response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA Axis). This response is characterized by the feedback interactions and influencing of three of the bodies endocrine glands: the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands (1). In response to stress, the hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), which travels through the hypophyseal portal system …show more content…

Egg-Roulette is a game of chance, popularized by “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” where two players face off against each other, with the loser ending up covered in raw egg. This lab uses a revised version of the stress-inducing game to study the bodies physiological and psychological responses to stress. As mentioned previously, it has been well documented that the bodies stress response begins in the brain, specifically the hypothalamus, and continues on through the bodies autonomic nervous system to effect involuntary bodily functions, such as blood pressure, respiratory rate, and heartbeat (3). These physiological effects are well-sourced in literature, and one such experiment speaks to a stress-inducing situation, similar to Egg-Roulette, and how that effected the physiological parameters of the test subjects before and after, and the results concurred with the general trend of increased heart rate, bladder relaxation, and dilated pupils, among others (4). In this lab, it is hypothesized that there will be an increase in heart rate in the moments leading up to, and immediately after, the egg is smashed on the forehead, regardless if it is boiled or not. It is also hypothesized that the there will be an increase in breathing rate during the lead-up to smashing the egg on one’s head. A decline in heart rate after contact is also expected, and so a trend of

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