Re: Emotions, immunity and sport: Winner and loser athleteâ€TMs profile of fighting sport

http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.bbi. 2015.04. 016 0889-1591/ 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. We have carefully read the letter which was written by Hayes and colleagues’ to the editor. Please find below the follow up responses to potential limitations that were highlighted in our study. Sport competition is a prototype of a physical stressor that induces not only hormonal changes but also immunological saliva changes. The aim of our study was to investigate the individual salT, sal-C, sal-T/C and sal-IL-1b variations, and was also to investigate the expression of anger and anxiety in kickboxing athletes preand post-simulated or official fights, in order to analyze these variables in relation to the agonistic outcome. Although the collection of blood and urine samples before and after training or after competition is highly reliable, to obtain these bodily fluids to assess changes, is a problem. Saliva samples are easily accessible, as demonstrated by several reports of analysis of androgens and glucocorticoids during sport events such as judo competitions (Filaire et al., 2001). Furthermore, taking saliva sample seems to be more appropriate than a blood sample collection, above all in order to minimize interference with the state of anxiety and the levels of cortisol. We previously observed significant correlation between plasma IL-1b and the anger state of rugby players (Pesce et al., 2013). The athletes involved in this previous study, showed to be very perplexed in undertaking blood venous samples prior to competitions. So we turned to taking saliva samples which were less-invasive. Furthermore, salivary steroids such as cortisol and testosterone showed a correlation with their free form serum concentration (Wood, 2009). We noted that some of changes that we reported are included in the range of critical differences, however they are statistically correct. Our data also showed that the observed temporal trends between sal-T and anger are similar and the values obtained at pre-official match measurement are correlated significantly. We excluded intense physical exercise 24 h prior to competition, as it influences the hormonal and immune response. However, despite the fact that fighting is an intense physical activity, we could not exclude this from the analysis because it is an integral part of the agonistic outcome. In addition, both the athletes who won and those who lost, potentially counteracted the same intense physical activity during matches. It is true that salivary IL-1b only showed an indirect association with plasma levels (Riis et al., 2014). However, our new results show saliva an independent tool to investigate markers of the performance outcome. Notably, O’Connor et al. (2009) showed that salivary IL-1b detected by the ELISA method, significantly correlated with specific blood oxygenation and the level-dependent (BOLD) activity of specific brain areas all of this was illustrated during a verbal test. These findings reinforce the idea that peripheral mediators at a local site such as the mouth, is communicated to the brain, and that the resulting changes in a motivational state may influence the emotional processing. Real competition can induce greater hormonal responses in players compared with exercise carried out for a laboratory purpose.