Features of physiological reactions to the learning load on students with different mental abilities
Authors: Setko Andrey G. , Zhdanova Olesya M. , Lukyanov Pavel V. 
Published: March 2022

Introduction. The possibility of increasing the efficiency of secondary general education by increasing the volume of educational loads and intensifying intellectual work in institutions specializing in teaching gifted and talented children has actualized the problem of the correspondence of educational loads to the functional capabilities of the student’s body. The aim of the study is to identify the features of the physiological reactions of the organism of students with different mental abilities to the training load. Materials and methods. The management of the educational process, the mode of the school day and the functional state of school-significant systems were assessed for students with high mental abilities, studying in the senior grades of a multidisciplinary Lyceum (n = 250) and students of a traditional school (n = 274) with an average level of mental abilities. Results. In comparison with the traditional school in the Lyceum for gifted children, an excess of the permissible level of the total weekly educational load, its irrational distribution during the school day and week, an intense level of intellectual, emotional and sensory loads, an intensive mode of work, characterized by a high workload of students with elective classes and homework, tasks. Under conditions of intense learning activity among students with increased mental abilities relative to these students of the comparison group, an increase in the level of mental performance was revealed due to stabilization of the nervous reaction and an increase in the functional capabilities of the nervous system; improvement of the functional state of the respiratory system; an increase of up to 1.6 times the number of students with good biological adaptation and a decrease of up to 1.5 times the number of subjects with a breakdown in adaptation. limitations. The sample of students with higher mental abilities presented from one public education institution for gifted children in the Orenburg region characterizes only the regional component, which does not allow considering the results obtained for all representatives of this group from other regions of the country. Conclusion. Thus, against the background of an increase in the volume and intensity of training loads in students with an average level of intelligence, there was established the formation of optimal mental performance, improving the functional state of the respiratory system, increasing in due to the stabilization of the nervous reaction and increasing the functionality of the nervous system; improvement of the functional state of the respiratory system, an increase by 1.6 times in the number of students with satisfactory biological adaptation and a decrease in the number of students with a breakdown in adaptation by 1.5 times. It has been established that under the conditions of their intensification of learning, students with increased mental abilities formed the best academic result, however, the failure of adaptive capabilities in every fifth subject with a high level of intellectual potential indicated that the body of students is functioning at the limit of their psychophysiological capabilities, which determines the need for the introduction an additional health-preserving component in the educational process of the lyceum with the aim of correcting students of the “risk group”.