Objective: The index of regulatory system activity (IRSA) was previously proposed to assess the functional state of a human organism. The association of mental activity parameters of college freshmen with IRSA levels was not studied before.  The objective of our study was to compare the parameters of mental functions in university freshmen with different IRSA levels.

Methods: A comparative assessment of the state of mental processes in 150 college freshmen with different IRSA levels was carried out. All subjects were pooled into four groups: Group 1 (n=60; IRSA =1-3), Group 2 (n=35; IRSA =4-5), Group 3 (n=37; IRSA =6-7), and Group 4 (n=18; IRSA =8-10).

Results: Statistically significant (p<0.05) differences from Group 1 in the level of emotional strain and the index of psychological stress were found in Groups 3 and 4. Such differences from Group 1 in the effectiveness of mental operations of classification and analysis were observed in Group 4.

Conclusion: We established that all male freshmen with different levels of regulatory system activity in our study had high rates of psychological stress and emotional strain, which could ultimately lead to a significant decrease in the effectiveness of their mental operations and adaptation failure.