Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The effect of mild acute psychological stress on attention processing: an ERP study

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Experimental Brain Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We aimed to investigate the effect of mild acute psychological stress on attention processing by adopting a consecutive task paradigm. In each trial, a probe stimulus (left or right arrow) was presented immediately after a mental arithmetic task (psychological stressor). Participants were asked to estimate whether the product of a multiplication term was above 10 or not, either with (stress block) or without (control block) time pressure and social-evaluative threat. When the probe was presented, participants were asked to judge the direction of the arrows. Increased subjective stress and negative affect were found for the stress versus control trials. For the probe task, reaction times were faster in the stress block than in the control block. Event-related potentials locked to the arrows revealed that (a) fronto-central N1 was enhanced in the stress block compared to the control block. This finding might indicate that stress amplified processes of early perception and that vigilance and sensory intake were augmented. (b) fronto-central N2 was enhanced in the stress block compared to the control block. This finding might reflect increased effort to control selective attention in completing the probe task. (c) less positive P3 was evoked in the stress block than in the control block. This finding potentially reflects the fact that fewer attentional resources were engaged in processing the probe, or that the activity associated with the process of response evaluation was decreased. In sum, mild acute psychological stress exerts a dissociable effect on the neural subprocesses of attention.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arnsten AF (2009) Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nat Rev Neurosci 10:410–422

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Arnsten AF (2015) Stress weakens prefrontal networks: molecular insults to higher cognition. Nat Neurosci 18(10):1376–1385

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Baumeister RF, Heatherton TF, Tice DM (1993) When ego threats lead to self-regulation failure: negative consequences of high self-esteem. J Pers Soc Psychol 64(1):141–156

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beck AT (1967) Depression clinical experimental and theoretical aspects. Hoeber, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertsch K, Böhnke R, Kruk MR, Richter S, Naumann E (2011) Exogenous cortisol facilitates responses to social threat under high provocation. Horm Behav 59:428–434

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley MM (2009) Natural selective attention: orienting and emotion. Psychophysiology 46(1):1–11

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bruin KJ, Wijers AA (2002) Inhibition, response mode, and stimulus probability: a comparative event-related potential study. Clin Neurophysiol 113(7):1172–1182

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Covey TJ, Shucard JL, Violanti JM, Lee J, Shucard DW (2013) The effects of exposure to traumatic stressors on inhibitory control in police officers: a dense electrode array study using a Go/NoGo continuous performance task. Int J Psychophysiol 87(3):363–375

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dambacher M, Hübner R (2015) Time pressure affects the efficiency of perceptual processing in decisions under conflict. Psychol Res 79:83–94

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dedovic K, Renwick R, Mahani NK, Engert V, Lupien SJ, Pruessner JC (2005) The Montreal Imaging Stress Task: using functional imaging to investigate the effects of perceiving and processing psychosocial stress in the human brain. J Psychiatr Neurosci 30:319–325

    Google Scholar 

  • Dennis-Tiwary TA, Egan LJ, Babkirk S, Denefrio S (2016) For whom the bell tolls: neurocognitive individual differences in the acute stress-reduction effects of an attention bias modification game for anxiety. Behav Res Ther 77:105–117

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Di Russo F, Martínez A, Hillyard SA (2003) Source analysis of event-related cortical activity during visuo-spatial attention. Cereb Cortex 13(5):486–499

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dickerson SS, Kemeny ME (2004) Acute stressors and cortisol responses: a theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research. Psychol Bull 130:355–391

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dierolf AM, Fechtner J, Böhnke R, Wolf OT, Naumann E (2017) Influence of acute stress on response inhibition in healthy men: an ERP study. Psychophysiology 54(5):684–695

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eldar S, Bar-Haim Y (2010) Neural plasticity in response to attention training in anxiety. Psychol Med 40:667–677

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Elling L, Schupp H, Bayer J et al (2012) The impact of acute psychosocial stress on magnetoencephalographic correlates of emotional attention and exogenous visual attention. PLoS One 7:e35767

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Foley P, Kirschbaum C (2010) Human hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis responses to acute psychosocial stress in laboratory settings. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 35:91–96

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Folstein JR, Van Petten C (2008) Influence of cognitive control and mismatch on the N2 component of the ERP: a review. Psychophysiology 45:152–170

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Füstös J, Gramann K, Herbert BM, Pollatos O (2012) On the embodiment of emotion regulation: interoceptive awareness facilitates reappraisal. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 8(8):911–917

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gao H, Cao B, Qi M, Wang J, Zhang Q, Li F (2016) Two stages of directed forgetting: electrophysiological evidence from a short-term memory task. Psychophysiology 53(6):806–813

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gao H, Qi M, Zhang Q (2017) Response inhibition is more effortful than response activation: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence. Neuroreport 28(7):404–407

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gao H, Qi M, Zhang Q (2018) Frontal control process in intentional forgetting: electrophysiological evidence. Front Neurosci 11:757

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gazzaley A, Clapp W, Kelley J, McEvoy K, Knight RT, D’Esposito M (2008) Age-related top-down suppression deficit in the early stages of cortical visual memory processing. P Natl Acad Sci 105(35):13122–13126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gratton G, Coles MGH, Donchin E (1983) A New method for off-line removal of ocular artifact. Electroencephal Clin Neurophysiol 55:468–484

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Henckens MJ, van Wingen GA, Joëls M, Fernández G (2011) Time-dependent corticosteroid modulation of prefrontal working memory processing. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108(14):5801–5806

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hum KM, Manassis K, Lewis MD (2013) Neural mechanisms of emotion regulation in childhood anxiety. J Child Psychol Psyc 54:552–564

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jonkman LM, Lansbergen M, Stauder JEA (2003) Developmental differences in behavioral and event-related brain responses associated with response preparation and inhibition in a go/nogo task. Psychophysiology 40(5):752–761

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kirschbaum C, Pirke KM, Hellhammer DH (1993) The ‘trier social stress test’—a tool for investigating psychobiological stress responses in a laboratory setting. Neuropsychobiology 28:76–81

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kirschbaum C, Kudielka BM, Gaab J, Schommer NC, Hellhammer DH (1999) Impact of gender, menstrual cycle phase, and oral contraceptives on the activity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. Psychosom Med 61:154–162

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kogler L, Müller VI, Chang A et al (2015) Psychosocial versus physiological stress—meta-analyses on deactivations and activations of the neural correlates of stress reactions. Neuroimage 119:235–251

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kok A (1997) Event-related-potential (ERP) reflections of mental resources: a review and synthesis. Biol Psychol 45(1):19–56

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kopp B, Lange F (2013) Electrophysiological indicators of surprise and entropy in dynamic task-switching environments. Front Hum Neurosci 7:300

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kowalski-Trakofler KM, Vaught C, Scharf T (2003) Judgment and decision making under stress: an overview for emergency managers. Int J Emerg Manage 1:278–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larson-Prior LJ, Power JD, Vincent JL, Nolan TS, Coalson RS, Zempel J et al (2011) Modulation of the brain’s functional network architecture in the transition from wake to sleep. Prog Brain Res 193:277–294

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Linden DE (2005) The P300: where in the brain is it produced and what does it tell us? Neuroscientist 11(6):563–576

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Löw A, Weymar M, Hamm AO (2015) When threat is near, get out of here dynamics of defensive behavior during freezing and active avoidance. Psychol Sci 26:1706–1716

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra J, Hillyard SA (2009) Endogenous attention selection during binocular rivalry at early stages of visual processing. Vision Res 49:1073–1080

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moore DR, Pindus DM, Raine LB et al (2016) The persistent influence of concussion on attention, executive control and neuroelectric function in preadolescent children. Int J Psychophysiol 99:85–95

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Olson RL, Chang YK, Brush CJ et al (2016) Neurophysiological and behavioral correlates of cognitive control during low and moderate intensity exercise. Neuroimage 131:171–180

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Olver JS, Pinney M, Maruff P, Norman TR (2015) Impairments of spatial working memory and attention following acute psychosocial stress. Stress Health 31(2):115–123

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Plessow F, Kiesel A, Kirschbaum C (2012) The stressed prefrontal cortex and goal-directed behaviour: acute psychosocial stress impairs the flexible implementation of task goals. Exp Brain Res 216(3):397–408

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pruessner JC, Dedovic K, Pruessner M et al (2010) Stress regulation in the central nervous system: evidence from structural and functional neuroimaging studies in human populations—2008 Curt Richter Award Winner. Psychoneuroendocrino 35:179–191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qi M, Gao H, Guan L, Liu G, Yang J (2016) Subjective stress, salivary cortisol, and electrophysiological responses to psychological stress. Front Psychol 7:229

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Qi M, Gao H, Liu G (2017) Effect of acute psychological stress on response inhibition: an event-related potential study. Behav Brain Res 323:32–37

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reinvang I, Nordby H, Nielsen CS (2000) Information processing deficits in head injury assessed with ERPs reflecting early and late processing stages. Neuropsychologia 38:995–1005

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Righi S, Mecacci L, Viggiano MP (2009) Anxiety, cognitive self-evaluation and performance: ERP correlates. J Anxiety Disord 23:1132–1138

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Riis JL, Chong H, Ryan KK, Wolk DA et al (2008) Compensatory neural activity distinguishes different patterns of normal cognitive aging. Neuroimage 39(1):441–454

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sandi C (2013) Stress and cognition. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci 4(3):245–261

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sänger J, Wascher E (2011) The influence of extrinsic motivation on competition-based selection. Behav Brain Res 224(1):58–64

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sänger J, Bechtold L, Schoofs D, Blaszkewicz M, Wascher E (2014) The influence of acute stress on attention mechanisms and its electrophysiological correlates. Front Behav Neurosci 8:353

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schaefer A, Gray JR (2007) A role for the human amygdala in higher cognition. Rev Neurosci 18(5):355–364

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schwabe L, Wolf OT (2013) Stress and multiple memory systems: from ‘thinking’ to ‘doing’. Trends Cogn Sci 17(2):60–68

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shackman AJ, Maxwell JS, McMenamin BW, Greischar LL, Davidson RJ (2011) Stress potentiates early and attenuates late stages of visual processing. J Neurosci 31:1156–1161

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Starcke K, Wiesen C, Trotzke P, Brand M (2016) Effects of acute laboratory stress on executive functions. Front Psychol 7:461

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Vandellen MR, Campbell WK, Hoyle RH, Bradfield EK (2011) Compensating, resisting, and breaking: a meta-analytic examination of reactions to self-esteem threat. Pers Soc Psychol Rev 15(1):51–74

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wang XD, Wang XL, Ma H (1999) Handbook of mental health assessment (supplement). China J Ment Health 12:238–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang JJ, Rao HY, Wetmore GS et al (2005) Perfusion functional MRI reveals cerebral blood flow pattern under psychological stress. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:17804–17809

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang JJ, Korczykowski M, Rao HY et al (2007) Gender difference in neural response to psychological stress. Soc Cogn Affect Neursci 2:227–239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson D, Clark LA, Tellegen A (1988) Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect—the Panas scales. J Pers Soc Psychol 54:1063–1070

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wauthia E, Rossignol M (2016) Emotional processing and attention control impairments in children with anxiety: an integrative review of event-related potentials findings. Front Psychol 7:562

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Weerda R, Muehlhan M, Wolf OT, Thiel CM (2010) Effects of acute psychosocial stress on working memory related brain activity in men. Hum Brain Mapp 31(9):1418–1429

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 61472330) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (XDJK2016E025) and the Humanity and Social Sciences Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (15YJC190017).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China

    Mingming Qi & Heming Gao

  2. College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Guangyuan Liu

Authors
  1. Mingming Qi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Heming Gao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Guangyuan Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mingming Qi or Heming Gao.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Qi, M., Gao, H. & Liu, G. The effect of mild acute psychological stress on attention processing: an ERP study. Exp Brain Res 236, 2061–2071 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-018-5283-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-018-5283-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation