Mather Mara, Lighthall Nichole R
University of Southern California.
Curr Dir Psychol Sci. 2012 Feb;21(2):36-41. doi: 10.1177/0963721411429452.
Years of research show that stress influences cognition. Most of this research has focused on how stress affects memory and the hippocampus. However, stress impacts other regions involved in cognitive and emotional processing, including the prefrontal cortex, striatum, and insula. New research examining how stress affects decision processes reveals two consistent findings. First, acute stress enhances selection of previously rewarding outcomes but impairs selection of previously negative outcomes, possibly due to stress-induced changes in dopamine in reward-processing brain regions. Second, stress amplifies gender differences in strategies during risky decisions, with males taking more risk and females less risk under stress. These gender differences in behavior are associated with differences in activity in the insula and dorsal striatum, brain regions involved in computing risk and preparing to take action.
多年的研究表明，压力会影响认知。这项研究大多集中在压力如何影响记忆和海马体。然而，压力会影响参与认知和情绪处理的其他区域，包括前额叶皮质、纹状体和脑岛。一项关于压力如何影响决策过程的新研究揭示了两个一致的发现。第一，急性压力会增强对先前有奖励结果的选择，但会损害对先前负面结果的选择，这可能是由于奖励处理脑区中多巴胺因压力而发生的变化。第二，压力会放大风险决策过程中策略上的性别差异，男性在压力下承担更多风险，女性承担较少风险。这些行为上的性别差异与脑岛和背侧纹状体的活动差异有关，这两个脑区参与计算风险和准备采取行动。
