Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University Hospital Muenster, Muenster, Germany.
PLoS One. 2012;7(6):e35767. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035767. Epub 2012 Jun 11.
Stress-induced acute activation of the cerebral catecholaminergic systems has often been found in rodents. However, little is known regarding the consequences of this activation on higher cognitive functions in humans. Theoretical inferences would suggest increased distractibility in the sense of increased exogenous attention and emotional attention. The present study investigated the influence of acute stress responses on magnetoencephalographic (MEG) correlates of visual attention. Healthy male subjects were presented emotional and neutral pictures in three subsequent MEG recording sessions after being exposed to a TSST-like social stressor, intended to trigger a HPA-response. The subjects anticipation of another follow-up stressor was designed to sustain the short-lived central catecholaminergic stress reactions throughout the ongoing MEG recordings. The heart rate indicates a stable level of anticipatory stress during this time span, subsequent cortisol concentrations and self-report measures of stress were increased. With regard to the MEG correlates of attentional functions, we found that the N1m amplitude remained constantly elevated during stressor anticipation. The magnetic early posterior negativity (EPNm) was present but, surprisingly, was not at all modulated during stressor anticipation. This suggests that a general increase of the influence of exogenous attention but no specific effect regarding emotional attention in this time interval. Regarding the time course of the effects, an influence of the HPA on these MEG correlates of attention seems less likely. An influence of cerebral catecholaminergic systems is plausible, but not definite.
应激诱导的大脑儿茶酚胺能系统的急性激活在啮齿动物中经常被发现。然而，关于这种激活对人类更高认知功能的影响知之甚少。理论推断会认为在外源性注意和情绪注意方面的注意力分散增加。本研究调查了急性应激反应对视觉注意的脑磁图（MEG）相关因素的影响。健康男性受试者在经历类似 TSST 的社会应激源后，在三个随后的 MEG 记录会话中呈现情绪和中性图片，旨在引发 HPA 反应。受试者对另一个后续应激源的预期设计是在持续进行的 MEG 记录过程中维持短暂的中枢儿茶酚胺应激反应。心率表明在此时间段内预期性应激保持稳定水平，随后皮质醇浓度和应激的自我报告测量值增加。关于注意力功能的 MEG 相关因素，我们发现，在应激源预期期间，N1m 振幅始终保持升高。虽然存在磁早期后负（EPNm），但令人惊讶的是，在应激源预期期间，EPNm 没有被调节。这表明在这段时间内，对外源性注意的影响普遍增加，但在情绪注意方面没有特定影响。关于影响的时间过程，HPA 对这些注意力的 MEG 相关因素的影响似乎不太可能。大脑儿茶酚胺能系统的影响是合理的，但不是确定的。
