Kalia Vrinda, Vishwanath Karthik, Knauft Katherine, Vellen Bryan Von Der, Luebbe Aaron, Williams Amber
Department of Psychology, Miami University, Oxford, OH, United States.
Department of Physics, Miami University, Oxford, OH, United States.
Front Psychol. 2018 Nov 1;9:2084. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02084. eCollection 2018.
Cognitive processes that afford us the ability to control thoughts and achieve goal-directed behavior are known as executive functions. Empirical evidence in the past few years has demonstrated that executive functions can be influenced by acute stress. The impact of acute stress on cognitive flexibility, a key aspect of executive functions, has received little attention in the literature. We present the results of two experiments conducted to examine the effect of acute stress on cognitive flexibility. Acute stress was induced using the cold pressor task. Cognitive flexibility was assessed using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Across both experiments acute stress had an attenuating effect on task switching on the WCST. Our findings also indicate that this effect was moderated by the participant's gender. In Study 1, we observed that following stress exposure male participants in the stress condition made more perseverative errors than participants in the control group. In Study 2, we examined the bilateral hemodynamics in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during acute stress induction using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Our analysis indicated that functional oxyHb signals fluctuated with greater amplitude than systemic components for participants in the stress group relative to those in the control group. In addition, oxyHb levels post stress induction were correlated with performance on the WCST for the male participants in the stress group only. Concordant with previous reports, our findings indicate that acute stress impacts cognitive flexibility in males and females differentially. Our work also demonstrates the feasibility of using fNIRS as a practical and objective technique for the examination of hemodynamics in the PFC during acute stress.
使我们能够控制思维并实现目标导向行为的认知过程被称为执行功能。过去几年的实证证据表明，执行功能会受到急性应激的影响。急性应激对执行功能的一个关键方面——认知灵活性的影响，在文献中很少受到关注。我们展示了两项为检验急性应激对认知灵活性的影响而进行的实验结果。使用冷加压任务诱导急性应激。使用威斯康星卡片分类测验（WCST）评估认知灵活性。在两项实验中，急性应激对WCST上的任务切换都有减弱作用。我们的研究结果还表明，这种效应受参与者性别的调节。在研究1中，我们观察到，在应激条件下，应激组的男性参与者在应激暴露后比对照组的参与者犯了更多的持续性错误。在研究2中，我们使用功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）检查了急性应激诱导期间前额叶皮质（PFC）的双侧血流动力学。我们的分析表明，与对照组相比，应激组参与者的功能性氧合血红蛋白（oxyHb）信号波动幅度大于全身成分。此外，仅应激组的男性参与者在应激诱导后的oxyHb水平与WCST上的表现相关。与之前的报告一致，我们的研究结果表明，急性应激对男性和女性的认知灵活性有不同的影响。我们的工作还证明了使用fNIRS作为一种实用且客观的技术来检查急性应激期间PFC血流动力学的可行性。
