Department of Psychology, Washington State University, PO Box 644820, Pullman, WA, 99164-4820, USA.
Translational Addiction Research Center, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2019 Jun;236(6):1973-1983. doi: 10.1007/s00213-019-5184-9. Epub 2019 Feb 14.
Prospective memory pervades our daily lives and failures can have detrimental consequences. This ability to execute delayed intentions may be impacted by stress, yet few studies have examined these effects. Moreover, as many cannabis users report using cannabis to cope with stress, it is important to understand how stress impacts memory in cannabis users.
We assessed the effects of acute and chronic stress on prospective memory to examine whether stress differentially impacts prospective memory in cannabis users vs. non-users.
Forty cannabis users and 42 non-users were assigned an episodic and a habitual prospective memory test before completing either the stress or no stress condition of the Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST). Participants were instructed to execute the habitual test during the MAST and the episodic test shortly after the MAST. Chronic stress was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale, and acute stress was measured using subjective ratings and cortisol.
There was a main effect of acute stress indicating that stress detrimentally impacted habitual prospective memory performance. Although there was not a significant stress x cannabis interaction, further planned comparisons indicated the habitual prospective memory impairment was selective to cannabis users. There were also significant negative correlations between (i) episodic prospective memory and both subjective stress as well as chronic stress, and (ii) habitual prospective memory and change in subjective stress.
This study is the first to reveal detrimental effects of acute stress on prospective memory performance, which may be exacerbated in cannabis users.
前瞻性记忆贯穿我们的日常生活，其失败可能会产生有害的后果。这种执行延迟意图的能力可能会受到压力的影响，但很少有研究探讨这些影响。此外，由于许多大麻使用者报告使用大麻来应对压力，因此了解压力如何影响大麻使用者的记忆非常重要。
我们评估了急性和慢性应激对前瞻性记忆的影响，以检查应激是否会对大麻使用者和非使用者的前瞻性记忆产生不同的影响。
40 名大麻使用者和 42 名非使用者在完成马斯特里赫特急性应激测试（MAST）的应激或非应激条件之前，分别接受了情景和习惯性前瞻性记忆测试。参与者被指示在 MAST 期间执行习惯性测试，并在 MAST 后不久执行情景测试。使用感知压力量表测量慢性应激，使用主观评分和皮质醇测量急性应激。
急性应激有一个主要影响，表明应激会对习惯性前瞻性记忆表现产生不利影响。尽管没有出现应激与大麻使用的显著交互作用，但进一步的计划比较表明，习惯性前瞻性记忆损伤对大麻使用者具有选择性。情景前瞻性记忆与主观压力和慢性压力都呈显著负相关，而习惯性前瞻性记忆与主观压力变化呈显著负相关。
这项研究首次揭示了急性应激对前瞻性记忆表现的不利影响，这种影响可能在大麻使用者中更为严重。
