Simon Lisa, Jiryis Talita, Admon Roee
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
The Integrated Brain and Behavior Research Center (IBBRC), University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
Brain Sci. 2021 Aug 29;11(9):1148. doi: 10.3390/brainsci11091148.
Exposure to acute stress elicit physiological and psychological responses that can impact decision-making, often expressed as an increased tendency to act in an impulsive manner following stress. Delay discounting (DD) task has emerged as a reliable measure of impulsive behavior in the form of choice impulsivity (CI). Interestingly, studies that examined the effect of acute stress on DD performance reported mixed results. To address this, we conducted a within-subject examination of the impact of acute stress on CI, focusing on individual differences in response patterns. One hundred and fifty healthy female participants completed the DD task twice, before and after undergoing an acute laboratory stress induction procedure. Saliva samples and self-report mood and affect measures were collected at four time points throughout the session. Fifty-nine matched healthy control participants completed only the DD task twice, with no stress in between. Results indicate that the acute stress procedure elicited the expected effects of increased cortisol release and increased negative mood and affect, at the group level. With respect to DD, stress indeed increased CI at the group level, yet participants differed in the magnitude and direction of this effect. Interestingly, regression analysis revealed quadratic relations between stress-induced changes in CI and cortisol release. Indeed, dividing the sample into three sub-groups based on the impact of stress on CI revealed that, compared to participants that exhibited no substantial change in their CI following stress, participants that exhibited either stress-induced increase or decrease in their CI also exhibited more stress-induced cortisol release, as well as more negative affect. Taken together, these findings suggest that elevated physiological and psychological responses to stress are associated with either increased or decreased choice impulsivity, thus depicting quadratic relations between stress and impulsivity.
暴露于急性应激会引发生理和心理反应，这些反应会影响决策，通常表现为应激后冲动行事的倾向增加。延迟折扣（DD）任务已成为一种以选择冲动性（CI）形式衡量冲动行为的可靠方法。有趣的是，研究急性应激对DD表现影响的研究结果不一。为了解决这个问题，我们对急性应激对CI的影响进行了一项受试者内研究，重点关注反应模式的个体差异。150名健康女性参与者在接受急性实验室应激诱导程序之前和之后两次完成了DD任务。在整个过程中的四个时间点收集唾液样本以及自我报告的情绪和情感测量数据。59名匹配的健康对照参与者仅两次完成DD任务，期间无应激。结果表明，在群体水平上，急性应激程序引发了皮质醇释放增加以及负面情绪和情感增加的预期效果。关于DD，应激在群体水平上确实增加了CI，但参与者在这种影响的程度和方向上存在差异。有趣的是，回归分析揭示了应激诱导的CI变化与皮质醇释放之间的二次关系。实际上，根据应激对CI的影响将样本分为三个亚组，结果显示，与应激后CI没有实质性变化的参与者相比，应激后CI出现应激诱导增加或减少的参与者也表现出更多的应激诱导皮质醇释放以及更多的负面情绪。综上所述，这些发现表明，对应激的生理和心理反应增强与选择冲动性增加或减少相关，从而描绘了应激与冲动性之间的二次关系。
