Lü Wei, Huang Yefei
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, Shaanxi Key Research Center for Children Mental and Behavior Health, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China.
Dev Psychopathol. 2025 May;37(2):664-677. doi: 10.1017/S0954579424000440. Epub 2024 Feb 28.
Stress affects executive functions and exploring the association between stress-induced physiological reactivity and executive functions could highlight the potential mechanism of the stress-cognitive function link. Our study examined the linear and nonlinear associations between cardiovascular stress reactivity and cool and hot executive functions among adolescents. In November 2021 (T1), 273 Chinese adolescents between 11 and 14 ( = 12.93, = 0.79) underwent a speech task during which their cardiovascular data were recorded, and they completed a Flanker task and an Emotional Stroop task. In May 2023 (T2), 253 adolescents again completed the Flanker and Emotional Stroop tasks. Cool and hot executive functions were assessed using the intra-individual reaction time variability of the Flanker task and Emotional Stroop task, respectively. Results showed that cardiovascular stress reactivity was positively linearly associated with cool executive functions at T1 and quadratically (inverted -shaped) associated with cool executive functions at T1 and hot executive functions at T1 and T2. These findings suggest that compared to very high and very low cardiovascular reactivity, moderate to high cardiovascular reactivity to a structured social challenge is associated with better cool and hot executive functions.
压力会影响执行功能，探究压力诱发的生理反应性与执行功能之间的关联，可能会凸显压力与认知功能联系的潜在机制。我们的研究考察了青少年心血管压力反应性与冷执行功能和热执行功能之间的线性和非线性关联。2021年11月（T1），273名年龄在11至14岁之间的中国青少年（平均年龄 = 12.93岁，标准差 = 0.79）接受了一项言语任务，在此期间记录他们的心血管数据，并且他们完成了一项侧翼任务和一项情绪斯特鲁普任务。2023年5月（T2），253名青少年再次完成了侧翼任务和情绪斯特鲁普任务。冷执行功能和热执行功能分别使用侧翼任务和情绪斯特鲁普任务的个体内反应时变异性进行评估。结果显示，心血管压力反应性在T1时与冷执行功能呈正线性相关，在T1时与冷执行功能以及在T1和T2时与热执行功能呈二次（倒U形）相关。这些发现表明，与非常高和非常低的心血管反应性相比，对结构化社会挑战的中度至高度心血管反应性与更好的冷执行功能和热执行功能相关。
