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The impact of stress on feedback and error processing during behavioral adaptation
Katharina Glienke1, Oliver T Wolf2, Christian Bellebaum3
1Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Witten/Herdecke, Alfred-Herrhausen-Straße 50, 58448 Witten, Germany.
Neuropsychologia
|April 11, 2015
Summary
Acute stress enhances the brain's reward system response to feedback during learning, even without affecting learning performance itself. This highlights stress's impact on how we process outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psychophysiology
Background:
- Stress significantly impacts cognitive functions, including learning and decision-making.
- Understanding how acute stress alters feedback processing is crucial for explaining behavioral adaptation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of acute stress on feedback-based behavioral adaptation.
- To examine electrophysiological correlates of error and feedback processing under stress.
Main Methods:
- Forty healthy young men participated in a learning task with contingent and non-contingent monetary feedback.
- One group underwent the socially evaluated cold pressor test for stress induction; a control group did not.
- Electroencephalography (EEG) assessed brain activity, focusing on feedback-related negativity (FRN) and error-related negativity (ERN).
Main Results:
- Stressed participants showed no difference in learning performance compared to controls.
- An elevated FRN amplitude difference between punishment and reward was observed in stressed individuals.
- Stressed participants' FRN reflected feedback contingency post-learning, indicating outcome prediction error.
Conclusions:
- Acute stress enhances the recruitment of the reward system in processing performance feedback.
- Stress modulates outcome prediction error signaling during feedback-based learning.
- Electrophysiological responses (FRN) are sensitive indicators of stress effects on feedback processing.
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