Self-Knowledge Dim-Out: Stress Impairs Metacognitive Accuracy.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Psychophysiology

Background:

• The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis stress response influences cognitive and emotional functions.
• Frontal lobe activity is a key mediator of the HPA axis's impact on cognition.
• Metacognition, the awareness and control of one's own cognitive processes, relies heavily on frontal lobe functions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of acute stress on metacognitive accuracy.
• To determine if HPA axis activation, measured by cortisol levels, affects self-assessment of performance.
• To examine the relationship between stress reactivity and metacognitive sensitivity.

Main Methods:

• Participants were categorized into high, medium, and low stress response groups based on salivary cortisol levels after the Trier Social Stress Test.
• A visual discrimination task was employed to assess first-order perceptual performance.
• The accuracy of participants' confidence judgments regarding their task performance was measured to evaluate metacognition.

Main Results:

• Higher biological reactivity to stress was significantly correlated with reduced metacognitive sensitivity.
• Participants with higher cortisol responses showed a diminished ability to accurately assess their performance.
• Stress did not affect the accuracy of the primary perceptual decision itself, only the metacognitive evaluation of it.

Conclusions:

• Acute stress, particularly high biological reactivity, impairs metacognition.
• Individuals under stress exhibit reduced awareness of their own knowledge states.
• These findings highlight the detrimental effect of stress on self-monitoring cognitive functions mediated by the HPA axis and frontal lobes.