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Chronic stress and emotion: Differential effects on attentional processing and recognition memory
Janine Wirkner1, Carlos Ventura-Bort2, Lars Schwabe3
1Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology/ Psychotherapy, University of Greifswald, Franz-Mehring-Str. 47, 17489, Greifswald, Germany.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
|May 24, 2019
Summary
Chronic stress enhances attention to emotional stimuli but impairs long-term memory recall. This study used hair cortisol to link long-term stress to brain activity and memory performance in women.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Endocrinology
Background:
- Acute stress enhances memory for emotional information.
- The effects of chronic stress on attention and memory are less understood.
- Hair cortisol serves as a biomarker for long-term stress exposure.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of chronic stress on emotional and neutral scene processing.
- To examine the relationship between hair cortisol levels and recognition memory.
- To explore the neural correlates of stress and memory using event-related potentials.
Main Methods:
- Assessed chronic stress using hair cortisol concentrations in female participants.
- Measured brain activity (event-related potentials, specifically LPPs) during emotional and neutral scene viewing.
- Tested recognition memory for the scenes one week after encoding.
Main Results:
- Emotional scenes elicited enhanced late positive potentials (LPPs) compared to neutral scenes.
- Higher hair cortisol levels correlated with increased LPP amplitudes.
- While emotional scenes were better remembered, higher hair cortisol was linked to poorer overall memory accuracy.
Conclusions:
- Chronic stress may enhance attentional processing of new stimuli.
- Chronic stress appears to impair later recognition memory.
- Opposite effects of chronic stress on brain regions like the amygdala and hippocampus are suggested.
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