Temporal dynamic modulation of acute stress on error processing in healthy males

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Human Behavior

Background:

• Error processing is vital for adaptive behaviors.
• Acute stress is known to affect cognitive functions, including error processing.
• The specific neural mechanisms linking stress and error processing are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural dynamic correlates of acute stress modulation on error processing.
• To examine how acute stress influences behavioral and electroencephalography (EEG) responses during error detection.

Main Methods:

• 39 healthy males underwent a two-session task (before and after stress test) with behavioral and EEG recording.
• Participants were randomly assigned to a stress condition (Maastricht Acute Stress Test) or a control condition.
• A color-word Stroop task was employed, and participants were classified as low or high cortisol responders.

Main Results:

• High cortisol responders showed reduced error-related negativity (ERN) amplitude after acute stress.
• The change in ERN (∆ERN) was significantly smaller in high cortisol responders compared to low responders.
• Error positivity amplitudes increased in the stress group, suggesting heightened error assessment.

Conclusions:

• Acute stress impairs error detection, with effects modulated by individual cortisol response levels.
• Stress leads to reduced neural sensitivity to errors (ERN) but increased conscious evaluation of errors (error positivity).
• These findings highlight the complex interplay between stress, neural error processing, and emotional/motivational responses to errors.