Good to be stressed? Improved response inhibition and error processing after acute stress in young and older men

Neuropsychologia
Angelika Margarete DierolfOliver T Wolf

Abstract

While aging and stress are both known to affect cognitive functions, little is known on whether and how age modulates stress effects on executive functions and their neural correlates. The current study investigated the effect of acute stress on response inhibition and error processing and their underlying cortical processes in younger and older healthy men, using EEG. Forty-nine participants (30 young) were stressed with the Trier Social Stress Test (16 young, 9 older) or underwent a friendly control procedure (14 young, 10 older) and subsequently performed a Go/No-Go task with two levels of task difficulty while performance (reaction time, error rate), stimulus-locked (N2, P3) and response-locked (Ne, Pe) ERPs were measured. Previous results on age-related cognitive deficits were replicated, with slower responses and reduced and delayed N2 and P3 components, as well as reduced Ne and Pe components in older participants. Independent of age, acute stress improved response inhibition, reflected in higher accuracy for compatible trials and enhanced inhibition-related components (N2, P3 and N2d, P3d of the difference waves No-Go minus Go), and improved error processing, reflected in enhanced error-related components (Ne, Pe and Ne...Continue Reading

Citations

Apr 17, 2021·Consciousness and Cognition·Yuecui KanHaijun Duan
Apr 20, 2021·Biological Psychology·Siri-Maria KampGregor Domes
Sep 10, 2021·International Journal of Psychophysiology : Official Journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology·Na HuXiaoxi Wang
Dec 16, 2021·Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience·Heming GaoMingming Qi

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