Abstract
It is well established that acute stress produces negative effects on high level cognitive functions. However, these effects could be due to the physiological components of the stress response (among which cortisol secretion is prominent), to its psychological concomitants (the thoughts generated by the stressor) or to any combination of those. Our study shows for the first time that the typical cortisol response to stress is sufficient to impair metacognition, that is the ability to monitor one’s own performance in a task. In a pharmacological protocol, we administered either 20 mg hydrocortisone or placebo to 46 male participants, and measured their subjective perception of stress, their performance in a perceptual task, and their metacognitive ability. We found that hydrocortisone selectively impaired metacognitive ability, without affecting task performance or creating a subjective state of stress. In other words, the single physiological response of stress produces a net effect on metacognition. These results inform our basic understanding of the physiological bases of metacognition. They are also relevant for applied or clinical research about situations involving stress, anxiety, depression, or simply cortisol use.
Highlights
We could induce a hormonal change similar to that created by social or physical stressors, without creating differences in the subjective experience of the situation or the subjective perception of stress, as controlled with behavioral evaluations
In separate Linear Mixed Models (LMMs), we evaluated whether perceptual sensitivity, response time or stimulus contrast differed across the Hydrocortisone and Placebo groups
We investigated if metacognition could be modulated by a synthetic cortisol induction mimicking one crucial component of the physiological response to stress
Summary
We could induce a hormonal change similar to that created by social or physical stressors, without creating differences in the subjective experience of the situation or the subjective perception of stress, as controlled with behavioral evaluations. We could isolate the net biological effect of cortisol on metacognition. In this study we did not directly manipulate the stress of individuals, our results should be mainly attributed to cortisol manipulation, a fundamental aspect of the stress response. We predicted that participants who received hydrocortisone would exhibit a lower metacognitive efficiency compared to controls
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