The effect of acute stress on spatial selectivity in dual-stream emotion induced blindness: The role of cortisol and spontaneous frontal EEG theta/beta ratio.

Abstract

The current study explored the effect of acute stress on dual-stream emotion induced blindness (EIB). We focused on spatially localised target processing induced by stress, as well as the role of cortisol and the frontal EEG theta/beta ratio (TBR). Eight-minutes spontaneous EEG data were recorded first. After performing a Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) or a corresponding control task a week apart, the participants completed a dual-stream EIB task. Changes in cortisol levels over time were likewise recorded. We found that stress promoted the target processing in the same stream location as the distractor, eliminating the spatial-localisation effect. Cortisol and frontal TBR positively and negatively, respectively, predicted a reduced spatially localised target detection induced by stress following negative distractors. Overall, acute stress apparently reduced the dual-stream EIB due to the effective allocation of limited resources. Further, the role of cortisol associated with better target detection was more specific to the negative distractor condition and partially disassociated from the general stress response. Cortisol levels and frontal TBR independently predicted the spatially localised processing, suggesting differentiated influence paths of trait and state factors on target detection following emotional distractors.