Abstract
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) function is crucial for adaptation to stress and recovery of homeostasis. Physiological alteration in the HPA axis has been shown to play a pivotal role in the generation of stress-related disorders. A growing number of studies have begun to identify which variables are possible to predict individual HPA response and associated stress vulnerability. The current study investigated the relationship between working memory and the subsequent magnitude of HPA response to psychosocial stress in a non-clinical population. Working memory was assessed utilizing an n-back task (2/3-back) in thirty-nine healthy young men, whose electroencephalograms were recorded. The HPA response was measured using the percentage increase in cortisol to an acute psychosocial stress protocol called the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Our results show that longer reaction time and smaller amplitude of P2 predict a relatively lower HPA response to stress. Our study provides new insights into how neurocognitive factors can be used to predict HPA response to acute stress.
Highlights
Stress is familiar to people in modern life and chronic exposure to stress may lead to mental and physical disorders
The HPA response triggered by acute stress is crucial for adaptation to stress and recovery of homeostasis, up-regulating the hormone cortisol to cope with challenges when at risk but down-regulating cortisol through a negative feedback loop when challenges have been resolved [4]
Extensive research has shown that working memory is closely related to the function of prefrontal cortex (PFC) [32], which is one of the brain areas regulating the magnitude of HPA response to stress [33]
Summary
Stress is familiar to people in modern life and chronic exposure to stress may lead to mental and physical disorders. Recent studies have shown that the better performance of cognitive functions under non-stressful situation can predict stronger HPA response to acute stress. Previous studies have shown that the behavioral measures of cognitive control predict HPA response or cortisol reactivity to acute stress [e.g., [24, 25, 30]], there are relatively fewer neurocognitive indicators. Extensive research has shown that working memory is closely related to the function of prefrontal cortex (PFC) [32], which is one of the brain areas regulating the magnitude of HPA response to stress [33]. The current study used the N-back task to assess working memory under non-stressful situation, and aimed at examining whether and how the behavioral performance and ERP correlates of working memory is related to the HPA response induced by an acute psychosocial stress protocol. We tested whether the ERPs (P2 and P3 components) are associated with the HPA response to stress
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