Chronic stress and executive functioning: A specification-curve analysis.

To investigate the association between chronic stress and executive functioning (EF), we assessed 514 young to middle-aged adults in three EF tasks (i.e., Number-Letter, 2-Back, Go/Nogo) that assessed shifting, updating, and inhibition.

Temporal stability and effect dynamics between executive functions, perceived chronic stress, and hair cortisol concentrations.

Accidents caused by human errors illustrate the fragility of cognitive processing and its coordination by executive functions against stress. To better understand how core executive functions change over time, influence each other, and are affected by chronic stress exposure, a prospective cohort study was conducted from 2016 to 2019. Five hundred sixteen German adults aged 25-55 years (mean age/education age: 38.

Cortisol secretion predicts functional macro-scale connectivity of the visual cortex: A data-driven Multivoxel Pattern Analysis (MVPA).

Background: Functional connectivity is a fundamental principle of brain organization. Cortisol, the end product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, is a potent modulator of brain functions. Previous studies investigating the association between cortisol levels on brain connectivity are, however, limited to specifica priori defined brain networks.

The psychometric properties and temporal dynamics of subjective stress, retrospectively assessed by different informants and questionnaires, and hair cortisol concentrations.

To date, there is only scarce evidence for a considerable association of subjective and objective stress measures, which might be attributable to method bias (e.g., confounding) and/or asynchrony of their temporal changes.

How to disentangle psychobiological stress reactivity and recovery: A comparison of model-based and non-compartmental analyses of cortisol concentrations.

This article seeks to address the prevailing issue of how to measure specific process components of psychobiological stress responses. Particularly the change of cortisol secretion due to stress exposure has been discussed as an endophenotype of many psychosomatic health outcomes. To assess its process components, a large variety of non-compartmental parameters (i.

NMDA receptor modulation by dextromethorphan and acute stress selectively alters electroencephalographic indicators of partial report processing.

Proceeding from a biophysical network model, the present study hypothesized that glutamatergic neurotransmission across the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) plays a key role in visual perception and its modulation by acute stress. To investigate these hypotheses, behavioral and electroencephalographic (EEG) indicators of partial report task processing were assessed in twenty-four healthy young men who randomly received a non-competitive NMDAR antagonist (0.8 mg/kg dextromethorphan, DXM) or a placebo, and concurrently accomplished a stress-induction (MAST) or control protocol in three consecutive sessions.

Hydrocortisone Counteracts Adverse Stress Effects on Dual-Task Performance by Improving Visual Sensory Processes.

The impact of acute stress on executive processes is commonly attributed to glucocorticoid-induced disruptions of the pFC. However, the occipital cortex seems to express a higher density of glucocorticoid receptors. Consequently, acute stress effects on executive processes could as well be mediated by glucocorticoid (e.

Hydrocortisone accelerates the decay of iconic memory traces: on the modulation of executive and stimulus-driven constituents of sensory information maintenance.

A substantial amount of research documents the impact of glucocorticoids on higher-order cognitive functioning. By contrast, surprisingly little is known about the susceptibility of basic sensory processes to glucocorticoid exposure given that the glucocorticoid receptor density in the human visual cortex exceeds those observed in prefrontal and most hippocampal brain regions. As executive tasks also rely on these sensory processes, the present study investigates the impact of glucocorticoid exposure on different performance parameters characterizing the maintenance and transfer of sensory information from iconic memory (IM; the sensory buffer of the visual system) to working memory (WM).

Do venepuncture procedures induce cortisol responses? A review, study, and synthesis for stress research.

Venepuncture procedures are frequently employed to continuously monitor humoral stress markers. As such procedures are conceived as "potent psychological and physiological stressors", there is a need to determine whether venepuncture procedures themselves elicit cortisol responses and if so, how to deal with them appropriately. In order to assess the rate of cortisol responses to venepuncture, we conducted a literature review, which suggested that venepuncture procedures induce cortisol responses with a probability of approximately 30%.