Acute stress impairs target enhancement but not distractor suppression in attention selection: Evidence from the N2pc and Pd

Abstract

AbstractAcute stress has a profound impact on attention selection. However, the cognitive mechanism of acute stress on attention selection for neutral stimuli remains unclear. The current study aimed to investigate how acute stress affects target enhancement and distractor suppression in attention selection using a visual search task while EEG was recorded. The Maastricht Acute Stress Test was successfully induced a stress response in the stress group, as indexed by the higher salivary cortisol, state anxiety, and negative emotion. Crucially, the stress group showed significantly smaller N2pc than the control group in the lateral target/midline and contralateral distractor conditions when the distractor salience was high, whereas no significant differences in the Pd were observed in the lateral distractor/midline target condition. These results suggest that acute stress impairs target enhancement rather than distractor suppression in attention selection. This impairment may be due to the impaired function of the prefrontal cortex under acute stress. The present research provides the first insight into the cognitive mechanism of acute stress on attention selection.