Acute stress reduces attentional blindness: Relations with resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia and cortisol

Abstract

This study made the first attempt to combine resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and cortisol to provide an explanatory mechanism for the effect of acute stress on emotion-induced blindness (EIB) from the perspective of vagus nerve activity and stress hormone responses. For this purpose, resting electrocardiogram (ECG) signals were recorded first. Participants underwent both the socially evaluated cold-pressor test and control treatments 7 days apart and then completed the EIB task. Heart rate and saliva samples were collected over time. The results demonstrated that acute stress promoted the overall detection of targets. Resting RSA and cortisol levels predicted the stress-induced changes in EIB performance under the negative distractor condition at lag2 negatively and positively, respectively. These findings indicate that the effect of stress on EIB was partially contributed by cortisol, which is more relevant to negative distractor conditions. Resting RSA, as an indicator of inter-individual differences, further provided evidence from the perspective of the trait emotional regulation ability based on the vagus nerve control. In general, resting RSA and cortisol changes over time exhibit different patterns of influence on stress-induced changes in EIB performance. Thus, this study provides a more comprehensive understanding of the effect of acute stress on attentional blindness.