Chronic academic stress improves attentional control: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence
Mingming Qi, Ru Gai, Yuxi Wang, Heming Gao
Abstract
Background: Detecting and responding to target objects in the visual environment is a key factor in goal-directed behavior. Exposure to chronic stress often results in alterations of prefrontal cortex (PFC) function, which may impact PFC-dependent selective attention process. This study aimed to investigate the effect of chronic academic stress on attentional control process. Method: Both the stress group and the control group performed an arrow-based version of the Eriksen Flanker task. Event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded while the participants performed the task. Results: The behavioural results exhibited decreased Flanker RT effect for the stress group compared to the control group, suggesting a reduced interference under stress. The ERP results showed that stress group showed decreased frontal N2 but increased early P3 and late P3/LPC activities compared to the control group. These results suggest reduced conflict monitoring but increased conflict resolution process under stress. Conclusions: The chronic academic stress improves attentional control by reducing the conflict monitoring and enhancing conflict resolution processes.