Cumulative lifetime stressor exposure impairs stimulus–response but not contextual learning

Abstract

Greater exposure to stressors over the life course is believed to promote striatum-dependent over hippocampus-dependent learning and memory processes under stressful conditions. However, little research in this context has actually assessed lifetime stressor exposure and, moreover, it remains unknown whether greater cumulative lifetime stressor exposure exerts comparable effects on striatum-dependent learning and hippocampus-dependent learning in non-stressful contexts. To investigate this issue, we used the Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adults (Adult STRAIN) and Multicued Search Task to investigate the relation between cumulative lifetime stressor exposure and striatum-dependent stimulus–response learning and hippocampus-dependent contextual learning under non-stressful conditions among healthcare professionals (N = 205; 157 females, 48 males; Age: M = 34.23, SD 9.3, range 20–59 years). Individuals with moderate, but not low, cumulative lifetime stressor exposure exhibited impaired learning for stimulus–response associations. In contrast, learning for context associations was unrelated to participants' lifetime stressor exposure profiles. These results thus provide first evidence that cumulative lifetime stressor exposure may have negative consequences on human striatum-dependent stimulus–response learning under non-stressful environmental conditions.