Exposure to acute stress enhances decision-making competence: Evidence for the role of DHEA

Abstract

Exposure to acute stress can impact performance on numerous cognitive abilities, but little is known about how acute stress affects real-world decision-making ability. In the present study, we induced acute stress with a standard laboratory task involving uncontrollable socio-evaluative stress and subsequently assessed decision-making ability using the Adult Decision Making Competence index. In addition, we took baseline and post-test saliva samples from participants to examine associations between decision-making competence and adrenal hormones. Participants in the stress induction group showed enhanced decision-making competence, relative to controls. Further, although both cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) reactivity predicted decision-making competence when considered in isolation, DHEA was a significantly better predictor than cortisol when both hormones were considered simultaneously. Thus, our results show that exposure to acute stress can have beneficial effects on the cognitive ability underpinning real-world decision-making and that this effect relates to DHEA reactivity more than cortisol.

The effects of acute stress on core executive functions: A meta-analysis and comparison with cortisol

“…For example, stress upregulates sex hormones (Lennartsson et al, 2012a), alters immune system activity (Segerstrom and Miller, 2004; Steptoe et al, 2007), and upregulates other adrenal hormones such as DHEA or noradrenaline (Allen et al, 2014; Lennartsson et al, 2012b; Shields et al, 2016a; Thoma et al, 2012), and many of these hormones and immune system factors exert effects on cognition (Allen et al, 2014; Mehta and Josephs, 2010; Shields et al, 2016a; Sparkman et al, 2006). Similarly, stress alters catecholaminergic activity and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), both of which have known and important effects on executive function (Arnsten, 2009; Shansky and Lipps, 2013; Uribe-Mariño et al, 2016).…”

“…That is, although there are clear cases in which stress disrupts some aspects of cognition there are others in which it clearly benefits cognitive processes. For example, stress generally impairs long term memory retrieval (Gagnon and Wagner, 2016), whereas it can enhance memory encoding (Wiemers et al, 2013), memory retention (Cahill et al, 2003), and decision-making (Shields et al, 2016a). Moreover, although there are many reports of stress impairing executive functions (Alexander et al, 2007; Schoofs et al, 2009), there are other cases in which stress has no effect on executive functions (Quinn and Joormann, 2015), and yet others show that stress can even improve them (Schwabe et al, 2013).…”

Greater lifetime stress exposure predicts blunted cortisol but heightened DHEA responses to acute stress

“…Importantly, relatively lower basal levels of DHEA to cortisol are implicated in some psychiatric disorders (for reviews, see Maninger et al, ; Walker, Pfingst, Carnevali, Sgoifo, & Nalivaiko, ). Additionally, DHEA responses to acute stress are associated with better cognitive function following stress (Shields, Lam, Trainor, & Yonelinas, ) and are blunted in depressed individuals (Jiang et al, ). Because of these and other reasons, DHEA has been proposed as a mechanism underpinning biological resilience to stress (Charney, ; Feder, Nestler, & Charney, ; Maninger et al, ; Pfau & Russo, ; Walker et al, ).…”

Acute stress impairs cognitive flexibility in men, not women

“…Psychosocial stress has important effects on many cognitive processes (Shields, Lam, et al, 2016; Allen et al, 2014). Indeed, stress typically impairs in long-term memory retrieval and working memory (Shields, Sazma, et al, 2016; Schoofs et al, 2013) but enhances other cognitive abilities such as decision-making competence (Shields, Lam, et al, 2016; though see Starcke & Brand, 2012) and response inhibition (Schwabe et al, 2013).…”

“…Indeed, stress typically impairs in long-term memory retrieval and working memory (Shields, Sazma, et al, 2016; Schoofs et al, 2013) but enhances other cognitive abilities such as decision-making competence (Shields, Lam, et al, 2016; though see Starcke & Brand, 2012) and response inhibition (Schwabe et al, 2013). Understanding how stress influences higher cognitive abilities has important implications for solving problems that arise in daily life (Diamond 2013).…”