Neural and psychophysiological correlates of human performance under stress and high mental workload

Abstract

In our anxiogenic and stressful world, the maintenance of an optimal cognitive performance is a constant challenge. It is particularly true in complex working environments (e.g. flight deck, air traffic control tower), where individuals have sometimes to cope with a high mental workload and stressful situations. Several models (i.e. processing efficiency theory, cognitive-energetical framework) have attempted to provide a conceptual basis on how human performance is modulated by high workload and stress/anxiety. These models predict that stress can reduce human cognitive efficiency, even in the absence of a visible impact on the task performance. Performance may be protected under stress thanks to compensatory effort, but only at the expense of a cognitive cost. Yet, the psychophysiological cost of this regulation remains unclear. We designed two experiments involving pupil diameter, cardiovascular and prefrontal oxygenation measurements. Participants performed the Toulouse N-back Task that intensively engaged both working memory and mental calculation processes under the threat (or not) of unpredictable aversive sounds. The results revealed that higher task difficulty (higher n level) degraded the performance and induced an increased tonic pupil diameter, heart rate and activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex, and a decreased phasic pupil response and heart rate variability. Importantly, the condition of stress did not impact the performance, but at the expense of a psychophysiological cost as demonstrated by lower phasic pupil response, and greater heart rate and prefrontal activity. Prefrontal cortex seems to be a central region for mitigating the influence of stress because it subserves crucial functions (e.g. inhibition, working memory) that can promote the engagement of coping strategies. Overall, findings confirmed the psychophysiological cost of both mental effort and stress. Stress likely triggered increased motivation and the recruitment of additional cognitive resources that minimize its aversive effects on task performance (effectiveness), but these compensatory efforts consumed resources that caused a loss of cognitive efficiency (ratio between performance effectiveness and mental effort).

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“…In this paper, we review three major categories of physiological measures that indicate a stress response -eye-related, brainrelated, and heart-related (Mandrick, Peysakhovich, Rémy, Lepron, & Causse, 2016), as well as a few additional measures beyond these categories,and critique their usefulness as indicators of a stress response for Self-Reg research.…”

“…Similarly, pupillometry, has also been validated as an indicator of affective processing (Mandrick et al, 2016). The measurement of a pupil's diameter can also be captured with the recording of the individual's eye.…”

“…The measurement of a pupil's diameter can also be captured with the recording of the individual's eye. Pupillometry can indicate the presence of high mental effort and threat (that is, stressful sound) with an increase in tonic pupil diameter and decrease in phasic pupil response (Mandrick et al, 2016).…”

Habilidades auditivas de figura-fundo e fechamento em controladores de tráfego aéreo

“…Although there is an association between auditory processing disorders and stress (8) , this issue was not evidenced in the present study. It is believed that the performance of the ATCs in the applied tests was not affected by stress owing to a compensatory cognitive effort (28,29) . Thus, professional training makes ATCs less vulnerable to attention disturbances (29) thanks to the professional demands that make them more adept at coping with adversities in the acoustic environment trough cognitive effort (26)(27)(28)(29) .…”

Oral Somatosensory Perception in Skeletal Anterior Open Bite Malocclusion.

“…Lastly, personality traits of individual participants may have played a role in influencing their response times. A "performance anxiety" and greater desire to help and be accurate in their responses may have prompted some participants to work harder resulting in longer response times 25 . Translating results from this research to the clinical setting may help fine tune our strategies to attain better treatment outcomes.…”