The Association Between Experimentally Induced Stress, Performance Monitoring, and Response Inhibition: An Event-Related Potential (ERP) Analysis

Abstract

Psychological stress is increasingly associated with alterations in performance and affect. Yet, the relationship between experimentally induced psychological stress and neural indices of performance monitoring and error processing, as well as response inhibition, are unclear. Using scalp-recorded event-related potentials (ERPs), we tested the relationship between experimental stress, using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), and the error-related negativity (ERN), error positivity (Pe), and N2 ERP components. A final sample of 71 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to go through the TSST (n = 36; 18 female) or a brief mindfulness relaxation exercise (n = 35; 16 female) immediately followed by a go/no-go task while electroencephalogram (EEG) data were collected. Salivary cortisol, heart rate, and blood pressure confirmed increased physiological stress in the TSST group relative to control. Reaction times, accuracy, and post-error slowing did not differ by stress group. Two-group (TSST, control) by 2-trial type (correct, incorrect for ERN/Pe; go correct, no-go correct for N2) repeated measures ANOVAs for the ERN, Pe, and N2 showed the expected main effects of trial type; neither the ERN nor the N2 ERP components showed interactions with the stress manipulation. In contrast, the Pe component showed a significant Group by Trial interaction, with reduced Pe amplitude following the stress condition relative to control. Pe amplitude did not, however, correlate with cortisol reactivity. Findings suggest a reduction in Pe amplitude following experimental stress that may be associated with reduced error awareness or attention to errors following the TSST. Given the variability in the extant literature on the relationship between experimentally induced stress and neurophysiological reflections of performance monitoring, we provide another point of data and conclude that better understanding of moderating variables is needed followed by high-powered replication studies to get at the nuance that is not yet understood in the relationship between induced stress and performance monitoring/response inhibition processes.

Meditators Probably Show Increased Behaviour-Monitoring Related Neural Activity

“…To date, research investigating the impact of a mindfulness meditation intervention on the ERN and Pe has produced conflicting results, despite eleven published studies on the topic. Three studies comparing a mindfulness practice condition to a control condition have shown increased ERN amplitudes (Fissler et al, 2017;Pozuelos et al, 2019;Saunders et al, 2016), but four have shown no differences (Eichel and Stahl, 2020;Larson et al, 2013, Lin et al, 2019Rodeback et al, 2020), and one further has shown a decreased ERN (Schoenberg et al, 2014). Similarly, two studies of the Pe have reported increased amplitudes in the mindfulness condition (Lin et al, 2019;Rodeback et al, 2020), two studies reported an increase in Pe amplitude in the mindfulness group, but also an increase in the waitlist or relaxation control groups (Eichel & Stahl, 2020;Schoenberg et al, 2014), two studies reported no difference (Bing-Canar et al, 2016;Smart & Segalowitz, 2017), and one study has reported a reduction in Pe amplitude in the mindfulness group (Larson et al, 2013).…”

Meta-analysis Provides Weak Evidence for an Effect of Mindfulness on Neural Activity Related to Error-Processing in Healthy Individuals Only

“…Pe amplitudes are often reversed in polarity between frontal and parietal electrodes, so to test for the possibility that effects may be present in specific electrodes overlying either parietal or frontal regions, we performed separate analyses restricted to only the studies that reported data specifically from Pz (Bailey et al, , 2022bCragun et al, 2020;Lin et al, 2019;Rodeback et al, 2020;Saunders et al, 2016;and Smart & Segalowitz, 2017) and from FCz (or the average of Fz and Cz) (reported later). The analysis for studies that reported data from Pz showed that the omnibus test of model coefficients was significant Q(2) = 8.023, p = 0.018 (Fig.…”

“…The overall low quality of the studies included in the metaanalysis has been likely to influence the validity of our findings. Only two studies reported the internal consistency or data quality assessment of the ERN or Pe measures (Bailey et al, 2022b;Rodeback et al, 2020). The lack of reporting of internal consistency/data quality is typical for the field of error-processing research, but has recently been highlighted as even more important than participant sample size (Kolossa & Kopp, 2018).…”

Toward Predicting Human Performance Outcomes From Wearable Technologies: A Computational Modeling Approach

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