Hydrocortisone reduces emotional distracter interference in working memory

The Role of Psychopathology and Emotion Regulation in the Intergenerational Transmission of Childhood Abuse: A Family Study

Previous studies have shown that parents with a history of childhood abuse are at increased risk of perpetrating child abuse. To break the cycle of childhood abuse we need to better understand the mechanisms that play a role. In a cross-sectional extended family design including three generations (N = 250, 59% female), we examined the possible mediating role of parental psychopathology and emotion regulation in the association between a history of childhood abuse and perpetrating child abuse. Parents' own history of childhood abuse was associated with perpetrating abuse toward their children, and externalizing (but not internalizing) problems partially mediated this association statistically. Implicit and explicit emotion regulation were not associated with experienced or perpetrated abuse. Findings did not differ across fathers and mothers. Findings underline the importance of (early) treatment of externalizing problems in parents with a history of childhood abuse, to possibly prevent the transmission of child abuse.

Acute stress reduces attentional blindness: Relations with resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia and cortisol

This study made the first attempt to combine resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and cortisol to provide an explanatory mechanism for the effect of acute stress on emotion-induced blindness (EIB) from the perspective of vagus nerve activity and stress hormone responses. For this purpose, resting electrocardiogram (ECG) signals were recorded first. Participants underwent both the socially evaluated cold-pressor test and control treatments 7 days apart and then completed the EIB task. Heart rate and saliva samples were collected over time. The results demonstrated that acute stress promoted the overall detection of targets. Resting RSA and cortisol levels predicted the stress-induced changes in EIB performance under the negative distractor condition at lag2 negatively and positively, respectively. These findings indicate that the effect of stress on EIB was partially contributed by cortisol, which is more relevant to negative distractor conditions. Resting RSA, as an indicator of inter-individual differences, further provided evidence from the perspective of the trait emotional regulation ability based on the vagus nerve control. In general, resting RSA and cortisol changes over time exhibit different patterns of influence on stress-induced changes in EIB performance. Thus, this study provides a more comprehensive understanding of the effect of acute stress on attentional blindness.

Biobehavioral mechanisms underlying testosterone and mood relationships in peripubertal female adolescents

The pubertal transition is characterized by pronounced sex hormone fluctuation, refinement of affective neural circuitry, and an increased risk of depression in female adolescents. Sex hormones, including testosterone, exert modulatory effects on frontal-limbic brain networks and are associated with emotion dysregulation and depressive symptoms. Weekly changes in hormones predict affective symptoms in peripubertal female adolescents, particularly in the context of stress; however, the biobehavioral mechanisms underlying hormone change and mood relationships during the pubertal transition have yet to be determined and was the objective of the present study. Forty-three peripubertal female adolescents (ages 11-14) collected 8-weekly salivary hormone (estrone, testosterone) samples and mood assessments to evaluate hormone-mood relationships, followed by a biobehavioral testing session with psychosocial stress and EEG. Within-person correlations between weekly hormone changes and corresponding mood were performed to determine individual differences in mood sensitivity to weekly hormone change. Increased frontal theta activity indexing emotion reactivity, reduced cortisol reactivity, and reduced vagal efficiency predicted the strength of the relationship between testosterone and mood. Further, testosterone-sensitivity strength was associated with the enhancement of negative affect following stress testing. Results identify divergent frontal theta and stress responses as potential biobehavioral mechanisms underlying mood sensitivity to peripubertal testosterone fluctuation.

Short-term isolation effects on the brain, cognitive performance, and sleep-The role of exercise

Isolation is stressful and negatively affects sleep and mood and might also affect the structure and function of the brain. Physical exercise improves brain function. We investigated the influence of physical exercise during isolation on sleep, affect, and neurobehavioral function. N = 16 were isolated for 30 days with daily exercise routines (ISO₁₀₀) and n = 16 isolated for 45 days with every second day exercise (ISO₅₀). N = 27 were non-isolated controls who either exercised on a daily basis (CTRL_Ex) or refused exercise (CTRL_NonEx) for 30 days. At the beginning and the end of each intervention, intravenous morning cortisol, melatonin, brain-derived neurotrophic factor and IGF-1, positive and negative affect scales, electroencephalography, cognitive function, and sleep patterns (actigraphy) were assessed. High levels of cortisol were observed for the isolated groups (p < .05) without negative effects on the brain, cognitive function, sleep, and mood after 4 to 6 weeks of isolation, where physical exercise was performed regularly. An increase in cortisol and impairments of sleep quality, mood, cognitive function, and neurotrophic factors (p < .05) were observed after 4 weeks of absence of physical exercise in the CTRL_NonEx group. These findings raise the assumption that regular physical exercise routines are a key component during isolation to maintain brain health and function.

The key to superior memory encoding under stress: the relationship between cortisol response and mnemonic discrimination

Some previous studies have shown that increased stress hormone levels have beneficial effects on memory encoding; however, there is no clear consensus on which encoding-related processes are affected by stress hormones. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between interindividual differences in neuroendocrine response to acute stress and interference resolution (i.e., mnemonic discrimination). Participants were healthy young adults who were exposed to physical and psychological stressors (Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor Test). Then participants completed the modified version of the Mnemonic Similarity Task. Specifically, they were presented with photographs of emotionally arousing (negative and positive) and nonarousing (neutral) scenes followed by a recognition memory test where they saw a mixture of old and new stimuli. Crucially, participants were also presented with critical lure items, that is, visually similar stimuli to ones presented at encoding. We found that participants who had higher cortisol response to the stressors were better in discriminating between the studied items and their visually similar lures. This effect was present for the arousing and nonarousing materials as well. These findings suggest that increased hormonal response to acute stress has a beneficial impact on the formation of distinct, nonoverlapping, unique memory representations, and consequently, on episodic memory encoding processes.

Experimental control of conflict in a predictive visual probe task: Highly reliable bias scores related to anxiety

Concerns have been raised about the low reliability of measurements of spatial attentional bias via RT differences in dot-probe tasks. The anticipatory form of the bias, directed towards predicted future stimuli, appears to have relatively good reliability, reaching around 0.70. However, studies thus far have not attempted to experimentally control task-related influence on bias, which could further improve reliability. Evoking top-down versus bottom-up conflict may furthermore reveal associations with individual differences related to mental health. In the current study, a sample of 143 participants performed a predictive Visual Probe Task (predVPT) with angry and neutral face stimuli online. In this task, an automatic bias is induced via visually neutral cues that predict the location of an upcoming angry face. A task-relevant bias was induced via blockwise shifts in the likely location of target stimuli. The bias score resulting from these factors was calculated as RTs to target stimuli at locations of predicted but not actually presented angry versus neutral faces. Correlations were tested with anxiety, depression, self-esteem and aggression scales. An overall bias towards threat was found with a split-half reliability of 0.90, and 0.89 after outlier removal. Avoidance of threat in blocks with a task-relevant bias away from threat was correlated with anxiety, with correction for multiple testing. The same relationship was nominally significant for depression and low self-esteem. In conclusion, we showed high reliability of spatial attentional bias that was related to anxiety.

Examining the effect of stress induction on auditory working memory performance for emotional and non-emotional stimuli in female students

Background

Theoretical frameworks have shown that stress might influence working memory in different ways. Previous research has investigated the effect of stress on female's working memory but there is lack of evidence regarding the impact of emotional aspects.

Objectives

This study examined the effect of stress induction on auditory working memory (AWM) performance among university students for emotional (positive and negative) and non-emotional (neutral) stimuli.

Methods

A sample of 102 female students at the Universities of Isfahan, Iran was selected using convenience sampling in 2018. Participants completed the demographic information sheets, then, they were randomly assigned into the experimental and control groups. The stress was induced by the Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor Test (SECPT). An n-back task was presented pre and post of stress induction, to evaluate the AWM performance (accuracy and reaction time). The research data were analyzed using mixed-model ANOVA.

Results

Both accuracy and reaction time (RT) scores were found to be enhanced for positive words in the experimental condition. However, accuracy and RT indices were found to be worsening for negative words in the experimental condition.

Conclusions

This study supports the idea that stress influences AWM performance depend on emotionally-valenced stimuli, which may help us to better understand the underlying mechanisms of memory processing.

Disrupted upregulation of salience network connectivity during acute stress in siblings of schizophrenia patients

BACKGROUND

An adaptive neural stress response is essential to adequately cope with a changing environment. It was previously argued that sympathetic/noradrenergic activity during acute stress increases salience network (SN) connectivity and reduces executive control network (ECN) connectivity in healthy controls, with opposing effects in the late aftermath of stress. Altered temporal dynamics of these networks in response to stress are thought to play a role in the development of psychopathology in vulnerable individuals.

METHODS

We exposed male healthy controls (n = 40, mean age = 33.9) and unaffected siblings of schizophrenia patients (n = 39, mean age = 33.2) to the stress or control condition of the trier social stress test and subsequently investigated resting state functional connectivity of the SN and ECN directly after and 1.5 h after stress.

RESULTS

Acute stress resulted in increased functional connectivity within the SN in healthy controls, but not in siblings (group × stress interaction pfwe < 0.05). In the late aftermath of stress, stress reduced functional connectivity within the SN in both groups. Moreover, we found increased functional connectivity between the ECN and the cerebellum in the aftermath of stress in both healthy controls and siblings of schizophrenia patients.

CONCLUSIONS

The results show profound differences between siblings of schizophrenia patients and controls during acute stress. Siblings lacked the upregulation of neural resources necessary to quickly and adequately cope with a stressor. This points to a reduced dynamic range in the sympathetic response, and may constitute a vulnerability factor for the development of psychopathology in this at-risk group.

Anticipated Attack Slows Responses in a Cued Virtual Attack Emotional Sternberg Task

Threatening stimuli have varying effects, including reaction time (RT) increase in working memory tasks. This could reflect disruption of working memory or, alternatively, a reversible state of freezing. In the current series of experiments, reversible slowing due to anticipated threat was studied using the cued Virtual Attack Emotional Sternberg Task (cVAEST). In this task visually neutral cues indicate whether a future virtual attack could or could not occur during the maintenance period of a Sternberg task. Three studies (N = 47, 40, and 40, respectively) were performed by healthy adult participants online. The primary hypothesis was that the cVAEST would evoke anticipatory slowing. Further, the studies aimed to explore details of this novel task, in particular the interval between the cue and probe stimuli and the memory set size. In all studies it was found that threat anticipation slowed RTs on the working memory task. Further, Study 1 (memory set size 3) showed a decrease in RT when the attack occurred over all Cue Stimulus Intervals (CSIs). In Study 2 a minimal memory set of one item was used, under which circumstances RTs following attacks were only faster shortly after cue presentation (CSI 200 and 500 ms), when RTs were high for both threat and safe cues. Study 3 replicated results of Study 2 with more fine-grained time intervals. The results confirm that anticipation of attack stimuli can reversibly slow responses on an independent working memory task. The cVAEST may provide a useful method to study such threat-induced response slowing.

Natural sleep loss is associated with lower mPFC activity during negative distracter processing

Previous research has demonstrated that loss of sleep has a negative impact on both emotional and cognitive functioning. We examined whether subjectively reported natural sleep loss is associated with the interplay between emotion and cognition, as was probed by brain activity in response to emotional distraction during a working memory task. Forty-six healthy male adults reported their typical weekly sleep pattern using the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ), while recent sleep loss was enquired using a sleep diary in the 7 days preceding scanning. Participants performed a delayed match-to-sample task with negative and neutral distracters during the delay period inside the MRI scanner. Activity differences between negative and neutral distracters were associated to both sleep loss measures across participants. The amount of typically encountered sleep loss indicated by the MCTQ, but not sleep diary, was negatively associated with activity in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex during emotionally negative compared to neutral distraction (p < 0.025, whole brain corrected). Participants showed less distracter-related activity in the ACC and dorsomedial PFC with increasing sleep loss, which, in the long run, might contribute to less adaptive emotional processing, and therefore a greater vulnerability to develop affective disorders.

Improved emotion regulation after neurofeedback: A single-arm trial in patients with borderline personality disorder

Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neurofeedback training of amygdala hemodynamic activity directly targets a neurobiological mechanism, which contributes to emotion regulation problems in borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, it remains unknown which outcome measures can assess changes in emotion regulation and affective instability, associated with amygdala downregulation in a clinical trial. The current study directly addresses this question. Twenty-four female patients with a DSM-IV BPD diagnosis underwent four runs of amygdala neurofeedback. Before and after the training, as well as at a six-weeks follow-up assessment, participants completed measures of emotion dysregulation and affective instability at diverse levels of analysis (verbal report, clinical interview, ecological momentary assessment, emotion-modulated startle, heart rate variability, and fMRI). Participants were able to downregulate their amygdala blood oxygen-dependent (BOLD) response with neurofeedback. There was a decrease of BPD symptoms as assessed with the Zanarini rating scale for BPD (ZAN-BPD) and a decrease in emotion-modulated startle to negative pictures after training. Further explorative analyses suggest that patients indicated less affective instability, as seen by lower hour-to-hour variability in negative affect and inner tension in daily life. If replicated by an independent study, our results imply changes in emotion regulation and affective instability for several systems levels, including behavior and verbal report. Conclusions are limited due to the lack of a control group. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be needed to confirm effectiveness of the training.

Physical Activity versus Psychological Stress: Effects on Salivary Cortisol and Working Memory Performance

Background and Objective: The present study was designed to investigate whether acute physical activity and psychological stress produce different effects on cortisol release and working memory performance. Materials and Methods: Male subjects (N = 12; 18–35 years) were recruited and scheduled to come four times to our lab (within-subject design). For each counterbalanced visit, they performed one of the following four protocols: control, moderate physical activity (MOD), vigorous physical activity (VIG), and acute stress. Heart rate was monitored during every protocol. MOD and VIG were performed for 15 min and were defined as 40–50% and 70–80%, respectively, of their maximum heart rate. Acute stress was imposed via the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Salivary samples were collected before and after every protocol to assess cortisol concentrations. Working memory (WM) performance was evaluated through the 2N-Back task right after ending the protocol (early WM) and after a delay of 35 min (late WM). Results: VIG and stress, but not MOD, increased salivary cortisol concentrations. However, the increases of cortisol produced by VIG and stress were not significantly different. Also, there were no significant differences in working memory performance (late and early) in any of the experimental protocols tested. Conclusions: These results show that exercise (VIG) and stress produce similar effects on cortisol release and do not support the hypothesis that working memory capacity is influenced by elevated cortisol levels, either from varying exercise intensities or psychological stress.

I'm going to fail! Acute cognitive performance anxiety increases threat-interference and impairs WM performance

Stress can impair cognitive performance, as commonly observed in cognitive performance anxiety (CPA; e.g., test anxiety). Cognitive theories indicate that stress impairs performance by increasing attention to negative thoughts, a phenomenon also known as threat-interference. These theories are mainly supported by findings related to self-report measures of threat-interference or trait anxiety. Our main aim was to test, for the first time in a single study, the hypotheses that acute CPA-related stress negatively affects both working memory (WM) performance and objectively assessed threat-interference during performance. In addition, we aimed to assess the validity of a new stress-induction procedure that was developed to induce acute CPA. Eighty-six females were randomly assigned to a CPA-related stress group (n = 45) or a control group. WM performance and threat-interference were assessed with an n-back task (2-back and 3-back memory loads), using CPA-related words as distracters. The stress group showed higher state anxiety and slower WM performance. Both effects were moderated by trait CPA: the effects were stronger for individuals with higher trait CPA. Finally, trait CPA moderated the effect of stress on threat-interference during higher cognitive load: individuals with higher trait CPA in the stress group showed higher threat-interference. We conclude that acute CPA increases threat-interference and impairs WM performance, especially in vulnerable individuals. The role of threat-interference, cognitive load, and trait anxiety should be taken into account in future research. Finally, our method (combining our stressor and modified n-back task) is effective for studying stress-cognition interactions in CPA.

Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on the cognitive control of negative stimuli in borderline personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by impairments in the cognitive control of negative information. These impairments in cognitive control are presumably due to blunted activity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) along with enhanced activations of the limbic system. However, the impact of an excitatory stimulation of the dlPFC still needs to be elucidated. In the present study, we therefore assigned 50 patients with BPD and 50 healthy controls to receive either anodal or sham stimulation of the right dlPFC in a double-blind, randomized, between-subjects design. Participants performed a delayed working memory task with a distracter period during which a grey background screen, or neutral, or negative stimuli were presented. This experimental paradigm was first evaluated in a pilot study with 18 patients with BPD and 19 healthy controls. In both studies, patients with BPD showed an impairment of cognitive control when negative distracters were presented in the delay period of a working memory task. However, excitatory stimulation of the right dlPFC did not ameliorate cognitive control of negative stimuli in BPD, which raises questions about the specific role of the right dlPFC for the understanding of BPD psychopathology. Methodological limitations are discussed.

Cognitive control and daily affect regulation in major depression and borderline personality disorder: protocol for an experimental ambulatory assessment study in Berlin, Germany

INTRODUCTION

Affective disturbances and difficulty in affect regulation are core features of major depressive disorder (MDD) as well as borderline personality disorder (BPD). Whereas depressed individuals are characterised by affective inertia, individuals with BPD are characterised by affective instability. Both groups have been found to use more maladaptive affect regulation strategies than healthy controls. Surprisingly, however, there have been hardly any studies directly comparing these two disorders to disentangle shared and disorder-specific deficits in affective dynamics and affect regulation.Furthermore, theoretical models link deficits in affect regulation to deficits in cognitive control functions. Given that individuals with MDD or BPD are both characterised by impairments in cognitive control, the present study will further examine the link between individual differences in cognitive control and disturbances in affect dynamics and regulation in the daily life of individuals with MDD or BPD.

METHODS AND ANALYSES

We will use a smartphone application to assess negative and positive affect as well as affect regulation strategies at eight times a day for 7 days. We will further employ four computerised tasks to assess two cognitive control functions, namely interference control and discarding irrelevant information from working memory. Our hypotheses will be tested using a multimethod approach. Power analyses determined a sample size of 159 (53 MDD, 53 BPD, 53 controls) to detect medium effect sizes.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

Ethics approval has been obtained from the Freie Universität Berlin. Data collection started in January 2017 and will last until the end of 2018. Results will be disseminated to relevant psychotherapeutic and patient communities in peer-reviewed journals, and at scientific conferences.

Elevated Cortisol Leaves Working Memory Unaffected in Both Men and Women

Activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (as might occur, for example, when the organism encounters a threat to allostatic balance) leads to the release of cortisol into the bloodstream and, ultimately, to altered neural functioning in particular brain regions (e.g., the prefrontal cortex (PFC)). Although previous studies suggest that exposure to acute psychosocial stress (and hence, presumably, elevation of circulating cortisol levels) enhances male performance on PFC-based working memory (WM) tasks, few studies have adequately investigated female performance on WM tasks under conditions of elevated cortisol. Hence, we compared associations between elevated (relative to baseline) levels of circulating cortisol and n-back performance in a South African sample (38 women in the late luteal phase of their menstrual cycle, 38 men). On Day 1, participants completed practice n-back tasks. On Day 2, some completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), whereas others experienced a relaxation period, before completing 1-back and 3-back tasks. We measured self-reported anxiety and salivary cortisol at baseline, post-manipulation and end of session. We reconstituted group assignment so that all women with elevated cortisol were in one group (EC-Women; n = 17), all men with elevated cortisol were in another (EC-Men; n = 19), all women without elevated cortisol were in a third (NoEC-Women; n = 21), and all men without elevated cortisol were in a fourth (NoEC-Men; n = 19) group. Analyses suggested this reconstitution was effective: in EC, but not NoEC, groups cortisol levels rose significantly from baseline to post-manipulation. Analyses of n-back data detected significant relations to task load (i.e., better performance on 1-back than on 3-back tasks), but no significant relations to sex, performance accuracy/speed, or cortisol variation. The data patterns are inconsistent with reports describing sex differences in effects of stress on WM performance. We speculate that cross-study methodological differences account for these inconsistencies, and, particularly, that between-study variation in the magnitude of baseline cortisol levels might affect outcomes. For instance, diurnal cortisol rhythms of South African samples might have flatter curves, and lower baseline values, than predominantly Caucasian samples from the United States and western Europe due to greater prenatal and lifetime stress, more socioeconomic disadvantage and faster ancestral life history (LH) strategies. We describe ways to disconfirm this hypothesis, and urge further cross-national research exploring these possibilities.

Freeze or Forget? Virtual Attack Effects in an Emotional Sternberg Task

Emotionally salient stimuli have the ability to disrupt cognitive processing. This kind of disruption involves effects on working memory and may be related to mental health problems. To explore the nature of such emotional interference on working memory, a Virtual Attack Emotional Sternberg Task (VAEST) was used. Neutral faces were presented as distractors and warning signals, which were sometimes followed by a virtual attack, created by having the neutral face turn angry while the image was enlarged. The attack was hypothesized to have one of two effects: to disrupt cognitive processing and thereby increase interference effects, or to terminate a state of freezing and thereby reduce interference effects. The task was successfully completed online by a sample of 59 students. Results clearly show that the virtual attack caused a reduction of interference relative to no-attack trials. The apparent cognitive disruption caused by emotional distractors may thus reflect freezing, which can be reversed by a freeze-terminating stimulus.

Prefrontal cortex executive processes affected by stress in health and disease

Prefrontal cortical executive functions comprise a number of cognitive capabilities necessary for goal directed behavior and adaptation to a changing environment. Executive dysfunction that leads to maladaptive behavior and is a symptom of psychiatric pathology can be instigated or exacerbated by stress. In this review we survey research addressing the impact of stress on executive function, with specific focus on working memory, attention, response inhibition, and cognitive flexibility. We then consider the neurochemical pathways underlying these cognitive capabilities and, where known, how stress alters them. Finally, we review work exploring potential pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches that can ameliorate deficits in executive function. Both preclinical and clinical literature indicates that chronic stress negatively affects executive function. Although some of the circuitry and neurochemical processes underlying executive function have been characterized, a great deal is still unknown regarding how stress affects these processes. Additional work focusing on this question is needed in order to make progress on developing interventions that ameliorate executive dysfunction.

Stress evokes stronger medial posterior cingulate deactivations during emotional distraction in slower paced aging

INTRODUCTION

Middle-aged offspring from long-lived families are thought to have a slower pace of aging, possibly related to HPA-axis function. Here, we investigated the neural and behavioral effects of social stress in offspring compared to their regular aging partners on emotional distraction during working memory (WM).

METHODS

104 middle-aged participants (53 males) consisting of offspring and their partners underwent the Trier Social Stress Test or a control procedure. Hereafter, a WM task with emotional distracters was performed using fMRI. Saliva cortisol levels were obtained during the procedure.

RESULTS

Partners had higher overall cortisol levels than offspring. In addition, partners had decreased deactivations compared to offspring in the medial posterior cingulate cortex (mPCC) during emotional distraction, which were significantly correlated with lower accuracy during emotional distraction.

DISCUSSION

mPCC-deactivations are known to be modulated by chronological aging, with more deactivations in the young than in the old. Here we show the same pattern in familial longevity versus regular aging after mild stress, with more deactivations related to better accuracy during emotional distraction. Functional mPCC deactivations might thus be related to pace of aging, and can be revealed by inducing mild stress.

Reduced amygdala reactivity and impaired working memory during dissociation in borderline personality disorder

Affective hyper-reactivity and impaired cognitive control of emotional material are core features of borderline personality disorder (BPD). A high percentage of individuals with BPD experience stress-related dissociation, including emotional numbing and memory disruptions. So far little is known about how dissociation influences the neural processing of emotional material in the context of a working memory task in BPD. We aimed to investigate whole-brain activity and amygdala functional connectivity (FC) during an Emotional Working Memory Task (EWMT) after dissociation induction in un-medicated BPD patients compared to healthy controls (HC). Using script-driven imagery, dissociation was induced in 17 patients ('BPD_D'), while 12 patients ('BPD_N') and 18 HC were exposed to neutral scripts during fMRI. Afterwards, participants performed the EWMT with neutral vs. negative IAPS pictures vs. no distractors. Main outcome measures were behavioral performance (reaction times, errors) and whole-brain activity during the EWMT. Psychophysiological interaction analysis was used to examine amygdala connectivity during emotional distraction. BPD patients after dissociation induction showed overall WM impairments, a deactivation in bilateral amygdala, and lower activity in left cuneus, lingual gyrus, and posterior cingulate than BPD_N, along with stronger left inferior frontal gyrus activity than HC. Furthermore, reduced amygdala FC with fusiform gyrus and stronger amygdala FC with right middle/superior temporal gyrus and left inferior parietal lobule was observed in BPD_D. Findings suggest that dissociation affects reactivity to emotionally salient material and WM. Altered activity in areas associated with emotion processing, memory, and self-referential processes may contribute to dissociative states in BPD.

Cortisol alters reward processing in the human brain

Dysfunctional reward processing is known to play a central role for the development of psychiatric disorders. Glucocorticoids that are secreted in response to stress have been shown to attenuate reward sensitivity and thereby might promote the onset of psychopathology. However, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms mediating stress hormone effects on reward processing as well as potential sex differences remain elusive. In this neuroimaging study, we administered 30mg cortisol or a placebo to 30 men and 30 women and subsequently tested them in the Monetary Incentive Delay Task. Cortisol attenuated anticipatory neural responses to a verbal and a monetary reward in the left pallidum and the right anterior parahippocampal gyrus. Furthermore, in men, activation in the amygdala, the precuneus, the anterior cingulate, and in hippocampal regions was reduced under cortisol, whereas in cortisol-treated women a signal increase was observed in these regions. Behavioral performance also indicated that reward learning in men is impaired under high cortisol concentrations, while it is augmented in women. These findings illustrate that the stress hormone cortisol substantially diminishes reward anticipation and provide first evidence that cortisol effects on the neural reward system are sensitive to sex differences, which might translate into different vulnerabilities for psychiatric disorders.

Hydrocortisone Counteracts Adverse Stress Effects on Dual-Task Performance by Improving Visual Sensory Processes

The impact of acute stress on executive processes is commonly attributed to glucocorticoid-induced disruptions of the pFC. However, the occipital cortex seems to express a higher density of glucocorticoid receptors. Consequently, acute stress effects on executive processes could as well be mediated by glucocorticoid (e.g., cortisol)-induced alterations of visual sensory processes. To investigate this alternative route of stress action by demarcating the effects of acute stress and cortisol on executive from those on visual sensory processes, 40 healthy young men completed a standardized stress induction (i.e., the Trier Social Stress Test) and control protocol in two consecutive sessions. In addition, they received either a placebo or hydrocortisone (0.12-mg/kg bodyweight) pill and processed a dual and a partial report task to assess their executive and visual sensory processing abilities, respectively. Hydrocortisone administration improved both partial report and dual-task performance as indicated by increased response accuracies and/or decreased RTs. Intriguingly, the hydrocortisone-induced increase in dual-task performance was completely mediated by its impact on partial report performance (i.e., visual sensory processes). Moreover, RT measures in both tasks shared approximately 26% of variance, which was only in part attributable to hydrocortisone administration (ΔR² = 8%). By contrast, acute stress selectively impaired dual-task performance (i.e., executive processes), presumably through an alternative route of action. In summary, the present results suggest that cortisol secretion (as mimicked by hydrocortisone administration) may counteract adverse residual stress effects on executive processes by improving visual sensory processes (e.g., the maintenance and amplification of task-relevant sensory information).

Effects of Socioeconomic Status and Fairness on Salivary Cortisol

Research on cooperation has contributed to a better understanding of the foundations of human social behavior. Most studies, however, have not considered fundamental social parameters such as an individual’s position in a social hierarchy. As a first step, this study investigates the modulating effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on behavior and the physiological stress response. Study participants ( n = 83) played a cooperative game with computerized coplayers of four categories: similar or higher SES in combination with either high or low fairness in behavior (i.e., willingness to cooperate). All participants showed a significant increase in saliva cortisol after the game compared to a control group. Only when paired with higher SES coplayers, however, did participants show a significant subsequent decrease in cortisol concentrations. Participants’ behavior in response to a coplayer’s decisions was only affected by the degree of fairness, but not the SES, of respective coplayers. Physiologically, playing this cooperation game was a big challenge for participants as measured by salivary cortisol. Yet, the high recovery rate when playing with cooperative, higher status individuals showed the stress-protective effects of positive social interactions in the framework of social hierarchies.

Early-Life Adversity Interacts with FKBP5 Genotypes: Altered Working Memory and Cardiac Stress Reactivity in the Oklahoma Family Health Patterns Project

Exposure to stress during critical periods of development can have adverse effects on adult health behaviors, and genetic vulnerabilities may enhance these stress effects. We carried out an exploratory examination of psychological, physiological, and behavioral characteristics of 252 healthy young adults for the impact of early-life adversity (ELA) in relation to the G-to-A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs9296158, of the FKBP5 gene. FKBP5 is a molecular cochaperone that contributes to the functional status of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and to the quality of corticosteroid signaling. FKBP5 expression is upregulated by cortisol exposure during stressful episodes, with greater upregulation seen in A-allele carriers. As such, FKBP5 expression and GR function may be environmentally sensitive in A-allele carriers and therefore suitable for the study of gene-by-environment (G × E) interactions. Compared with FKBP5, GG homozygotes (N=118), A-allele carriers (N = 132) without psychiatric morbidity had progressively worse performance on the Stroop color-word task with increasing levels of ELA exposure (Genotype × ELA, F=5.14, P=0.007), indicating a G × E interaction on working memory in early adulthood. In addition, heart rate response to mental stress was diminished overall in AA/AG-allele carriers (F=5.15, P=0.024). Diminished working memory and attenuated autonomic responses to stress are both associated with risk for alcoholism and other substance use disorders. The present data suggest that FKBP5 in the GR pathway may be a point of vulnerability to ELA, as seen in this group of non-traumatized young adults. FKBP5 is accordingly a potential target for more extensive studies of the impact of ELA on health and health behaviors in adulthood.

Effects of basal and acute cortisol on cognitive flexibility in an emotional task switching paradigm in men

The stress hormone cortisol is assumed to influence cognitive functions. While cortisol-induced alterations of declarative memory in particular are well-investigated, considerably less is known about its influence on executive functions. Moreover, most research has been focused on slow effects, and rapid non-genomic effects have not been studied. The present study sought to investigate the impact of acute cortisol administration as well as basal cortisol levels on cognitive flexibility, a core executive function, within the non-genomic time frame. Thirty-eight healthy male participants were randomly assigned to intravenously receive either cortisol or a placebo before performing a task switching paradigm with happy and angry faces as stimuli. Cortisol levels were measured at six points during the experiment. Additionally, before the experiment, basal cortisol measures for the cortisol awakening response were collected on three consecutive weekdays immediately following awakening and 30, 45, and 60min after. First and foremost, results showed a pronounced impact of acute and basal cortisol on reaction time switch costs, particularly for angry faces. In the placebo group, low basal cortisol was associated with minimal switch costs, whereas high basal cortisol was related to maximal switch costs. In contrast, after cortisol injection, basal cortisol levels showed no impact. These results show that cognitive flexibility-enhancing effects of acute cortisol administration are only seen in men with high basal cortisol levels. This result supports the context dependency of cortisol administration and shows the relevance of taking basal cortisol levels into account.

In the face of threat: neural and endocrine correlates of impaired facial emotion recognition in cocaine dependence

The ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion in others is a cornerstone of human interaction. Selective impairments in the recognition of facial expressions of fear have frequently been reported in chronic cocaine users, but the nature of these impairments remains poorly understood. We used the multivariate method of partial least squares and structural magnetic resonance imaging to identify gray matter brain networks that underlie facial affect processing in both cocaine-dependent (n = 29) and healthy male volunteers (n = 29). We hypothesized that disruptions in neuroendocrine function in cocaine-dependent individuals would explain their impairments in fear recognition by modulating the relationship with the underlying gray matter networks. We found that cocaine-dependent individuals not only exhibited significant impairments in the recognition of fear, but also for facial expressions of anger. Although recognition accuracy of threatening expressions co-varied in all participants with distinctive gray matter networks implicated in fear and anger processing, in cocaine users it was less well predicted by these networks than in controls. The weaker brain-behavior relationships for threat processing were also mediated by distinctly different factors. Fear recognition impairments were influenced by variations in intelligence levels, whereas anger recognition impairments were associated with comorbid opiate dependence and related reduction in testosterone levels. We also observed an inverse relationship between testosterone levels and the duration of crack and opiate use. Our data provide novel insight into the neurobiological basis of abnormal threat processing in cocaine dependence, which may shed light on new opportunities facilitating the psychosocial integration of these patients.

Hydrocortisone accelerates the decay of iconic memory traces: on the modulation of executive and stimulus-driven constituents of sensory information maintenance

A substantial amount of research documents the impact of glucocorticoids on higher-order cognitive functioning. By contrast, surprisingly little is known about the susceptibility of basic sensory processes to glucocorticoid exposure given that the glucocorticoid receptor density in the human visual cortex exceeds those observed in prefrontal and most hippocampal brain regions. As executive tasks also rely on these sensory processes, the present study investigates the impact of glucocorticoid exposure on different performance parameters characterizing the maintenance and transfer of sensory information from iconic memory (IM; the sensory buffer of the visual system) to working memory (WM). Using a crossover factorial design, we administered one out of three doses of hydrocortisone (0.06, 0.12, or 0.24mg/kg bodyweight) and a placebo to 18 healthy young men. Thereafter participants performed a partial report task, which was used to assess their individual ability to process sensory information. Blood samples were concurrently drawn to determine free and total cortisol concentrations. The compiled pharmacokinetic and psychophysical data demonstrates that free cortisol specifically accelerated the decay of sensory information (r=0.46) without significantly affecting the selective information transfer from IM to WM or the capacity limit of WM. Specifically, nonparametric regression revealed a sigmoid dose-response relationship between free cortisol levels during the testing period and the IM decay rates. Our findings highlight that glucocorticoid exposure may not only impact on the recruitment of top-down control for an active maintenance of sensory information, but alter their passive (stimulus-driven) maintenance thereby changing the availability of information prior to subsequent executive processing.

EEG theta/beta ratio as a potential biomarker for attentional control and resilience against deleterious effects of stress on attention

Anxious stress compromises cognitive executive performance. This occurs, for instance, in cognitive performance anxiety (CPA), in which anxiety about one's cognitive performance causes that performance to actually deteriorate (e.g., test anxiety). This is thought to result from a prefrontal cortically (PFC) mediated failure of top-down attentional control over stress-induced automatic processing of threat-related information. In addition, stress-induced increased catecholamine influx into the PFC may directly compromise attentional function. Previous research has suggested that the ratio between resting state electroencephalographic (EEG) low- and high-frequency power (the theta/beta ratio) is related to trait attentional control, which might moderate these effects of stress on attentional function. The goals of the present study were to test the novel prediction that theta/beta ratio moderates the deleterious effects of CPA-like anxious stress on state attentional control and to replicate a previous finding that the theta/beta ratio is related to self-reported trait attentional control. After recording of baseline frontal EEG signals, 77 participants performed a stress induction or a control procedure. Trait attentional control was assessed with the Attentional Control Scale, whereas stress-induced changes in attentional control and anxiety were measured with self-report visual analogue scales. The hypothesized moderating influence of theta/beta ratio on the effects of stress on state attentional control was confirmed. Theta/beta ratio explained 28% of the variance in stress-induced deterioration of self-reported attentional control. The negative relationship between theta/beta ratio and trait attentional control was replicated (r = -.33). The theta/beta ratio reflects, likely prefrontally mediated, attentional control, and should be a useful biomarker for the study of CPA and other anxiety-cognition interactions.

Anxiety mediates the effect of acute stress on working memory performance when cortisol levels are high: a moderated mediation analysis

BACKGROUND

Anxiety is an aversive emotional state characterized by perceived uncontrollability and hypervigilance to threat that can frequently cause disruptions in higher-order cognitive processes like working memory. The attentional control theory (ACT) predicts that anxiety negatively affects the working memory system.

DESIGN

This study tested the association between anxiety and working memory after the addition of stress and measured the glucocorticoid, cortisol. To better understand this relationship, we utilized a moderated mediation model.

METHODS

Undergraduate students from a public university (N = 103) self-reported their anxiety levels. Participants first completed a short-term memory test. During and after a forehead cold pressor task (stress vs. control procedure) participants completed a working memory test. Salivary cortisol was taken at baseline and after the last working memory test.

RESULTS

Overall, acute stress had no effect on working memory. However, we found that anxiety levels mediated the influence of condition (stressed vs. control) on working memory, but only among those individuals who had high cortisol levels after exposure to acute stress, supporting a moderated mediation model.

CONCLUSIONS

These results imply that activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis was necessary for working memory impairment in anxious individuals. These results provide support for the ACT.

Effects of cortisol on cognition in major depressive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder - 2014 Curt Richter Award Winner

Stress hormones influence a wide range of cognitive functions, including memory performance and executive function. It is well established that glucocorticoids enhance memory consolidation but impair memory retrieval. While most of the effects have been attributed to glucocorticoid receptors (GR), the importance of mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) has been also emphasized. Dysfunctions in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis have been reported for several mental disorders. While major depressive disorder (MDD) as well as borderline personality disorder (BPD) seem to be characterized by enhanced cortisol release in concert with a reduced feedback sensitivity of the HPA axis, in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) a contrary picture has been reported. Despite the fact that altered GR function has been discussed for these disorders only very few studies have investigated the effects of glucocorticoids on cognitive performance in these patients so far. In a series of studies, we investigated the effects of glucocorticoids on cognition (i.e. declarative memory, working memory and response inhibition) in different mental disorders such as MDD, PTSD and BPD. While in patients with MDD cortisol administration failed to effect memory retrieval, patients with PTSD and BPD showed enhanced rather than impaired memory retrieval after cortisol administration. These results indicate an altered sensitivity to cortisol in these disorders. Results from one of our recent studies in the field of social cognition underline the importance of the MR. We found that emotional empathy was enhanced through stimulation of the MR via fludrocortisone in healthy participants and women with BPD. This review aims to integrate these findings and discuss potential mechanisms and implications.

Amygdala and Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Connectivity during an Emotional Working Memory Task in Borderline Personality Disorder Patients with Interpersonal Trauma History

Working memory is critically involved in ignoring emotional distraction while maintaining goal-directed behavior. Antagonistic interactions between brain regions implicated in emotion processing, e.g., amygdala, and brain regions involved in cognitive control, e.g., dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dlPFC, dmPFC), may play an important role in coping with emotional distraction. We previously reported prolonged reaction times associated with amygdala hyperreactivity during emotional distraction in interpersonally traumatized borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients compared to healthy controls (HC): Participants performed a working memory task, while neutral versus negative distractors (interpersonal scenes from the International Affective Picture System) were presented. Here, we re-analyzed data from this study using psychophysiological interaction analysis. The bilateral amygdala and bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) were defined as seed regions of interest. Whole-brain regression analyses with reaction times and self-reported increase of dissociation were performed. During emotional distraction, reduced amygdala connectivity with clusters in the left dorsolateral and ventrolateral PFC was observed in the whole group. Compared to HC, BPD patients showed a stronger coupling of both seeds with a cluster in the right dmPFC and stronger positive amygdala connectivity with bilateral (para)hippocampus. Patients further demonstrated stronger positive dACC connectivity with left posterior cingulate, insula, and frontoparietal regions during emotional distraction. Reaction times positively predicted amygdala connectivity with right dmPFC and (para)hippocampus, while dissociation positively predicted amygdala connectivity with right ACC during emotional distraction in patients. Our findings suggest increased attention to task-irrelevant (emotional) social information during a working memory task in interpersonally traumatized patients with BPD.

Cortisol administration induces global down-regulation of the brain's reward circuitry

Research in rodents and humans has shown divergent effects of the glucocorticoids corticosterone and cortisol (CRT) on reward processing. In rodents, administration of CRT increases reward drive by facilitating dopamine release in the ventral striatum. In humans, correspondingly, risky decision-making increases when CRT levels are elevated. Human stress studies contrariwise show that elevated CRT is accompanied by a decrease in reward-related brain activity. There are however no direct insights into how CRT acts on the reward system in the human brain. Accordingly, we used pharmacological functional magnetic resonance imaging (pharmaco-fMRI) to investigate the effects of CRT on the brain's reward system. In a randomized within-subject design we administered a high dose of CRT (40 mg) and placebo to twenty healthy male volunteers on separate days, and used a monetary incentive delay task to assess the effects of the hormone on the striatum and the amygdala in anticipation of potential reward. In contrast to animal studies, we show that this high dose of CRT strongly decreases activity of the striatum in both reward and non-reward conditions. Furthermore, we observed reductions in activity in the basolateral amygdala, a key regulator of the brain's reward system. Crucially, the overall down-regulation of the brain's reward circuit was verified on the subjective level as subjects reported significantly reduced reward preference after CRT. In sum, we provide here direct evidence in humans that CRT acts on brain regions involved in reward-related behavior, that is, the basolateral amygdala and the striatum. Our findings suggest that CRT in the quantity and time course presently used globally down-regulates the reward system, and thereby decreases motivational processing in general.

Cortisol administration increases hippocampal activation to infant crying in males depending on childhood neglect

Animal studies show that exposure to parental neglect alters stress regulation and can lead to neural hyposensitivity or hypersensitivity in response to cortisol, most pronounced in the hippocampus. Cortisol, the end product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, has also been related to parenting more directly, for example, in both sexes, cortisol levels increase when listening to infants crying, possibly to activate and facilitate effective care behavior. Severe trauma is known to negatively affect the HPA-axis in humans; however, it is unknown whether normal variation in parental care in the healthy population can alter sensitivity of the hippocampus to cortisol. Here, we investigate whether variation in experienced neglect changes neural sensitivity to cortisol when humans listen to infant crying, which is an unequivocal signal relevant for care behavior. In a placebo-controlled, within-subject neuroimaging study, we administered 40 mg cortisol to 21 healthy young males without children and used a validated task for measuring neural responses to infant crying. The Dutch version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire was used to index participants' early exposure to abuse and neglect. The data show that cortisol markedly increased hippocampal activation toward crying infants, and this effect varied significantly with parental neglect, even in our nonclinical subject sample. Without exposure to severe trauma or neglect, reduced self-experienced quality of parental care in the normal range already substantially increased hippocampal responsivity to cortisol. Altered hippocampal sensitivity to cortisol might be a cross-species marker for the risk of developing later life psychopathology.

Susceptibility to distraction by social cues in borderline personality disorder

BACKGROUND/AIMS

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are highly sensitive to social rejection and show alterations in social perception. Increased susceptibility to social cues in patients with BPD might interfere with executive functions that play an important role in goal-directed behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of task-irrelevant (neutral vs. negatively arousing) social cues on working memory performance in BPD patients compared to healthy controls (HC).

METHODS

28 unmedicated female BPD patients and 28 female HC (matched for age and education) performed a Sternberg item recognition task, while being distracted by neutral versus negatively arousing pictures from the International Affective Picture System (interpersonal scenes) and the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces Set (faces). Additionally, self-ratings of aversive inner tension were assessed and correlated with task performance.

RESULTS

Compared to HC, BPD patients showed significantly impaired accuracy after distraction by negatively arousing stimuli (both scenes and faces) and neutral faces (but not neutral scenes). Significant negative correlations between overall accuracy and self-reported aversive inner tension were observed in BPD patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings of the present study suggest increased susceptibility to distracting (negatively arousing) social cues in individuals with BPD, which might interfere with cognitive functioning.

Using neurobiological measures to predict and assess treatment outcome of psychotherapy in posttraumatic stress disorder: systematic review

BACKGROUND

Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) are effective treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder. However, little is known about their neurobiological effects. The usefulness of neurobiological measures to predict the treatment outcome of psychotherapy also has yet to be determined.

METHODS

Systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) focused on neurobiological treatment effects of TF-CBT or EMDR and trials with neurobiological measures as predictors of treatment response.

RESULTS

We included 23 publications reporting on 16 separate trials. TF-CBT was compared with a waitlist in most trials. TF-CBT was associated with a decrease in heart rate and blood pressure and changes in activity but not in volume of frontal brain structures and the amygdala. Neurobiological changes correlated with changes in symptom severity. EMDR was only tested against other active treatments in included trials. We did not find a difference in neurobiological treatment effects between EMDR and other treatments. Publications on neurobiological predictors of treatment response showed ambiguous results.

CONCLUSION

TF-CBT was associated with a reduction of physiological reactivity. There is some preliminary evidence that TF-CBT influences brain regions involved in fear conditioning, extinction learning and possibly working memory and attention regulation; however, these effects could be nonspecific psychotherapeutic effects. Future trials should use paradigms aimed specifically at these brain regions and physiological reactivity. There are concerns regarding the risk of bias in some of the RCTs, indicating that methodologically more rigorous trials are required. Trials with neurobiological measures as predictors of treatment outcome render insufficient results to be useful in clinical practice.

Acute glucocorticoid effects on response inhibition in borderline personality disorder

INTRODUCTION

Growing evidence suggests inhibition dysfunctions in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Moreover, abnormalities in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning have also been found in BPD patients. In healthy individuals, response inhibition has been sensitive to acute stress, and previous research indicates that effects mediated by the HPA axis become particularly apparent when emotional stimuli are processed. This study aimed to explore the influence of acute hydrocortisone administration on response inhibition of emotional stimuli in BPD patients compared to healthy control participants.

METHODS

After a single administration of 10mg hydrocortisone or placebo, 32 female BPD patients and 32 healthy female participants performed an adapted emotional go/no-go paradigm to assess response inhibition for emotional face stimuli in a cross-over study.

RESULTS

Acute cortisol elevations decreased the reaction times to target stimuli in both BPD patients and healthy controls. Patients and controls did not differ in task performance; however, BPD patients with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) displayed longer reaction times than patients without PTSD. In contrast, the occurrence of comorbid eating disorder had no significant impact on go/no-go performance. No significant interaction effect between the treatment condition and the emotional valence of the face stimuli was found.

CONCLUSIONS

Acute hydrocortisone administration enhances response inhibition of face stimuli in BPD patients and healthy controls, regardless of their emotional valence. Our results agree with the suggestion that moderate cortisol enhancement increases the inhibition of task-irrelevant distracters.

Effects of acute cortisol administration on response inhibition in patients with major depression and healthy controls

Glucocorticoids (GCs) have repeatedly been shown to impair hippocampus-mediated, declarative memory retrieval and prefrontal cortex-based working memory in healthy subjects. However, recent experimental studies indicated that patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) lack these impairing effects. These missing effects have been suggested to result from dysfunctional brain GC receptors. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether response inhibition, an executive function relying on the integrity of the prefrontal cortex, would be impaired after cortisol administration in patients with MDD. In a placebo-controlled, double blind crossover study, 50 inpatients with MDD and 54 healthy control participants conducted an emotional go/no-go task consisting of human face stimuli (fearful, happy, and neutral) after receiving a dose of 10 mg hydrocortisone and after placebo. GC administration had an enhancing effect on inhibitory performance in healthy control participants, indicated by faster responses, while no GC effect was revealed for the patients group. Moreover, patients showed an overall worse performance than healthy participants. In conclusion, this study further supports the hypothesis of impaired central glucocorticoid receptor function in MDD patients. Regarding the importance of inhibitory functioning for daily living, further studies are needed to examine the impact of glucocorticoids on response inhibition.

Cortisol effects on autobiographic memory retrieval in PTSD: an analysis of word valence and time until retrieval

In healthy participants, cortisol administration has been found to impair autobiographic memory retrieval. We recently reported that administration of 10 mg of hydrocortisone had enhancing effects on autobiographical memory retrieval, i.e. more specific memory retrieval, in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while in healthy controls the impairing effects were replicated. We here report a re-analysis of these data with respect to cue-word valence and retrieval time. In a placebo-controlled cross-over study, 43 patients with PTSD and 43 age- and sex-matched healthy controls received either placebo or hydrocortisone orally before the autobiographical memory test was performed. We found that the effects of cortisol on memory retrieval depended on cue-word valence and group (significant interaction effects of drug by group and drug by valence by group). The enhancing effect of cortisol on memory retrieval in PTSD seemed to be relatively independent of cue-word valence, while in the control group the impairing effects of cortisol were only seen in response to neutral cue-words. The second result of the study was that in patients as well as in controls, cortisol administration led to faster memory retrieval compared to placebo. This was seen in response to positive and (to lesser extend) to neutral cue-words, but not in response to negative cue-words. Our findings illustrate that the opposing effects of cortisol on autobiographical memory retrieval in PTSD patients and controls are further modulated by the emotionality of the cue-words.

Detection of the acute effects of hydrocortisone in the hippocampus using pharmacological fMRI

Impaired hippocampal function is believed to be important in the pathogenesis of depression. The hippocampus contains a high concentration of both mineralocorticoid (MR) and glucocorticoid receptors (GR), and the experimental administration of corticosteroids has been reported to mimic memory impairments seen in depression. Using pharmacological functional magnetic resonance imaging (phMRI) we investigated whether hippocampal function is altered after acute administration of hydrocortisone. Changes in BOLD signal following infusion of 100mg hydrocortisone given as a rapid intravenous bolus were measured in 14 healthy volunteers in a within-subject placebo-controlled crossover design. Subsequently, subjects completed an n-back task during an fMRI scan. Hydrocortisone infusion caused a significant, time-dependent increase in fMRI BOLD signal in hippocampus reaching a maximal effect at 11-19min. The n-back task increased BOLD signal in prefrontal and parietal cortical areas and decreased it in the hippocampus. After hydrocortisone the left hippocampal decrease in BOLD signal was attenuated with the magnitude of attenuation correlating with the increase seen after hydrocortisone infusion. No difference in behavioural task performance was observed. The results suggest acute hydrocortisone has rapid direct and modulatory influences on hippocampal function, probably acting through non-genomic GR or MR signalling. Hydrocortisone infusion phMRI may be a useful tool to investigate hippocampal corticosteroid receptor function in depression.

Influence of emotional distraction on working memory performance in borderline personality disorder

BACKGROUND

Emotion dysregulation, characterized by heightened emotional arousal and increased emotional sensitivity, is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although current theories emphasize the disruptive potential of negative emotions on cognitive functioning in BPD, behavioral and neurobiological data on this relationship are still lacking.

METHOD

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), neural activity was investigated in 22 unmedicated BPD patients and 22 healthy participants (matched for age, education and intelligence) performing an adapted Sternberg working memory task, while being distracted by emotional (negatively arousing) and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS).

RESULTS

Emotional distraction was associated with significantly higher activation in the amygdala and decreased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), extending findings of previous studies in healthy individuals. Patients with BPD showed significantly longer reaction times (RTs) along with significantly higher activation in the amygdala and insula during emotional distraction compared to healthy participants, suggesting that they were more distracted by emotional pictures during the working memory task. Moreover, in the group of BPD patients, a significant negative correlation was found between activation in limbic brain regions and self-reports of current dissociative states.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest hyper-responsiveness to emotionally distracting pictures in BPD patients that negatively affects working memory performance. This stresses the importance of emotion dysregulation in the context of cognitive functioning. Moreover, our findings suggest that dissociative states have a dampening effect on neural reactivity during emotional challenge in BPD.

When does stress help or harm? The effects of stress controllability and subjective stress response on stroop performance

The ability to engage in goal-directed behavior despite exposure to stress is critical to resilience. Questions of how stress can impair or improve behavioral functioning are important in diverse settings, from athletic competitions to academic testing. Previous research suggests that controllability is a key factor in the impact of stress on behavior: learning how to control stressors buffers people from the negative effects of stress on subsequent cognitively demanding tasks. In addition, research suggests that the impact of stress on cognitive functioning depends on an individual's response to stressors: moderate responses to stress can lead to improved performance while extreme (high or low) responses can lead to impaired performance. The present studies tested the hypothesis that (1) learning to behaviorally control stressors leads to improved performance on a test of general executive functioning, the color-word Stroop, and that (2) this improvement emerges specifically for people who report moderate (subjective) responses to stress. Experiment 1: Stroop performance, measured before and after a stress manipulation, was compared across groups of undergraduate participants (n = 109). People who learned to control a noise stressor and received accurate performance feedback demonstrated reduced Stroop interference compared with people exposed to uncontrollable noise stress and feedback indicating an exaggerated rate of failure. In the group who learned behavioral control, those who reported moderate levels of stress showed the greatest reduction in Stroop interference. In contrast, in the group exposed to uncontrollable events, self-reported stress failed to predict performance. Experiment 2: In a second sample (n = 90), we specifically investigated the role of controllability by keeping the rate of failure feedback constant across groups. In the group who learned behavioral control, those who reported moderate levels of stress showed the greatest Stroop improvement. Once again, this pattern was not demonstrated in the group exposed to uncontrollable events. These results suggest that stress controllability and subjective response interact to affect high-level cognitive abilities. Specifically, exposure to moderate, controllable stress benefits performance, but exposure to uncontrollable stress or having a more extreme response to stress tends to harm performance. These findings may provide insights on how to leverage the beneficial effects of stress in a range of settings.

The epidemic of distraction

Multitasking is a rapidly growing phenomenon affecting all segments of the population but is rarely as successful as its proponents believe. The use of mobile electronic devices contributes importantly to multitasking and cognitive overload. Although personal electronic devices provide many benefits, their adverse effects are frequently overlooked. Personal observation and a review of the scientific literature supports the view that overuse or misuse of personal electronic devices promotes cognitive overload, impairs multitasking and lowers performance at all ages but particularly in the elderly. This phenomenon appears to be rapidly increasing and threatens to become a tsunami as spreading electronic waves cause an 'epidemic of distraction'. Mobile electronic devices often bring benefits to their users in terms of rapid access to information. However, there is a dark side to the increasing addiction to these devices that challenges the health and well-being of the entire population, targeting, in particular, the aged and infirm. New approaches to information gathering can foster creativity if cognitive overload is avoided.

Stress shifts brain activation towards ventral 'affective' areas during emotional distraction

Acute stress has been shown to impair working memory (WM), and to decrease prefrontal activation during WM in healthy humans. Stress also enhances amygdala responses towards emotional stimuli. Stress might thus be specifically detrimental to WM when one is distracted by emotional stimuli. Usually, emotional stimuli presented as distracters in a WM task slow down performance, while evoking more activation in ventral 'affective' brain areas, and a relative deactivation in dorsal 'executive' areas. We hypothesized that after acute social stress, this reciprocal dorsal-ventral pattern would be shifted towards greater increase of ventral 'affective' activation during emotional distraction, while impairing WM performance. To investigate this, 34 healthy men, randomly assigned to a social stress or control condition, performed a Sternberg WM task with emotional and neutral distracters inside an MRI scanner. Results showed that WM performance after stress tended to be slower during emotional distraction. Brain activations during emotional distraction was enhanced in ventral affective areas, while dorsal executive areas tended to show less deactivation after stress. These results suggest that acute stress shifts priority towards processing of emotionally significant stimuli, at the cost of WM performance.