Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 209, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105176
Keywords
Executive function; Inhibitory control; Arousal; Stress; Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; Sympathetic activation
Funding
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [HD087685]
- National Science Foundation [LSS1921187]
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Research shows that acute stress affects working memory in adolescents, with effects varying based on age, physiological system, and type of working memory process. The results highlight the need for more complex investigations taking into account system-specific responses and multiple facets of working memory.
Despite considerable research with adults suggesting that acute stress negatively affects working memory (WM), a core cognitive function, few studies have assessed these effects in youths. Studies that have been conducted have produced null findings, although these studies did not measure stress via multiple systems (e.g., hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal [HPA] axis and sympathetic nervous system [SNS]) or include wide developmental age ranges. In the current study, we examined the links between acute stress and WM in 8- to 15-year-olds. Youths completed the Trier Social Stress Test-Modified, during which repeated saliva samples were collected to measure responses of the HPA axis (cortisol) and SNS (salivary alpha-amylase). Immediately afterward, youths completed the n-back task, an established measure of WM. Accuracy and false alarm (FA) scores were computed to explore whether associations between arousal and WM differed when WM versus only the inhibitory control facet of WM processes were considered. Relations varied as a function of age, physiological system, and type of WM process. Accuracy improved and FA scores deceased as age and SNS reactivity increased, particularly in combination. Moreover, when arousal was higher according to only one physiological system (HPA axis or SNS), FA scores were lower, but when arousal was driven by both systems or low in both systems, FA scores were higher. Together, results highlight the need for more complex investigations of stress and WM across development that take into account system-specific responses and multiple facets of WM. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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