Response Inhibition Under Emotional and Physical Stress

Response inhibition-i.e., the ability to willfully stop preplanned action-is crucial for goal-directed behavior in performance settings. However, response inhibition may be compromised under both emotional and physical stress. Parallel processing models alongside recent empirical data suggests that, when combined, one stressor may cancel-out effects of the other stressor. The current preregistered study aimed to verify and extend these findings, by investigating how acute threat and vigorous exercise intensity may interact to influence response inhibition. Twenty-four participants (M (age) = 23.19, SD (age) = 3.11) performed an anticipatory response inhibition task under no threat and threat of shock (i.e., receiving mild electric shocks upon making task errors) whilst cycling for 2 x 30 min at light versus vigorous intensity on a stationary bicycle ergometer (i.e., 60% HRmax vs. 86% HRmax). Participants responded to a rising indicator on a screen by lifting their finger off a response switch as soon as the indicator reached a target line (i.e., Go trials; 70% of trials) or to inhibit their lifting response if the indicator automatically stopped rising before the target line (i.e., Stop trials; 30% of trials). Self-reported anxiety was higher under threat versus no-threat conditions and HR and perceived exertion were higher under vigorous versus light exercise intensity. Neither threat nor vigorous exercise significantly altered Go- and Stop-trial performance. No interaction effects for task performance were observed. It is suggested that response inhibition may be relatively robust against mild levels of task-relevant emotional stress and high levels of physical stress.

Automated summary

This study investigated how acute threat and vigorous exercise intensity interact to influence response inhibition. The results showed that mild levels of task-relevant emotional stress and high levels of physical stress did not significantly alter response inhibition performance. This suggests that response inhibition is relatively robust against mild levels of emotional stress and high levels of physical stress.