Chronic Stress Impairs Cognitive Performance in Business Executives
Kristen Sparrow • July 11, 2015
This article may be pertinent to my ongoing investigation into stress response to acupuncture treatment. Not only does acupuncture appear to improve chronic stress, but looking at the immediate Heart Rate Variability response to acupuncture may show the overall autonomic responsiveness. Autonomic responsiveness may be significant. Developing….
PLoS One. 2015 Mar 25;10(3):e0119025. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0119025. eCollection 2015.
Chronic stress induces a hyporeactivity of the autonomic nervous system in response to acute mental stressor and impairs cognitive performance in business executives.
Teixeira RR1, Díaz MM1, Santos TV1, Bernardes JT1, Peixoto LG1, Bocanegra OL1, Neto MB2, Espindola FS1.
Abstract
The present study examined the incidence of chronic stress in business executives (109 subjects: 75 male and 34 female) and its relationship with cortisol levels, cognitive performance, and autonomic nervous system (ANS) reactivity after an acute mental stressor. Blood samples were collected from the subjects to measure cortisol concentration. After the sample collection, the subjects completed the Lipp Inventory of Stress Symptoms for Adults and the Stroop Color-Word Test to evaluate stress and cognitive performance levels, respectively. Saliva samples were collected prior to, immediately after, and five minutes after the test. The results revealed that 90.1% of the stressed subjects experienced stress phases that are considered chronic stress. At rest, the subjects with chronic stress showed higher cortisol levels, and no gender differences were observed. No differences were found between the stressed and non-stressed subjects regarding salivary amylase activity prior to test. Chronic stress also impaired performance on the Stroop test, which revealed higher rates of error and longer reaction times in the incongruent stimulus task independently of gender. For the congruent stimulus task of the Stroop test, the stressed males presented a higher rate of errors than the non-stressed males and a longer reaction time than the stressed females. After the acute mental stressor, the non-stressed male group showed an increase in salivary alpha-amylase activity, which returned to the initial values five minutes after the test; this ANS reactivity was not observed in the chronically stressed male subjects. The ANS responses of the non-stressed vs stressed female groups were not different prior to or after the Stroop test. This study is the first to demonstrate a blunted reactivity of the ANS when male subjects with chronic psychological stress were subjected to an acute mental stressor, and this change could contribute to impairments in cognitive performance.
