The Effects of Acute Stress on the Neural Correlates of Decision-Making
Abstract
Abstract
Stress has been defined in many ways and is typically induced as a response to a threat to homeostasis. Stress affects decision-making, and the effects of stress on subcomponents of decision-making can be indirectly measured through EEG. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of acute stress on the neural correlates of decision-making. We hypothesized that acute stress would decrease the reward and attentional sensitivity, seen through reduced P300 and reward positivity component activity. The results were that the mean percent change from baseline for heart rate was higher for the stress condition during the TSST. The stress group also had decreased positive affect scores and increased negative affect scores for the STAI questionnaire and decreased positive affect scores for the PANAS questionnaire. Additionally, while not significant, there was a trend towards reduced P300 component activity in the stress condition, potentially indicative of reduced attentional sensitivity. Further research is needed to explore the implications for reward sensitivity, utilizing multiple tasks, and including cortisol measurement. Stress is common to everyday life and has been implicated chronically in numerous health conditions. Understanding how stress affects executive function, particularly decision-making, is therefore crucial in both the short- and long-term.
Keywords: stress; decision-making; ERPs; P300 component; reward positivity component
*This research was supported by a Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award, University of Victoria.
Copyright (c) 2020 Jillian Lauren Toppings, Thomas Ferguson, Olave Krigolson

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors contributing to the Artbutus Review agree to release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported license. This licence allows anyone to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear.
Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the journal right of first publication.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.