Acute stress impairs target enhancement rather than distractor suppression in attention selection: Evidence from the N2pc and PD

BackgroundStudies have shown that acute stress significantly impacts the selection of emotional stimuli. However, the extent to which acute stress affects the cognitive mechanisms underlying target enhancement and distractor suppression when selecting emotionally neutral stimuli remains unclear. MethodsWe explored this issue using the Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST), a visual search task, and event-related potential recordings. Eighty healthy adults participanted in the experiment, which required them to search for a specific target while ignoring a color singleton distractor. ResultsThe MAST successfully induced a stress response in the stress group, as indicated by the higher levels of salivary cortisol, state anxiety, negative emotion, as well as lower levels of positive emotion. Importantly, the stress group showed a significantly smaller N2pc in the lateral target with middle distractor displays than the control group. However, no significant differences in PD were observed in the middle target with lateral distractor displays. ConclusionsThese results suggest that acute stress impairs target enhancement rather than distractor suppression during the selection of attention. This impairment may be due to impaired prefrontal cortex function under acute stress. The present research provides new insight into how acute stress affects attention selection. Trial registrationThis study has been submitted for registration with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) and is currently under review (PID: 274121). The status will be updated as soon as the review process is completed.