Increase in Beta Power Reflects Attentional Top-Down Modulation After Psychosocial Stress Induction
Date
2021
Type:
Article
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Abstract
Selective attention depends on goal-directed and stimulus-driven modulatory factors,
each relayed by different brain rhythms. Under certain circumstances, stress-related
states can change the balance between goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors.
However, the neuronal mechanisms underlying these changes remain unclear. In this
study, we explored how psychosocial stress can modulate brain rhythms during an
attentional task and a task-free period. We recorded the EEG and ECG activity of 42
healthy participants subjected to either the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), a controlled
procedure to induce stress, or a comparable control protocol (same physical and
cognitive effort but without the stress component), flanked by an attentional task, a 90 s
of task-free period and a state of anxiety questionnaire. We observed that psychosocial
stress induced an increase in heart rate (HR), self-reported anxiety, and alpha power
synchronization. Also, psychosocial stress evoked a relative beta power increase during
correct trials of the attentional task, which correlates positively with anxiety and heart
rate increase, and inversely with attentional accuracy. These results suggest that
psychosocial stress affects performance by redirecting attentional resources toward
internal threat-related thoughts. An increment of endogenous top-down modulation
reflected an increased beta-band activity that may serve as a compensatory mechanism
to redirect attentional resources toward the ongoing task. The data obtained here
may contribute to designing new ways of clinical management of the human stress
response in the future and could help to minimize the damaging effects of persistent
stressful experiences.
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Citation
Palacios-García I, Silva J, Villena-González M, Campos-Arteaga G, Artigas-Vergara C, Luarte N, Rodríguez E and Bosman CA (2021) Increase in Beta Power Reflects Attentional Top-Down Modulation After Psychosocial Stress Induction. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 15:630813. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.630813
Keywords
Anxiety, Heart rate (HR), Attentional control, Beta band frequency, Psychosocial stress