Effects of Acute Stress on Rigid Learning, Flexible Learning, and Value-Based Decision-Making in Spatial Navigation

He, Qiliang; Beveridge, Elizabeth H.; Vargas, Vanesa; Salen, Ashley; Brown, Thackery I.

doi:10.1177/09567976231155870

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Factors modulating stress effects. Given that stress effects can differ by sex (e.g., Espin et al, 2013;Guenzel et al, 2014;He et al, 2023) and glucocorticoids may drive stress effects on episodic memory and statistical learning (Goldfarb, 2019;Bahtiyar et al, 2020), we additionally explored whether learning under stress differed with sex and/or cortisol. We thus ran models predicting each behavior as a function of group, cortisol (see "learning-concurrent" cortisol computation below), and sex, as well as group x cortisol and group x sex interactions.…”

Section: Analysis Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute stress effects on statistical learning and episodic memory

Sherman,

Huang,

Wijaya

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Stress is widely considered to negatively impact hippocampal function, thus impairing episodic memory. However, the hippocampus is not merely the seat of episodic memory. Rather, it also (via distinct circuitry) supports statistical learning. Based on rodent work suggesting that stress may impair the hippocampal pathway involved in episodic memory while sparing or enhancing the pathway involved in statistical learning, we developed a behavioral experiment to investigate the effects of acute stress on both episodic memory and statistical learning in humans. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: stress (socially evaluated cold pressor) immediately before learning, stress ~15 minutes before learning, or no stress. In the learning task, participants viewed a series of trial-unique scenes (allowing for episodic encoding of each image) in which certain scene categories reliably followed one another (allowing for statistical learning of associations between paired categories). Memory was assessed 24h later to isolate stress effects on encoding/learning rather than retrieval. We found modest support for our hypothesis that acute stress can amplify statistical learning: only participants stressed ~15 minutes in advance exhibited reliable evidence of learning across multiple measures. Further, stress-induced cortisol levels predicted statistical learning retention 24h later. In contrast, episodic memory did not differ by stress condition, though we did find that acute stress promoted memory for statistically predictable information and attenuated competition between statistical and episodic encoding. Together, these findings provide initial insights into how stress may differentially modulate learning processes within the hippocampus.

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Section: Analysis Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute stress effects on statistical learning and episodic memory

Sherman,

Huang,

Wijaya

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…These discrepancies likely arise from variations in stress induction methods, timing of stress induction, and performance metrics. First, past studies employed a variety of stressors, ranging from the Trier Social Stressor (the participant is interviewed by unfriendly confederates 9 , 10 ), to cold pressor (the participant places their feet in a bucket of ice water 11 , 12 ), physical fatigue 13 , threat of electric shock 14 , 15 , time pressure 16 , 17 , monetary loss 18 , and virtual fire 19 , 20 . Second, whereas some studies induced stress during navigation 14 , 16 , 18 , others induced stress post-learning but pre-navigation 13 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress affects navigation strategies in immersive virtual reality

Varshney,

Munns,

Kasowski

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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There are known individual differences in both the ability to learn the layout of novel environments and the flexibility of strategies for navigating known environments. However, it is unclear how navigational abilities are impacted by high-stress scenarios. Here we used immersive virtual reality (VR) to develop a novel behavioral paradigm to examine navigation under dynamically changing situations. We recruited 48 participants (24 female; ages 17–32) to navigate a virtual maze (7.5 m × 7.5 m). Participants learned the maze by moving along a fixed path past the maze’s landmarks (paintings). Subsequently, participants experienced either a non-stress condition, or a high-stress condition tasking them with navigating the maze. In the high-stress condition, their initial path was blocked, the environment was darkened, threatening music was played, fog obstructed more distal views of the environment, and participants were given a time limit of 20 s with a countdown timer displayed at the top of their screen. On trials where the path was blocked, we found self-reported stress levels and distance traveled increased while trial completion rate decreased (as compared to non-stressed control trials). On unblocked stress trials, participants were less likely to take a shortcut and consequently navigated less efficiently compared to control trials. Participants with more trait spatial anxiety reported more stress and navigated less efficiently. Overall, our results suggest that navigational abilities change considerably under high-stress conditions.

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“…There is little systematic analysis of the role of coping ability in affective decisions during IGT performance. Stress in uences a shift from a exible learning process towards more automatic forms of control and an increase in risky choices [11,12]. It has also been suggested that stress facilitates a shift toward inaction [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship between coping styles and affective decision- making process among schizophrenia patients and healthy controls

Kertzman,

Rauchverger,

Waseem

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Psychiatry has shown a growing interest in the role of emotion in decision- making because emotion appears to make a substantial contribution to the decision- making process. There are no studies analyzing the relationship between affective decision-making and coping skills in schizophrenia (SZ). Our objective was to investigate the effect of coping skills on decision-making in SZ. We aimed to study the differences in coping styles, measured by the Behavioral Attitudes and Search Evaluation test (BASE), between good and bad performers on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The 37 SZ participants and 46 healthy controls (HC) performed the IGT and BASE. Affective decision-making and coping skills are impaired among individuals with SZ compared with HC. A combination of two coping styles, such as preference for search activity and rejection of renunciation of search, was associated with better performance on IGT in both groups. We demonstrate that the association between coping style and performance on the IGT is not bidirectional. Coping strategies affect IGT performance, while performance on IGT does not affect coping style. In conclusion, participants with a more adaptive coping style were better decision-makers. One possible explanation for this association is that the more effective coping style may represent better functioning of the affective systems.

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Effects of Acute Stress on Rigid Learning, Flexible Learning, and Value-Based Decision-Making in Spatial Navigation

Cited by 6 publications

References 65 publications

Acute stress effects on statistical learning and episodic memory

Acute stress effects on statistical learning and episodic memory

Stress affects navigation strategies in immersive virtual reality

Relationship between coping styles and affective decision- making process among schizophrenia patients and healthy controls

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