TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wirkner, Janine
A1  - Ventura-Bort, Carlos
A1  - Schwabe, Lars
A1  - Hamm, Alfons O.
A1  - Weymar, Mathias
T1  - Chronic stress and emotion: Differential effects on attentional processing and recognition memory
T2  - Psychoneuroendocrinology
N2  - Previous research indicates that acute stress around the time of learning facilitates attention and memory for emotionally salient information. Despite accumulating evidence for these acute stress effects, less is known about the role of chronic stress. In the present study, we therefore tested emotional and neutral scene processing and later recognition memory in female participants using hair cortisol concentrations as a biological marker for chronic stress. Event-related potentials recorded during picture viewing indicated enhanced late positive potentials (LPPs) for emotional, relative to neutral contents. These brain potentials varied as a function of long-term hair cortisol levels: hair-cortisol levels were positively related to overall LPP amplitudes. Results from recognition memory testing one week after encoding revealed better memory for emotional relative to neutral scenes. Hair-cortisol levels, however, were related to poorer memory accuracy. Taken together, our results indicate that chronic stress enhanced attentional processing during encoding of new stimuli and impaired later recognition memory. Results are discussed with regard to putatively opposite effects of chronic stress on certain brain regions (e.g., amygdala and hippocampus).
KW  - Chronic stress
KW  - Emotion
KW  - Event-related potential
KW  - Late positive potential
KW  - Memory
KW  - Hair cortisol
Y1  - 2019
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/48299
SN  - 0306-4530
VL  - 107
SP  - 93
EP  - 97
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -