Even Mild Stress Could Undermine Emotion Control Strategies, Study Finds
It has long been known that stress can impair the brain’s ability to control emotions. But for the first time, neuroscientists have found that even mild stress can undermine therapies designed to help patients regulate their emotions in real life situations.
In the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at New York University reviewed the benefits of therapeutic interventions such as cognitive restructuring. This technique is used to help patients alter their thoughts or approach to a situation in order to change their emotional response. It also involved looking at the positive or non-threatening aspects of the situation that normally produces fear.
The researchers in the study tried to examine whether these techniques hold up in the real world when accompanied by the stress of everyday life.
To do so, they designed a two-day experiments in which the volunteers employed techniques used in clinics to combat fears. On the first day, participants used a commonly fear conditioning method to elicit a sense of fear among the participants. Here, they viewed pictures of snakes or spiders, in which some were accompanied by a mild shock to the wrist. After the task, the participants went through cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) to learn how to diminish the fears brought on by the experiment.
On the second day, volunteers were grouped into two – the “stress” and “control” groups. Individuals in the stress group were asked to submerge their hands in icy water for three minutes (a standard method for creating a mild stress response in psychological studies), whilst those in control group submerged their hands in mildly warm water. As expected, the stress group showed a significant increase in cortisol following the stress manipulation, whereas there was no change in the control group. After a short delay, the researchers then showed pictures of snakes and spiders to the participants to see if stress has undermined their utilisation of cognitive techniques they learned the previous day.
The control group showed diminished fear response to the images, which suggests they were able to employ emotion control strategies they have just learned. But the stress group showed no reduction in fear, which indicates that they were unable to use these cognitive techniques.
“These findings are consistent with the suggestion that the effect of mild stress on the prefrontal cortex may result in a diminished ability to use previously learned techniques to control fear.” said Elizabeth Phelps, Ph.D., the study’s senior author and a psychologist at NY University.
According to Candace Raio, the lead author, their study shows that even mild stress may impair a person’s ability to use cognitive techniques that can control fear and anxiety. However, with practice or after longer intervals of cognitive training, these strategies may become habitual and less sensitive to the effects of stress, she noted.
Source of this article:
Mild Stress Can Undermine Therapy for Emotional Control
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