Einfluss von akutem Stress & Provokation auf die Verarbeitung emotionaler Bilder

Research has shown that the stress hormone cortisol is important for the regulation of social motivational processes. Besides, aggression is a common behavior which is frequently involved in changes in higher level information processing patterns. However, the influence of the interaction between both on information processing has been hardly examined, even though there is some evidence that cortisol plays a crucial role in the attention to social threat and release of aggressive behavior. Thus, the aim of the present study was to access the effect of acute stress, the thereby caused cortisol release and provocation on affective picture processing. 71 healthy subjects were subjected to the socially evaluated cold pressor test or warm pressor test (control condition). Half of each group received high or low levels of provocation during the Taylor Aggression Paradigm. Afterwards, 144 emotional pictures with positive, negative or aggressive content were presented. Throughout the experiment EEG was recorded and acute levels of salivary cortisol were collected. Established effects within the event-related potentials depending on the presented emotion could be replicated. Moreover, preliminary results indicate that event-related earlier (N2, P2), as well as later components (P3, slow waves) are complexly influenced by endogenous cortisol and provocation, suggesting an effect on various stages of socially relevant information processing of stimuli.