The ability to anticipate and flexibly plan for the future is critical for achieving goal-directed outcomes. Extant data suggest that neural and cognitive stress mechanisms may disrupt memory retrieval and restrict prospective planning, with deleterious impacts on behavior. Here, we examined whether and how acute psychological stress influences goal-directed navigational planning and efficient, flexible behavior. Our methods combined fMRI, neuroendocrinology, and machine learning with a virtual navigation planning task. Human participants were trained to navigate familiar paths in virtual environments and then (concurrent with fMRI) performed a planning and navigation task that could be most efficiently solved by taking novel shortcut paths. Strikingly, relative to non-stressed control participants, participants who performed the planning task under experimentally induced acute psychological stress demonstrated (1) disrupted neural activity critical for mnemonic retrieval and mental simulation and (2) reduced traversal of shortcuts and greater reliance on familiar paths. These neural and behavioral changes under psychological stress were tied to evidence for disrupted neural replay of memory for future locations in the spatial environment, providing mechanistic insight into why and how stress can alter planning and foster inefficient behavior.

中文翻译：

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在前瞻性空间导航期间，压力会破坏人类海马-前额叶的功能并阻碍灵活的行为。

预测和灵活规划未来的能力对于实现目标导向的结果至关重要。现有数据表明，神经和认知压力机制可能会破坏记忆检索并限制前瞻性规划，并对行为产生有害影响。在这里，我们研究了严重的心理压力是否以及如何影响以目标为导向的导航计划和高效、灵活的行为。我们的方法将 fMRI、神经内分泌学和机器学习与虚拟导航规划任务相结合。人类参与者接受了在虚拟环境中导航熟悉的路径的培训，然后（与 fMRI 并行）执行规划和导航任务，通过采用新颖的快捷路径可以最有效地解决该任务。引人注目的是，相对于非压力控制参与者，在实验诱发的急性心理压力下执行计划任务的参与者表明 (1) 扰乱了对记忆提取和心理模拟至关重要的神经活动，以及 (2) 减少了捷径的遍历并更多地依赖熟悉的路径。心理压力下的这些神经和行为变化与空间环境中未来位置的记​​忆神经重放中断的证据有关，提供了关于压力为何以及如何改变计划和促进低效行为的机制洞察。