This study aimed to investigate how acute stress impinges on individual’s cognitive inhibition and response inhibition abilities. Electroencephalography was adopted when 35 healthy adult females performing the No Go Flanker task before and after the Trier Social Stress Test. Both inhibition processes evoked N2 and P3 components, but only the response inhibition evoked the late positive potential (LPP), indicating the response inhibition needed continuous cognitive effort to inhibit the prepotent response. The N2 and the P3 amplitudes were decreased, while the LPP amplitudes were increased under acute stress. These results suggested that acute stress caused the detrimental effect by occupying cognitive resources. Contrastingly, individuals actively regulated and made more efforts to counteract the detrimental effect of acute stress on response inhibition. Thus, acute stress impaired cognitive inhibition but did not affect response inhibition.

本研究旨在探讨急性压力如何影响个体的认知抑制和反应抑制能力。当 35 名健康成年女性在 Trier 社会压力测试之前和之后执行 No Go Flanker 任务时，采用了脑电图。两种抑制过程都诱发了 N2 和 P3 成分，但只有反应抑制诱发了晚期正电位 (LPP)，表明反应抑制需要持续的认知努力来抑制优势反应。N2 和 P3 振幅降低，而 LPP 振幅在急性应激下增加。这些结果表明，急性压力通过占用认知资源而造成不利影响。相比之下，个体积极调节并做出更多努力来抵消急性压力对反应抑制的不利影响。因此，急性应激损害认知抑制但不影响反应抑制。