scholarly journals The impact of pain on subsequent effort and cognitive performance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Silvestrini ◽  
Corrado Corradi-Dell'Acqua
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Cardiac Response ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Pain Ratings ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Impact

Theoretical accounts of pain and empirical evidence indicate that pain and cognitive control share common neurocognitive processes. Numerous studies have examined the interactions between pain and cognitive performance when they occur simultaneously, typically showing analgesic effects of task performance and impaired performance due to pain. However, the sequential impact of pain on cognitive control and effort remains less clear. This study investigated the influence of a first task including painful vs. non-painful thermal stimuli on effort-related cardiac response and performance in a subsequent moderately difficult cognitive task. Drawing on the hypothesis that experiencing pain should recruit cognitive resources and reduce perceived ability, we predicted lower task performance and/or stronger compensatory effort in the subsequent cognitive task after the painful than after the non-painful first task. Results support our predictions regarding the effect of pain on subsequent cognitive performance, which was moderately lower after the painful task. However, such a decrease in task proficiency was not associated with a comparable decrease in perceived capacity or increase in effort-related cardiac reactivity. Nevertheless, further correlational analyses indicated that effort mobilization and perceived capacity were significantly related to pain ratings. Moderate pain was associated with stronger effort during the cognitive task whereas high pain led to disengagement, i.e., a low effort. Moreover, in line with our predictions, higher pain ratings were associated with lower self-reported capacity to perform the cognitive task. We discuss these findings regarding the relationship between effort and performance; the impact of fatigue on motivation; and interindividual variability in these after-effects.

The Perception of Available Resources Influences the After-Effect of Cognitive Control on Cognitive Performance and Pain

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 332-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Silvestrini ◽  
Elodie Vuignier ◽  
Alain Matthey ◽  
Valérie Piguet
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Sequential Task ◽  
After Effect ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Available Resources

Abstract. In two experiments, we investigated the impact of perceived available cognitive resources using a sequential-task paradigm. First, participants worked on an easy or difficult cognitive task. Then, they received a cue suggesting that their cognitive resources were still optimal or they did not receive any information on their resources. Subsequently, they worked on a second difficult cognitive task (Experiment 1) or received painful electrical stimulations (Experiment 2). We predicted that the cue on optimal resources would neutralize the effect of the first difficult task on subsequent cognitive performance and pain. Overall, results supported our predictions. We interpret these findings as showing an important role of perceived available resources in the after-effect induced by the sequential-task paradigm.

The Impact of Environmental Stress on Cognitive Performance: A Systematic Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (8) ◽  
pp. 1205-1246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristy Martin ◽  
Emily McLeod ◽  
Julien Périard ◽  
Ben Rattray ◽  
Richard Keegan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Environmental Stress ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
The Impact

Objective: In this review, we detail the impact of environmental stress on cognitive and military task performance and highlight any individual characteristics or interventions which may mitigate any negative effect. Background: Military personnel are often deployed in regions markedly different from their own, experiencing hot days, cold nights, and trips both above and below sea level. In spite of these stressors, high-level cognitive and operational performance must be maintained. Method: A systematic review of the electronic databases Medline (PubMed), EMBASE (Scopus), PsycINFO, and Web of Science was conducted from inception up to September 2018. Eligibility criteria included a healthy human cohort, an outcome of cognition or military task performance and assessment of an environmental condition. Results: The search returned 113,850 records, of which 124 were included in the systematic review. Thirty-one studies examined the impact of heat stress on cognition; 20 of cold stress; 59 of altitude exposure; and 18 of being below sea level. Conclusion: The severity and duration of exposure to the environmental stressor affects the degree to which cognitive performance can be impaired, as does the complexity of the cognitive task and the skill or familiarity of the individual performing the task. Application: Strategies to improve cognitive performance in extreme environmental conditions should focus on reducing the magnitude of the physiological and perceptual disturbance caused by the stressor. Strategies may include acclimatization and habituation, being well skilled on the task, and reducing sensations of thermal stress with approaches such as head and neck cooling.

Information Processing Changes following Extended Stress

2001 ◽  
Vol 45 (13) ◽  
pp. 901-905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Hancock ◽  
Wayne C. Harris ◽  
Scot C. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Psychological State ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Complex Cognitive Task ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Performance Deterioration ◽  
And Performance

Extended periods of stress are associated with subjective fatigue and performance deterioration. Psychological state and cognitive performance were assessed before and after one week of field training at a Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School. Subjective discomfort increased, but average cognitive performance deterioration was limited to increased Simple Reaction Time. Considering that decrements in complex performance are commonly associated with fatigue, the stability or improvement of the more complex cognitive tasks was unexpected. Given that increasing effort is required to maintain performance as time-on-task increases, performance changes within pre and post-training trials were compared. While performance was stable or improved in the pre-training session, complex task performance deteriorated during post-training trials. The results are consistent with the hypotheses that fatigued individuals maintain complex cognitive task performance by exerting increased effort, but that increasing effort becomes increasingly difficult even during brief assessments.

The Impact of Emotional States on Cognitive Control Circuitry and Function

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 446-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra O. Cohen ◽  
Danielle V. Dellarco ◽  
Kaitlyn Breiner ◽  
Chelsea Helion ◽  
Aaron S. Heller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Posterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Posterior Cingulate ◽  
Fearful Faces ◽  
The Impact

Typically in the laboratory, cognitive and emotional processes are studied separately or as a stream of fleeting emotional stimuli embedded within a cognitive task. Yet in life, thoughts and actions often occur in more lasting emotional states of arousal. The current study examines the impact of emotions on actions using a novel behavioral paradigm and functional neuroimaging to assess cognitive control under sustained states of threat (anticipation of an aversive noise) and excitement (anticipation of winning money). Thirty-eight healthy adult participants were scanned while performing an emotional go/no-go task with positive (happy faces), negative (fearful faces), and neutral (calm faces) emotional cues, under threat or excitement. Cognitive control performance was enhanced during the excited state relative to a nonarousing control condition. This enhanced performance was paralleled by heightened activity of frontoparietal and frontostriatal circuitry. In contrast, under persistent threat, cognitive control was diminished when the valence of the emotional cue conflicted with the emotional state. Successful task performance in this conflicting emotional condition was associated with increased activity in the posterior cingulate cortex, a default mode network region implicated in complex processes such as processing emotions in the context of self and monitoring performance. This region showed positive coupling with frontoparietal circuitry implicated in cognitive control, providing support for a role of the posterior cingulate cortex in mobilizing cognitive resources to improve performance. These findings suggest that emotional states of arousal differentially modulate cognitive control and point to the potential utility of this paradigm for understanding effects of situational and pathological states of arousal on behavior.

Age-Related Differences in Motivational Integration and Cognitive Control

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Marianne Yee ◽  
Sarah L Adams ◽  
Asad Beck ◽  
Todd Samuel Braver
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Monetary Reward ◽  
Potential Candidate ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cognitive Task Performance

Motivational incentives play an influential role in value-based decision-making and cognitive control. A compelling hypothesis in the literature suggests that the brain integrates the motivational value of diverse incentives (e.g., motivational integration) into a common currency value signal that influences decision-making and behavior. To investigate whether motivational integration processes change during healthy aging, we tested older (N=44) and younger (N=54) adults in an innovative incentive integration task paradigm that establishes dissociable and additive effects of liquid (e.g., juice, neutral, saltwater) and monetary incentives on cognitive task performance. The results reveal that motivational incentives improve cognitive task performance in both older and younger adults, providing novel evidence demonstrating that age-related cognitive control deficits can be ameliorated with sufficient incentive motivation. Additional analyses revealed clear age-related differences in motivational integration. Younger adult task performance was modulated by both monetary and liquid incentives, whereas monetary reward effects were more gradual in older adults and more strongly impacted by trial-by-trial performance feedback. A surprising discovery was that older adults shifted attention from liquid valence toward monetary reward throughout task performance, but younger adults shifted attention from monetary reward toward integrating both monetary reward and liquid valence by the end of the task, suggesting differential strategic utilization of incentives. Together these data suggest that older adults may have impairments in incentive integration, and employ different motivational strategies to improve cognitive task performance. The findings suggest potential candidate neural mechanisms that may serve as the locus of age-related change, providing targets for future cognitive neuroscience investigations.

scholarly journals Expectancy of Stress-Reducing Aromatherapy Effect and Performance on a Stress-Sensitive Cognitive Task

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Chamine ◽  
Barry S. Oken
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Stress Reduction ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
N200 Amplitude ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
And Performance

Objective. Stress-reducing therapies help maintain cognitive performance during stress. Aromatherapy is popular for stress reduction, but its effectiveness and mechanism are unclear. This study examined stress-reducing effects of aromatherapy on cognitive function using the go/no-go (GNG) task performance and event related potentials (ERP) components sensitive to stress. The study also assessed the importance of expectancy in aromatherapy actions.Methods. 81 adults were randomized to 3 aroma groups (active experimental, detectable, and undetectable placebo) and 2 prime subgroups (prime suggesting stress-reducing aroma effects or no-prime). GNG performance, ERPs, subjective expected aroma effects, and stress ratings were assessed at baseline and poststress.Results. No specific aroma effects on stress or cognition were observed. However, regardless of experienced aroma, people receiving a prime displayed faster poststress median reaction times than those receiving no prime. A significant interaction for N200 amplitude indicated divergent ERP patterns between baseline and poststress for go and no-go stimuli depending on the prime subgroup. Furthermore, trends for beneficial prime effects were shown on poststress no-go N200/P300 latencies and N200 amplitude.Conclusion. While there were no aroma-specific effects on stress or cognition, these results highlight the role of expectancy for poststress response inhibition and attention.

The Impact of Cognitive Load on Volitional Running

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 1179-1183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan J. Blakely ◽  
Kyle Wilson ◽  
Paul N. Russell ◽  
William S. Helton
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
High Load ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Running Speed ◽  
Original Experiment ◽  
The Impact

The effects of physical activity on cognition and the effects of cognitive load on physical activity are complex. Both the nature of the physical activity and cognitive task may influence the interactive effects of performing a physical task while also performing a cognitive task. In a previous study examining the impact of increasing cognitive load on outdoor running speed and the impact of outdoor running on cognitive performance, Blakely et al. (2015) found running speed decreased as cognitive load increased. They also found that the impact of running itself on cognitive performance occurred when the cognitive task was itself demanding (high cognitive load). In the current study we expanded on this previous research by improving the experimental task to rule out peripheral sensory, not central or executive, interference and by incorporating heart rate measures and VO2 max estimates. Twelve runners completed five conditions, two seated cognitive tasks (one low load and one high load), two dual running cognitive tasks and one run only. Results were similar to the original experiment, as the cognitive task became more difficult, voluntary running speed decreased. Also the effects of running on cognitive performance (counting) were found only when the cognitive task was high load.

scholarly journals The impact of occipital lobe cortical thickness on cognitive task performance: An investigation in Huntington's Disease

2015 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 138-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileanoir B. Johnson ◽  
Elin M. Rees ◽  
Izelle Labuschagne ◽  
Alexandra Durr ◽  
Blair R. Leavitt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Huntington's Disease ◽  
Huntington’S Disease ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Cognitive Task Performance ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Open-plan office noise is stressful: multimodal stress detection in a simulated work environment

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Elizabeth (Libby) J. Sander ◽  
Cecelia Marques ◽  
James Birt ◽  
Matthew Stead ◽  
Oliver Baumann
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Physiological Indicators ◽  
Workplace Stressors ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Facial Expressions Of Emotion ◽  
Open Plan ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019)-induced changes in the workplace present a timely opportunity for human resource management practitioners to consider and remediate the deleterious effects of noise, a commonly cited complaint of employees working in open-plan office (OPO) environments. While self-reports suggest that OPO noise is perceived as a stressor, there is little experimental research comprehensively investigating the effects of noise on employees in terms of their cognitive performance, physiological indicators of stress, and affect. Employing a simulated office setting, we compared the effects of a typical OPO auditory environment to a quieter private office auditory environment on a range of objective and subjective measures of well-being and performance. While OPO noise did not reduce immediate cognitive task performance compared to the quieter environment, it did reduce psychological well-being as evidenced by self-reports of mood, facial expressions of emotion, and physiological indicators of stress in the form of heartrate and skin conductivity. Our research highlights the importance of using a multimodal approach to assess the impact of workplace stressors such as noise. Such an approach will allow HR practitioners to make data-driven recommendations about the design and modification of workspaces to minimize negative effects and support employee well-being.

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