Identifying the Role of Mind Wandering in Stress Related Changes in Executive Attention and Inflammation

持续注意力的能力会因长期的压力而受损。慢性压力还会导致免疫系统的炎症。因此，慢性压力可能会影响多个身体系统，从心理到生物，对此人们只有部分了解。这项研究项目使用认知心理学的理论见解来阐明在经历了各种日常压力源的个人中，慢性压力、认知和炎症之间的确切关系。它进一步分析了正念是否以及如何调节压力和炎症之间的关系，以及压力和注意力之间的关系。它在为少数群体服务的机构培训学生，向学术和非学术受众广泛传播结果，并提供与临床卫生干预相关的见解。这个项目收集了多个时间段的压力、认知和炎症测量，包括基线、低应激期和与生态有效的慢性应激源相关的一段时间，以调查以下假设：1)慢性压力对高管注意力和炎症测量的影响是通过消极的、任务外的想法的比率来调节的；2)更高的专注率和高管注意力的基线测量预示着在压力期间减少消极的思维漂移，减少压力对高管注意力和炎症的影响；以及3)基线的个体差异将预测注意力和思维漂移的比率，影响这些在压力和炎症之间的中介关系的程度。这项研究的结果提供了慢性压力对认知功能的影响和炎症之间缺失的联系，并确定了可用于寻求限制慢性压力对健康和福祉的负面影响的干预措施的因素。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The ability to sustain attention is impaired by chronic stress. Chronic stress also results in inflammation in the immune system. Thus, chronic stress is likely to impact multiple bodily systems, from psychological to biological, in ways that are only partially understood. This research project uses theoretical insights from cognitive psychology to shed light on the precise relationships among chronic stress, cognition, and inflammation among individuals who experience a variety of day-to-day stressors. It further analyzes whether and how mindfulness mediates the relationships between stress and inflammation and between stress and attention. It trains students at a minority-serving institution, disseminates results broadly to academic and non-academic audiences, and provides insights that are relevant to clinical health interventions. This project collects measures of stress, cognition, and inflammation during multiple time periods, including a baseline, low-stress period and one associated with an ecologically valid chronic stressor to investigate the following hypotheses: 1) the impact of chronic stress on measures of executive attention and inflammation is mediated by rates of negatively valenced, off-task thoughts; 2) higher rates of mindfulness and baseline measures of executive attention predict reduced negatively valenced mind wandering during stress, reducing the effects of stress on executive attention and inflammation; and 3) individual differences at baseline will predict rates of mindfulness and mind wandering, affecting the degree to which these mediate relationships between stress and inflammation. The findings from this study provide a missing link between the impact of chronic stress on cognitive functioning and inflammation and identify factors that can be used in interventions seeking to limit the negative impacts of chronic stress on health and well-being.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.