Stress, Aging and Working Memory

描述(由申请人提供)：大量的实证研究已经确定了过度压力和一些不利的健康后果之间的联系。自从在大鼠海马体中发现皮质类固醇受体以来，人们对压力如何影响记忆，以及更广泛地说，认知也产生了相当大的兴趣。尽管已经有大量研究探讨了压力反应的生理成分如何与认知相关，但令人惊讶的是，关于自然产生的压力体验如何与认知障碍相关的研究却很少。最近的一些证据表明，压力不仅会影响陈述性记忆，还会影响工作记忆和执行功能，而且与年轻人相比，这些影响在老年人中可能会放大。我们的总体目标是研究自然产生的压力、皮质醇和工作记忆功能的特定方面之间的关系。为了实现这一目标，我们提出了两项研究。第一项研究是一项横断面多变量实验，重点研究压力和认知之间的人与人之间的关系，第二项研究是纵向测量-爆发设计，它将在广泛的时间间隔(几天到几个月)内考察压力和认知之间的人内关系的时间动力学。我们的研究有以下具体目的：(1)检验压力是否通过耗尽注意力资源来影响认知；(2)通过使用多种方法测量压力(即生活事件、日常压力、主观严重程度)及其心理和生理影响，来检验压力反应的哪个方面预测认知表现；(3)检验年龄放大压力对认知的影响的假设；以及(4)检验压力和认知在个体内部是否耦合。这将涉及到通过在从几天到几个月到几年的广泛抽样中检查压力和认知的人内耦合，来测试上述针对人与人之间和人内层面的分析的假设。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A large body of empirical research has established a link between excessive stress and a number of adverse health outcomes. Since the discovery of corticosteroid receptors in the rat hippocampus there has also been considerable interest in how stress affects memory, and more generally, cognition. Although a large number of studies have examined how physiological components of the stress response relate to cognition, there is surprisingly little research on how the experience of naturally occurring stress relates to cognitive impairment. Some recent evidence suggests that stress could impact not only declarative memory, but also working memory and executive function, and that these effects may be amplified in older compared to younger adults. Our overall goal is to examine the relationship between naturally occurring stress, cortisol, and specific aspects of working memory function. We propose two studies to accomplish goal. The first study is a cross-sectional multivariate experiment focused on between-person relationships between stress and cognition and the second is longitudinal measurement-burst design that will examine the temporal dynamics of the within-person relationship between stress and cognition across a wide range of time intervals (days to months). Our research has the following Specific Aims: (1): To examine whether that stress affects cognition by depleting attentional resources; (2): To examine which aspect of the stress response predicts cognitive performance by using multiple approaches to measuring stress (i.e., life events, daily stress, subjective severity) and its psychological and physiological effects; (3): To examine the hypothesis that aging amplifies the effect of stress on cognition; and (4) To examine whether stress and cognition are coupled within individuals. This will involve testing hypotheses that the above aim at both the between- person level and the within-person level of analysis, by examining the within-person coupling of stress and cognition over a broad sampling of time intervals, ranging from days to months to years.