Citation

Mather M, Lighthall NR. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 2012; 21(2): 36-41.

Affiliation

University of Southern California.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0963721411429452

PMID

22457564

PMCID

PMC3312579

Abstract

Years of research show that stress influences cognition. Most of this research has focused on how stress affects memory and the hippocampus. However, stress impacts other regions involved in cognitive and emotional processing, including the prefrontal cortex, striatum, and insula. New research examining how stress affects decision processes reveals two consistent findings. First, acute stress enhances selection of previously rewarding outcomes but impairs selection of previously negative outcomes, possibly due to stress-induced changes in dopamine in reward-processing brain regions. Second, stress amplifies gender differences in strategies during risky decisions, with males taking more risk and females less risk under stress. These gender differences in behavior are associated with differences in activity in the insula and dorsal striatum, brain regions involved in computing risk and preparing to take action.

Language: en