Chronic academic stress improves attentional control: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence

Detecting and responding to target objects in the visual environment is a key factor in goal-directed behavior. Exposure to chronic stress often results in alterations of prefrontal cortex (PFC) function, which may impact PFC-dependent selective attention process. This study aimed to investigate the effect of chronic academic stress on attentional control process. Both the stress group and the control group performed an arrow-based version of the Eriksen Flanker task. Event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded while the participants performed the task. The behavioural results exhibited decreased Flanker RT effect for the stress group compared to the control group, suggesting a reduced interference under stress. The ERP results showed that stress group showed decreased frontal N2 but increased early P3 and late P3/LPC activities compared to the control group. These results suggest reduced conflict monitoring but increased conflict resolution process under stress. The chronic academic stress improves attentional control by reducing the conflict monitoring and enhancing conflict resolution processes.